Quote:
Originally Posted by Fbone
Ebook sales percentage as listed totals 101%. This leaves nothing for Sony, Kobo, and everyone else. I would think they would have more than 1% market share. Unless their Borders number includes Kobo.
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I noticed that. It's likely a matter of blindly rounding everything up.
With those numbers you could easily subtract 1 from each listed percentage (rounding everything down instead) and have a reasonable number for Sony & "others" combined.
As for Borders, remember, their online store *is* Kobo.
For 2011, "others" should see a big jump if Google Books' local-branding effort pans out.
Another point to consider for 2011 is how long Sony is going to stay in the eink reader business with what is clearly a low single-digit share of the market, both in hardware (4%?) and in content. Unlike Amazon, B&N and even Kobo--who were recently touting an installed base of over a million worldwide--Sony has been as mute about their reader sales as their stalled PS3 console sales. And on the PS3 side they at least have software sales to pin their hopes on. Since Sony engineers its own readers--unlike Kobo and other second-tier players--their costs are higher and without higher volume sales to defray the costs the readers are not going to be delivering much in the way of profit or even revenue. They aren't even "buying" market share with their efforts.
With Apple shutting them out of the iOS market their best bet would seem be to switch their focus to Android tablets. (Their mobile gaming is already moving to android, so this is actually *likely* especially in view of the success of NookColor.)
Of course, Sony decision making is often driven more by hubris and company image building instead of P&L or Market Share strategies so they may keep on plugging away, hoping for a miracle, just as they're still plugging away in mp3 players, living off brand loyalty. Still, they did abandon the category once already in their home market so...
Interesing times coming.