Quote:
Originally Posted by Kitabi
Unfortunately, the ongoing trends are in support of multi-purpose devices. Take the example of the iPod and iPhone. iPod sales have plateaued or are dropping (depending on which iPod we are talking of) while iPhone sales continue to rise. People did not want to carry an mp3 player AND the phone. Increasingly, people do not want to carry a portable game console AND a phone. And IMHO people do not/would not want to carry an eReader AND a tablet.
Till now, they have been forced to do this because the iPad was the only tablet selling in volume till some time back and it is unwieldy for many and because most tablets have the 3 issues I mentioned in the first post. Provided, tablet makers can solve those issues, eReader sales would fall in favor of tablets.
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Trends always leave room for niche markets. Niches are served if companies can make enough. The niche e-reader equation is murky longer term, because variables are in great flux right now.
Amazon probably has a better grasp on today's market than others, because it's seeing hardware and book-sale results unfiltered by others. Even Amazon doesn't know reader preferences longer term, though, because tablet technology hasn't stabilized.