MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - I would buy a Kindle in a heartbeat IF --->

ProfCrash · 02-06-2014, 10:55 AM

The percentage of the overall population buying e-books is probably pretty small. There are studies that show that the majority of Americans adults do not read a book in a given year. So let's say 49% of the US population reads a book in a given year.

What percentage of that population do you think is reading using e-books? Say that number is 75% (pulling these numbers out of my butt and I think 75% is generous), so you are looking at 37.5% of the population reading e-books.

What percentage of that do you think is reading over 10 books a year? Over 100?

Across the people who read e-books, the percentage of people with thousands of books is pretty small. I would guess under 5% and that might be high.

Now, how many people buying e-books are reading them on a dedicated e-reader and not a tablet?

So you are talking about a very small number of people who need an e-reader that can handle thousands of books. The Kindle is sold at cost, maybe under cost. What economic incentive does Amazon have to develop a special Kindle that has a ton of memory, no WiFi or front light?

The answer is none.

The K1 had an SD card slot and it caused a ton of problems. K1's crashed, were slow, and had all sorts of issues with the card. That is probably why Amazon got rid of it. Since then, Amazon has pretty much dominated the US market, without the SD card slot. BN just dumped its SD Card slot, probably because it meant people were buying books or downloading books from sites that were not BN.

I suspect that the reality is, most people have well under 100 books on their devices and this is not an issue. I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 books and I don't carry them all on my device for my own reason. I did max out my K1 memory and decided that I would simply remove books. (shrugs)

I am guessing that I am more of what Amazon sees as a heavy reader and they are more concerned about someone with 500 books and not in the least bit conerned with someone who wants to carry thousands of books.

Until there is a huge uptick in the number of people who want to carry massive libraries and those people are buying the majority of their books from Amazon, there is not going to be a Kindle with a card slot. There simply is not enough of the demand to justify the cost.

02-06-2014, 10:55 AM	#84
ProfCrash Tea Enthusiast Posts: 8,554 Karma: 75384937 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Somewhere in the USA Device: Kindle1, Kindle DX Graphite, K3 3G, IPad 3, PW2	The percentage of the overall population buying e-books is probably pretty small. There are studies that show that the majority of Americans adults do not read a book in a given year. So let's say 49% of the US population reads a book in a given year. What percentage of that population do you think is reading using e-books? Say that number is 75% (pulling these numbers out of my butt and I think 75% is generous), so you are looking at 37.5% of the population reading e-books. What percentage of that do you think is reading over 10 books a year? Over 100? Across the people who read e-books, the percentage of people with thousands of books is pretty small. I would guess under 5% and that might be high. Now, how many people buying e-books are reading them on a dedicated e-reader and not a tablet? So you are talking about a very small number of people who need an e-reader that can handle thousands of books. The Kindle is sold at cost, maybe under cost. What economic incentive does Amazon have to develop a special Kindle that has a ton of memory, no WiFi or front light? The answer is none. The K1 had an SD card slot and it caused a ton of problems. K1's crashed, were slow, and had all sorts of issues with the card. That is probably why Amazon got rid of it. Since then, Amazon has pretty much dominated the US market, without the SD card slot. BN just dumped its SD Card slot, probably because it meant people were buying books or downloading books from sites that were not BN. I suspect that the reality is, most people have well under 100 books on their devices and this is not an issue. I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 books and I don't carry them all on my device for my own reason. I did max out my K1 memory and decided that I would simply remove books. (shrugs) I am guessing that I am more of what Amazon sees as a heavy reader and they are more concerned about someone with 500 books and not in the least bit conerned with someone who wants to carry thousands of books. Until there is a huge uptick in the number of people who want to carry massive libraries and those people are buying the majority of their books from Amazon, there is not going to be a Kindle with a card slot. There simply is not enough of the demand to justify the cost.