Originally Posted by tomsem
I think it is safe to say that Mobileread participants are heavily skewed to prefer eReaders, as this discussion suggests. We are self-selected device enthusiasts.
However, in the general population of ebook consumers, there are reasons to think that is not the case:
Reading can happen on a variety of devices: desktops/laptops, tablets, smartphones, eReaders. Of these categories, eReaders are the least ‘popular’ by far. Ebook consumers are more likely to have one, but given proliferation of smartphones, are likely to have a mobile device as well.
Customers buying from Apple or Google are very unlikely to be reading those on eReaders. Perhaps this represents 5-10% of ebook consumption worldwide.
That leaves Amazon, Kobo, and B&N (Pocketbook in EU?) as the major storefronts tied to eReader devices. B&N is US - only, but Kobo and Amazon have pretty decent availability worldwide (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and India). (AFAICT, China has a rapidly expanding ebook market, but is mostly closed to ‘outsiders’ — and they have their own brands of eReaders and storefronts).
Kobo and B&N customers probably still favor eReaders: both companies continue to design and release new ones, while the mobile apps have not evolved a lot. The Kobo app in particular is uninspiring. The Nook app is better, and lately has been getting more substantive updates, it has been awhile since a new eReader shipped, and a new Nook-branded tablet is shipping, so perhaps they are changing emphasis based on the consumption patterns of their customers and the expense of designing their own devices.
By contrast, despite the early success of Kindle, the Kindle platform soon expanded to other platforms: Kindle apps for iOS, Android, Blackberry, webOS, macOS, Windows and Windows mobile, and later, of course, FireOS. Today, iOS and Android apps are updated monthly and new features tend to arrive there first. Kindle updates roll out more slowly (part of that may be due to constraints of eReader hardware). And it has been 20 months since the latest model shipped, the longest interval in the history of Kindle.
What this all suggests is to me is that the majority or at least plurality of usage happens on mobile platforms, not eReaders and therefore eReaders cannot be characterized as ‘popular’.
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