Quote:
Originally Posted by scrapking
How much of that is actual and/or anticipated reductions in E-Ink e-readers, in favour of e-reader tablets like the Kobo Vox and Kindle Fire?
And, as "wizwor" says, these are revenue numbers (which may be dropping for the e-ink display manufacturers), not unit sales numbers; unit sales could be dropping less, if at all.
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Month-to-month declined, too. And prices don't vary much month-to-month.
Worth considering: eink readers are starting to show marked seasonality (in fact, sales profiles are starting to look like gaming consoles) with huge spikes in the XMAS holiday season followed by a drop early in the year. So, by itself, a december/january dip isn't much to worry about.
But the context, the current environment where NOOK STR's had a "shortfall", despite 50%-off sales, and are now being given away with subscriptions; where the uber-hot Kindle FIRE did *not* sell out and is already showing up as a refurb; where Hachette ebook revenue gowth has leveled off at 20-22% and no longer offsets their other losses...
A scenario is starting to take shape where the bulk of the people who can justify current-tech dedicated reader gadgets in the US have them (19% of the US population, according to a recent survey; with tablets also at 19%) and what remains is the casual reader (2-3 book a year buyers) market. US growth will continue, but slower than recent years and the seasonality will be more pronounced.
In this scenario, overall market growth rate will hinge on whether or not non-US markets evolve and ebooks get mainstreamed there or not. If the reader vendors don't find new markets to provide added growth, things will get very tight until new tech comes along to entice other reader classes.
The gold-rush days of fast, easy growth may be over.
Now we get to see what a mature (narrative text) ebook business looks like.