Quote:
Originally Posted by Fbone
Sony Reader president Steve Haber is quoted as saying they sold millions of devices. He also states there is not enough supply to meet demand.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...-of-e-ink.html
It's possible they have a decent share of the global market. Ebooks sold is the unknown quantity. |
The quote is that the Sony Readers *have sold* millions.
That would be *all* the readers over the entire history of the product line.
That's easy to believe.
4% share in the US alone works out to almost 400,000. If their "rest-of-the world" sales match or better that, they could easily be selling a over a half-million more. Previous (2009) reports had them selling about 800,000 units a year so a lifetime install base of 2-3 million is an easy reach given they've been around for five years or so.
Do note that Kobo got to one million is barely over a year and Nook got past two million in one year.
As for running out of product at *those* levels? Well, that is just bad planning. (Or, worse, lack of clout with the screen supplier.) Hardly something to brag about when Kindles sold ten times as many units and, while supplies got tight, they didn't run out for more than a couple of days.
The issue with the Sony Readers isn't that their *absolute* numbers aren't significant; it's that their relevance to the market is fading. (In at least some markets, Wal-Mart replaced Sony with Kobo and Nook.
http://www.the-digital-reader.com/20...le-at-walmart/)
The market is exploding and Sony sales aren't. 400,000 a year in the US was a great number for 2008, even 2009. For 2010? Not so great. For 2011? Dreadful.
Yet over the long haul, hardware sales isn't what the business is about; ebooks is where the *real* money lies.
Note that the top three vendors are all booksellers.
One of the (many) side effects of the Price Fix Agency ploy is that sales of the Price Fixers ebooks help subsidize the walled-garden Kindle, Nook, and Kobo hardware but do nothing for Sony or the other hardware-only vendors.
Consider that Kindle has (for now) been selling to heavy readers, the kind of people that buy enough books to justify the investment. Your basic one (or more) books per month readers. Say they average a bit less; ten per year. On Price-fixed books, Amazon's take can run around $30 a year profit per reader. On a device selling for $139. 22% pure profit. And that's at just ten bestsellers per year. And just the first year. Over a three-five year lifespan you could easily see over 100% pure profit. Some buyers will bring in less, by avoiding the PriceFix books, but others will bring in more. Amazon, Kobo, and B&N can sell the hardware at just over cost and make plenty of money. Sony can't.
More, this is an immature, developing business; early market share translates into enduring mindshare. When people see an reader in the wild and ask if its a Kindle it tells you that even people who've never seen one know they exist, that they equate reader devices with the Kindle brand. Just like media players are associated with the iPod brand and tablets with iPads. You can't often *buy* that kind of brand awareness, not without millions upon millions worth of ads. Sometimes not even *with* it.
If Sony *were* to drop out of the business it woudn't be because their readers don't sell; it would be because there simply isn't enough money in selling them to justify the investment. If they can't sell them at US$300 (which, apparently they can't; seeing the slow 950 sales), then without associated ebook sales there may not be enough profit in the product line to keep trying to keep up with Kindle and NookColor and whatever new hot product comes out.
But with Sony's management structure and track record there really is no way to tell what they'll do. Just that it looks as if very soon it won't much matter.