Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I don't believe you are correct in saying this. Apple alone have sold over 30 million iPads so far (they sell at over a million a week). Amazon don't release sales figures for the Kindle (by far the most popular eBook reader), but I've not heard anyone even guess that they've sold more than a few million in total.
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I don't think *any* of the eBook manufacturers have released actual sales numbers. But
E-ink Holdings, who develop the eInk screens for Amazon, Sony, B&N, Hanlin, etc.
recently claimed that demand for screens was tripling every year since 2006, and could possibly hit 25-30 million in 2011.
Working backwards, you could estimate:
2011: 27 million
2010: 9 million
2009: 3 million
2008: 1 million
2007: 300K
So possibly by the end of 2011 there could be ~40 million eReaders using eInk out there, over 5 years of sales. Analysts are predicting ~40-50 million iPads sold just in 2011 alone.
So even counting the non-eInk readers, and not counting the non-iPad tablets, it looks like Tablets can, in fact, can compete with eReaders, in terms of sales at least, and that there doesn't seem to be a wide margin of ownership between the two.