Kindle US Marketshare at 45%, Sony at 30%

[Ankh]

Originally Posted by akira28

How would you account for the MR polls that say otherwise? They may not be scientific but are they that far off?

Yes, they are. Many of us on MR are not US residents, and Kindle is sold only in the USA.

Originally Posted by Ankh

Yes, they are. Many of us on MR are not US residents, and Kindle is sold only in the USA.

Through my personal observations here in NYC I have seen just as many Sony's as Kindle's in the field. That, in combination with polls here, Sony's 1 year lead time and perhaps my personal distaste for Kindle's infomercials, lead me to be believe (or perhaps hope) that Sony's penetration was equal, if not greater, than Amazon's.

[ProDigit]

Originally Posted by fugazied

I just don't see such an explosive growth in ebook devices to be honest. The problem is the fact that mobile phones (smart phones like iphone) and netbooks (tablets and 9-13" laptops) encroach on sales of ebook readers. Mobile computing will be huge, but if the readers continue with this limited functionality they just won't shape up to tablets and phones that do another 10 things other than open ebooks.

I agree with you, especially when PixelQi will have their products on the market, I even fear that ebooks will be very limited.

For me, if PixelQi finds a way to keep pixels lit and lower the refresh rate when reading books (to say 1fps), and can increase it to 30fps when watching movies or playing games on their screens, without losing too much battery, I fear that E-ink will go extinct soon.

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by griffonwing

But if the mainstream players (Sony, Amazon) are releasing crippled devices for 200, and saving the bells and whistles for the 300-500 range, then I don't see the public jumping as fast as they would otherwise.

By crippled, I am referring to the limited features of the 300, which is Sony's 199 price-point device. Any device which is not user-friendly (replaceable battery, user-defined storage like SD cards, etc..) I consider to be crippled, and has an impact on whether or not I will purchase.

Crippled seems to be an extremely harsh description of a device when what you really mean is doesn't suit your requirements, which doesn't seem that unlikely since this model is clearly sony's aim at increasing their market share by introducing new people to ebooks.

I would personally be quite shocked if sony were expecting to see many sales for the 300 from users experienced enough to find their way to a site like mobileread, they probably expect them to be interested in the 600 since its more likely to have features that would be an upgrade unless for some reason the marginal size/weight savings compared with a 505 were worth it to somebody.

Also, for a basic device aimed at newer users, the lack of external storage probably makes a device more user-friendly rather than less simply because it means there is only one place they could have copied their books.

[griffonwing]

Originally Posted by Crowl

Crippled seems to be an extremely harsh description of a device when what you really mean is doesn't suit your requirements, which doesn't seem that unlikely since this model is clearly sony's aim at increasing their market share by introducing new people to ebooks.

I would personally be quite shocked if sony were expecting to see many sales for the 300 from users experienced enough to find their way to a site like mobileread, they probably expect them to be interested in the 600 since its more likely to have features that would be an upgrade unless for some reason the marginal size/weight savings compared with a 505 were worth it to somebody.

Also, for a basic device aimed at newer users, the lack of external storage probably makes a device more user-friendly rather than less simply because it means there is only one place they could have copied their books.

Egad, man! I mentioned 5 times that this is an opinion. O-pin-ion.. it means, this is how I see things.

You have yours, I have mine. You've stated yours. Don't knock me on mine. Gee whiz.

edit...

I don't mean this as an attack on you, personally. There have been several people here who have condemned me for my stating opinions (when I specifically said they were opinions, or my viewpoints) and it's really beginning to hit a nerve.

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

An eBook is like a download record album. eMusic sells download jazz music for (last I heard) 40 songs for $14.99. Amazon can easily obtain a deal with the publishers that the wholesale price for the "introductory books" will be closer to $1. It's all profit for the publisher.

Ignoring the point that it isn't all profit, you are also being slightly naive to think that would be how the publisher would look at it, they would probably be in the mindset that a lot of ebook sales would be instead of a paper book sale and thus they would have actually lost money compared with that.

As far as giving a user credit up to the value of their ereader when they buy it, the only way companies would want to do that would be in such a way that it made the customer spend more than they would have done otherwise nor did it cost them too much if somebody didn't buy many books.

The easiest way to do that would be offering them lots of smaller credits they could use per book say $2-3 a time and if you put an expiry date on them such as 24 months then the net result is that the person would tend to buy more during that time than they would otherwise have done, especially towards the end of the time period before the discounts ran out.

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by griffonwing

I don't mean this as an attack on you, personally. There have been several people here who have condemned me for my stating opinions (when I specifically said they were opinions, or my viewpoints) and it's really beginning to hit a nerve.

The most likely reason for people to have responded is your choice of wording, calling the product crippled is just a more emotive term than say personally unsuitable, which is what you seemed to mean.

Personally, I wouldn't call a product crippled unless its essential functionality had been specifically limited in some way, whereas things like external storage and user-replaceable batteries are not essential even if they are important criteria for you.

[GA Russell]

Originally Posted by Crowl

(Y)ou are also being slightly naive to think that would be how the publisher would look at it, they would probably be in the mindset that a lot of ebook sales would be instead of a paper book sale and thus they would have actually lost money compared with that.

Yes, that is the mindset of the music industry, and the whole world sees where that has gotten them. I would hope that the book industry would have better sense, but perhaps time will show your view to be realistic, not pessimistic.

It seems to me that any publisher could alleviate that concern by placing a limit on the number of "introductory" sales any of its titles could be subject to.

As far as giving a user credit up to the value of their ereader when they buy it, the only way companies would want to do that would be in such a way that it made the customer spend more than they would have done otherwise nor did it cost them too much if somebody didn't buy many books.

The easiest way to do that would be offering them lots of smaller credits they could use per book say $2-3 a time and if you put an expiry date on them such as 24 months then the net result is that the person would tend to buy more during that time than they would otherwise have done, especially towards the end of the time period before the discounts ran out.

I think that your idea has great merit, but I don't think that a $2-3 discount would be nearly enough to spur the potential consumer to act. But what that discount figure might be would be a subject of negotiation between Amazon (or Sony) and the publishers.

[rmeister0]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

It is in the publishers' interest for the public to take to eBooks because the cost to the publisher is so close to zero

You keep making this assertion, but even if it is true it is irrelevant.

I'm a VP in a company that makes and markets books and DVDs, so I get to observe both sides of the supply chain. I can tell you from direct experience that the cost to manufacture the book or DVD is the cheapest cost in that chain. What publishers pay to print a book is peanuts to the other G&A expenses they have to cover.

I would also caution against assuming that digital downloads of music and books are treated the same. Eminem sued both Apple and his record label because his music sales on iTunes were being treated as licensed sales rather than product sales and thus paid him a smaller royalty. There are all sorts of contorted licensing deals the music industry deals with that the publishing industry has no version of.

[Teddman]

So, based on this report, is it safe to conclude that Sony, not Amazon, is the worldwide leader in e-reader device sales?

With one million Kindles sold and the Kindle at 45% of U.S. marketshare to Sony's 30%, that would put Sony at around 660,000 units in the U.S.

Since the Kindle is not sold outside the U.S. and the Sony readers are, it's reasonable to assume Sony has sold at least 340,000 in the rest of the world.

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

Yes, that is the mindset of the music industry, and the whole world sees where that has gotten them. I would hope that the book industry would have better sense, but perhaps time will show your view to be realistic, not pessimistic.

I hope I am wrong, but based on how other stuff like music, tv, movies, newspapers have dealt with a transition to a digital world you have to assume the liklihood of book publishers also tripping themselves up over this move even if it might seem an easy move for the rest of us being little more than get the content out there in high numbers, don't overprice to try and protect your traditional market and most importantly don't try and treat your customers as potential thieves all the time since thats the easiest way to push them towards such behaviour.

I think that your idea has great merit, but I don't think that a $2-3 discount would be nearly enough to spur the potential consumer to act. But what that discount figure might be would be a subject of negotiation between Amazon (or Sony) and the publishers.

While the individual discount seems low, that wouldn't be how they would present it to the customer, they would take the usual approach of a headline figure of $300 say and its only in the small print that you would see that would only happen if you bought 100 books in the first 2 years or whatever.

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by Teddman

So, based on this report, is it safe to conclude that Sony, not Amazon, is the worldwide leader in e-reader device sales?

With one million Kindles sold and the Kindle at 45% of U.S. marketshare to Sony's 30%, that would put Sony at around 660,000 units in the U.S.

Since the Kindle is not sold outside the U.S. and the Sony readers are, it's reasonable to assume Sony has sold at least 340,000 in the rest of the world.

That may not actually be the case since sony haven't actually made that much of an effort out of north america either, the uk have had the 505 for about a year, but its been less than 6 months for the likes of germany and france with the rest of europe being overlooked until the new series of devices.

Did sony ever release any e-readers in the asian markets?

[igorsk]

Originally Posted by Crowl

Did sony ever release any e-readers in the asian markets?

Only the original Librie in Japan. But that was Sony Japan, not Sony Electronics.