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fjtorres · 02-24-2018, 08:02 AM

I see these "ereaders are dying" articles as establishment attempts to limit ebook adoption by casual readers and younger, newer avid readers, by pretending lower ereader sales imply a shift away from ebooks. This particular piece may or not be inspired by the other articles by tradpub mouthpieces like Shatzkin but it treads the same falacious ground.

The simple truth is there *was* an ereader sales spike back in 2012; ereaders were a novelty and they suddenly got cheap enough to be impulse buys. And like many impulse purchases, some went to people who didn't read enough to justify the purchase. Within months, there were all sorts of articles about ereaders living in drawers. By 2013 the meme was live.

These pieces pop up reguarly, usually citing the same sources, all pretending ebook sales are solely tied to ereaders. Too simplistic. Just like the articles fretting over declining iPad sales are simplistic. Media consumption devices don't stop working just because they get old, only when they die. And most are solidly built and durable. So they go on and on...

Multipurpose devices thrive on short, 2-3 year, upgrade cycles but optimized single function devices have much longer life cycles. Often a decade or more. In that ereaders are more like cameras, TVs, and monitors. What they did when new is what they do when old and it takes years for incremental features to accumulate enough to justify an upgrade.

Bottom line is ereaders are by nature niche devices.
They are by design optimized devices and optimization means focusing on what the device is used for and what it is used for. Optimized devices are more akin to chefs' knives than swiss army knives. They do one thing exquisitely well and that is why they sell.

Today's ereaders are the result of a decade of evolution and anybody who thinks tbere hasn't been progress needs to look at the first Sony, the first Kindle, the first Hanlins and Netronixes. Build quality, stability, readability, usability, those are the proper yardsticks to measure ereader progress, not feature creep or goldplating.

Ereaders are doing fine.
They do what they need to do which is provide access to stories with the least amount of fuss.

02-24-2018, 08:02 AM	#50
fjtorres Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,732 Karma: 128354696 Join Date: May 2009 Location: 26 kly from Sgr A* Device: T100TA,PW2,PRS-T1,KT,FireHD 8.9,K2, PB360,BeBook One,Axim51v,TC1000	I see these "ereaders are dying" articles as establishment attempts to limit ebook adoption by casual readers and younger, newer avid readers, by pretending lower ereader sales imply a shift away from ebooks. This particular piece may or not be inspired by the other articles by tradpub mouthpieces like Shatzkin but it treads the same falacious ground. The simple truth is there was an ereader sales spike back in 2012; ereaders were a novelty and they suddenly got cheap enough to be impulse buys. And like many impulse purchases, some went to people who didn't read enough to justify the purchase. Within months, there were all sorts of articles about ereaders living in drawers. By 2013 the meme was live. These pieces pop up reguarly, usually citing the same sources, all pretending ebook sales are solely tied to ereaders. Too simplistic. Just like the articles fretting over declining iPad sales are simplistic. Media consumption devices don't stop working just because they get old, only when they die. And most are solidly built and durable. So they go on and on... Multipurpose devices thrive on short, 2-3 year, upgrade cycles but optimized single function devices have much longer life cycles. Often a decade or more. In that ereaders are more like cameras, TVs, and monitors. What they did when new is what they do when old and it takes years for incremental features to accumulate enough to justify an upgrade. Bottom line is ereaders are by nature niche devices. They are by design optimized devices and optimization means focusing on what the device is used for and what it is used for. Optimized devices are more akin to chefs' knives than swiss army knives. They do one thing exquisitely well and that is why they sell. Today's ereaders are the result of a decade of evolution and anybody who thinks tbere hasn't been progress needs to look at the first Sony, the first Kindle, the first Hanlins and Netronixes. Build quality, stability, readability, usability, those are the proper yardsticks to measure ereader progress, not feature creep or goldplating. Ereaders are doing fine. They do what they need to do which is provide access to stories with the least amount of fuss. Last edited by fjtorres; 02-24-2018 at 08:05 AM.