not-news: ebook buyers loyal to walled gardens

[fjtorres]

Digital Book World just discovered that when people pick a walled garden, they stay with it:
http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2014...new-data-show/

According to a November survey of 2,042 ebook buyers, 86% buy ebooks from only one retailer, most likely Kindle, iBooks and Nook, Codex Group president Peter Hildick-Smith told me.

What this data point implies is that the vast majority of ebook retail activity in the U.S. is happening in so-called “walled gardens” — digital content ecosystems run by companies like Amazon and Apple that keep consumers searching, discovering, buying and consuming all or most of their ebooks, songs and movies in one place. If a reader has an Amazon account and has bought Kindle ebooks, they are very likely to continue doing just that.

For the big retailers with significant market share in the U.S., this is good news: Their current customers are mostly loyal.

Like, duh, right?
Most mainstream buyers don't care about interoperability.

And, to add insult to injury:

The news isn’t so good for the smaller ebook retail operations run by Sony, Google, Kobo, Samsung and others. The majority of these retailers’ sales happened within the 14% of ebook buyers who bought from more than one retailer — and, even worse news for that group, 32% of unit sales among that group were Kindle ebooks.

Translation: Customers of those smaller retailers were much more likely to go elsewhere to buy more ebooks and the most likely place for them to go was Amazon.

Basically, all ADEPT retailers combined add up to 10% share.
(And Kobo likely gets most of that.)

[meeera]

I don't find the results particularly surprising - but I do wonder how they recruited the respondents, "2,042 ebook buyers". You can always tell crappy science reporting by its failure to disclose any of the methodology which is essential to evaluating the study.

[Apache]

How do we know our study is accurate? We did a study.
Apache

[pwalker8]

Not surprising. I buy from multiple vendors, but then again, I also download the books on my desktop, remove the DRM and put my books in Calibre. Most readers buy and download their books on their reading device. Those that don't, mostly buy via web and download on their reading device.

[ProfCrash]

I am not surprised. I have argued that Nook got rid of its card slot and partitioned the way that it did in order to stop people from buying from other book stores. I am sure that BN and Kobo and Sony are all well aware of this.

BN removed the sd card slot and partioned their device to make life harder on those folks.

Sony stopped selling in the US

Kobo has not really made a huge effort in the US, the only advertising I have heard from Kobo is on NPR.

I think that the major retailers have ceded the market to Amazon.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

I think that the major retailers have ceded the market to Amazon.

Works for me. Kindle and OverDrive provide a huge selection for me at no cost. I really have no need to stray from Amazon's garden.

[ProfCrash]

I buy pretty much exculsivly from Amazon but that is because I am lazy. It is easy enough to remove DRM and convert but I am lazy. (shrugs)

I wonder if the people they interviewed were asked about DRM and the like. I am guessing that most had no clue that they could remove DRM and shop at other stores. So the wall appears high.

Then you havbe the lazy folks like me who look at the wall and just shrug and says "I don't feel like stepping over because I don't want to walk down the street." There is a big difference there.

[supermighty]

The walled garden vendors made it too easy. I buy kindle books all the time, just a couple clicks.

Once I discovered that O'Reilly will upload ebooks to Dropbox I was sold. They made it easy so I bought from them too.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

I wonder if the people they interviewed were asked about DRM and the like. I am guessing that most had no clue that they could remove DRM and shop at other stores. So the wall appears high.

Isn't DRM one of those musical instruments you bang on with sticks?

[QuantumIguana]

The walls are invisible to most people unless there is something outside the wall that is different from what is inside. If there are books that available to others but not to them, they see the wall. If the same book is cheaper elsewhere, they see the wall. If they have to deal with a different device (perhaps a Kindle owner marries a Nook owner), they see the wall. But otherwise, it's invisible to most people.

[piperclassique]

I think most of the early adopters know about the wall. Auntie who got a Kindle for Christmas probably won't.
So she won't know about DRM, or different formats. Probably doesn't care, either.

[Jessica Lares]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Isn't DRM one of those musical instruments you bang on with sticks?

I'm loyal to my walled garden too. At least Amazon sells stuff so I can modify the wall, cut out a few windows, maybe put a door, or even a nice flatscreen TV.

And yeah, I think this study is just "well, duh". You're not going to buy a Kindle, and then go try and force B&N books on it, at least MOST buyers won't.

[theducks]

Loyal to a walled garden?

My wife is probably typical of the user base. Most have no clue of what they are buying into until they finally hit that wall (or DRM) head on .


"I have a Kindle, I just push the button to 'shop' for books"

Or "I just bought a book at ABC, and it won't work on my reader"


Without a set of matching ' I Know about the Alternatives' questions, the survey is one sided.

[Rizla]

I think customers become more aware of the wall when they use more than one walled-garden and want to transfer content between walled-devices. e.g. you buy on both apple and amazon.

[crossi]

About the time their current devices start failing and they start shopping for a replacement more of them will become aware of the wall. "What do you mean all my Amazon books won't work on my new Nook?"