07-08-2015, 12:27 PM | #16 | |
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The other half of the story is that this is a niche market, and there's not much money in it. So: |
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07-08-2015, 12:36 PM | #17 |
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07-08-2015, 12:46 PM | #18 | |
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Yet even back then they identified $150.00 as the sweet spot for e-readers. http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/21/tech..._cut/index.htm |
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07-08-2015, 01:09 PM | #19 | |
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07-08-2015, 01:17 PM | #20 |
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07-08-2015, 01:21 PM | #21 |
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I thought about specifying that, but ... I've little knowledge of other markets and the OP was specifically asking about the USA, so I punted.
Besides, I wasn't overly motivated to spend a lot of time responding to Rizla's annual "Amazon is Destroying e-reader Innovation" thread. |
07-08-2015, 01:25 PM | #22 | |
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07-08-2015, 01:27 PM | #23 | |
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I thought it was quarterly. Anyway, ebooks themselves are niche products outside NorthAm, UK, and Japan. Possibly Russia and a few small countries here and there. |
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07-08-2015, 01:31 PM | #24 | |
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07-08-2015, 01:34 PM | #25 |
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Kobo I can understand. Amazon a little less. When you have 70% of the e-book market, I'd think the Kindles could almost be loss leaders. Though I guess profit is always better than not profit.
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07-08-2015, 01:42 PM | #26 |
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Since B&N stuck their heads in the sand with with the Nook Glowlight, I think Amazon has done an admirable job of pushing the e-reader market forward. The Paperwhite was an improvement over the NST Glowlight (screen-wise anyway), the Voyage looks like a beautiful piece of equipment and the newest Paperwhite took that high resolution screen and stuck it in a cheaper e-reader. Plus their recently improved layout engine and Bookerly font look very nice.
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07-08-2015, 01:44 PM | #27 |
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Kindles are loss leaders. For the most part, Kindles are not profitable for Amazon - ebooks are.
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07-08-2015, 01:51 PM | #28 |
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I was interviewed and asked my thoughts on sex education in grammar school. "It's a great idea. If they taught sex the way they teach reading by the time kids reached puberty they wouldn't want to do it." I was being facetious but I might have been right.
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07-08-2015, 02:20 PM | #29 | |
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Back in the early days they were (falsely) accused of using ebooks as loss leaders for hardware sales and even at the height of the Nook challenge (circa 2011-12) nobody was able to prove they sold the readers below cost. Most cost estimation breakdowns showed a $5 profit on the ad-supported model. And those estimates probably underestimated their volume discounts on the eink screens. (At that time Amazon consumed over 50% of the eink screens coming out of the factory. Which is how they got dibs on Pearl screen production for a year.) One thing people forget is Amazon is bringing a billion a year in ad revenue which is a business they built-up with the eink readers. Lots of ways to profit that don't show up on the short-term balance sheet. |
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07-08-2015, 02:20 PM | #30 | |
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And once you are locked into a store, it is too annoying for the average consumer to switch. Ever. It's more than annoying enough for the unnatural consumer here on MR. But thank G-d for calibre and Alf. It doesn't really matter who dominates, as long as someone does there isn't much call for innovation. DRM, and the death of the small ebookstore, destroyed the ability for innovation to flourish. |
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