Quote:
Originally Posted by Fbone
But my last statement still stands. The ebook/ereader industry is a difficult one for non-Amazon companies.
In addition, what will happen when the digital book market levels off? These companies and/or divisions will need to be profitable soon while we're experiencing rapid growth. I'm not positive they can afford to introduce new ereaders every 12-18 months.
I too would like to see 4 or more platforms worldwide. Who has a strong or weak hand I don't know. Companies with a lot of cash and/or higher net incomes will fair better (and still be around) a year or two from now.
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Yup agreed: Amazon, as far as ebooks goes, is the 800 Gorilla. But so far that's just driving innovation and segment seeking by competitors.
I believe ereaders are already "maturing": the low end is sorting out what the minimum requirements are -- including price! There's going to continue to be competition here and long-standing usefulness of a player that is kinda sorta like a Kindle 3 / Nook Touch (low price, b&w, extended charge, always on wifi, shared bookmarks, dictionary, cloud integration). But the "new" models are more likely to come in the higher price range -- adding colour, video, larger screens, college level annotation features, etc.
I'm not sure more than 4 platforms are possible long term but outside of English, that's easier to think about
: Arabic, Mandarin and other non-western font languages could easily see "niche" players emerge that are larger than the "2 to 4 possible platforms" I was referring to.
I'm inclined to believe the players in market a year or so from now will be those which continue to deliver a great reading and customer experience and not necessarily those with the deepest pockets.