MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - E-reader marketshare numbers

scrapking · 02-07-2012, 04:06 PM

I'm curious if people have seen any hard numbers of e-reader marketshare? I don't see a lot of hard numbers (Amazon has refused to discuss specific sales numbers for the Kindle since day 1, and others have tended to follow suit from what I can tell), and what I do see is from biased sources (press releases, off-hand remarks from stakeholders, etc.). It would be particularly interesting to see sales figures and/or marketshare on a country by country basis, as from that you can start to see trends and do some analysis of how those trends came to be. I'll start it off with the only hard figures I've seen recently (as in, from an independent market research firm, not just a biased press release):

Canadian e-reader marketshare as of August 2011:

http://www.ipsos-na.com/news-polls/p...e.aspx?id=5399

Kobo 36% (up from 29% in January 2011)
Kindle 25% (no change from January 2011)
Sony 23% (down from 30% in January 2011)
Other 16% ?

The stats indicate a significant overall increase in e-reader ownership, as the total number of people reporting owning e-readers went up markedly between January and August of last year.

Sony's share drop appears to suggest extremely stagnant sales (going from the market leader to third place in only 7 months).

While the Kindle's percentage stayed the same, it was a percentage of an enlarged market suggesting sales are healthy for them.

Kobo's numbers are mind-blowingly good, showing a huge marketshare gain during a period of significant expansion of e-reader ownership in Canada. This suggests that Kobo is earning the lion's share of new e-reader device sales in Canada at the moment. (This fits anecdotally with what I'm seeing around town, I live in Victoria BC.)

I must admit, this market research is a guilty pleasure for me. Bring on the market research for other markets!

02-07-2012, 04:06 PM	#1
scrapking Evangelist Posts: 467 Karma: 1073260 Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Victoria, BC Device: Kobo Vox, Kobo Glo	E-reader marketshare numbers I'm curious if people have seen any hard numbers of e-reader marketshare? I don't see a lot of hard numbers (Amazon has refused to discuss specific sales numbers for the Kindle since day 1, and others have tended to follow suit from what I can tell), and what I do see is from biased sources (press releases, off-hand remarks from stakeholders, etc.). It would be particularly interesting to see sales figures and/or marketshare on a country by country basis, as from that you can start to see trends and do some analysis of how those trends came to be. I'll start it off with the only hard figures I've seen recently (as in, from an independent market research firm, not just a biased press release): Canadian e-reader marketshare as of August 2011: http://www.ipsos-na.com/news-polls/p...e.aspx?id=5399 Kobo 36% (up from 29% in January 2011) Kindle 25% (no change from January 2011) Sony 23% (down from 30% in January 2011) Other 16% ? The stats indicate a significant overall increase in e-reader ownership, as the total number of people reporting owning e-readers went up markedly between January and August of last year. Sony's share drop appears to suggest extremely stagnant sales (going from the market leader to third place in only 7 months). While the Kindle's percentage stayed the same, it was a percentage of an enlarged market suggesting sales are healthy for them. Kobo's numbers are mind-blowingly good, showing a huge marketshare gain during a period of significant expansion of e-reader ownership in Canada. This suggests that Kobo is earning the lion's share of new e-reader device sales in Canada at the moment. (This fits anecdotally with what I'm seeing around town, I live in Victoria BC.) I must admit, this market research is a guilty pleasure for me. Bring on the market research for other markets!