Quote:
Originally Posted by jago25_98
I also don't really get why there isn't a Chinese devices with a screen bigger than 7".
Is there some kind of non compete thing from Amazon in the same way as Google have non competes with manufacturers?  |
Hmmm.... niche device in a shrinking market? Market is dominated by sellers who can supply both the hardware and the content?
In the USA, Amazon at ~84% and Kobo at ~13% leaves little of the market for other eInk hardware vendors (those numbers actually surprised me with the implication that B&N's hardware market share is miniscule). You want a screen larger than 6" in North America? You are likely going to check out the Kobo Forma (8" Mobius (plastic) substrate). Want a 7" screen, check out the Kindle Oasis or Kobo Libra H2O. Other ereader vendors? Unless you have a need for a large screen device for reading PDFs with the battery life of an eInk screen, for those specialized uses, you are more likely to go for a tablet (iPadOS or Android) instead of an eInk device
The last numbers I remember reading claimed there were ~94 million ereaders sold in the English language segment of North America through the Q4 2018. The projection was that there would be about ~97 million by the end of 2020. So ~3 million ereaders shipped in 2 years. In the same two years (2019 and 2020) global smartphone shipments are projected to be ~3.5 billion. The current big 3 (Apple, Huawei and Samsong) sold 169.5 million smartphones in the second quarter of 2019 alone.
As for waiting for the prices to drop? Economy of scale is not working in your favour.