Quote:
Originally Posted by rcentros
It's still a pretty large niche. As for the "decline" and leveling, I think saturation has to be considered as a major factor. Just about everyone uses a smartphone now, yet iPhone and Samsung sales are also "leveling."
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IMO it's not just saturation, it's that consumers who purchase an ereader tend to keep them for a very long time. Unlike other products, ereaders don't have planned obsolescence. My original Kindle lasted for 6-7 years before it died. Basically, most people who want an e-reader already have one and they're likely to keep it for years. This is unlike a laptop, tablet or a smartphone where, at the very least, the battery life begins to degrade after a year or two.
I think the market has also achieved stability in large measure because the overwhelmingly dominant player (Amazon) has all but admitted they're just not interested in the e-ink device market anymore. Bezos and his Kindle team created the device to make selling e-books as easy as possible.
Since that point, Sony voluntarily exited the consumer ebook market, Borders is gone (which forced Kobo to partner with Walmart, and that doesn't seem to be going well) and B&N is a textbook example of how to screw up a corporation on a yearly basis while still not going bankrupt. There's no incentive for Amazon to innovate because companies like Onyx Boox aren't a threat.