E-ink is dying(?)

[ebusinesstutor]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Without more information, it could instead be a sign of a shift toward general purpose devices, such as tablets and phones, for e-book reading.

I would think that is more likely. With the rise of independent publishing, the figures provided by the AAP are only a portion of the overall ebook market.

The tradititional publishers are focused keeping ebook prices higher than they should be so they shouldn't be surprised when people pick up bargain priced ebooks elsewhere. No wonder their numbers are declining.

[Cinisajoy]

Let's see that Pew research had how many participants? Under 1000 if I remember right.

[ProDigit]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Without more information, it could instead be a sign of a shift toward general purpose devices, such as tablets and phones, for e-book reading.

True,
The source might also only only record the sales of most popular devices, aka: Kindles, Sonys and Kobos.
Some people actually are happy with their devices, and may have purchased a lot of books on them in the beginning which they now start reading over time.
Some people might be very happy with their first generation e-ink reader, and as long as the battery holds up, keep it.
Especially seniors are prone to not throw anything functional away, but keep it until it gives the ghost, even if there are ten newer and better devices out there!

Another thing,
more and more content is becoming available for free;
not sure if the numbers are recording paid sales, free sales, or include free ebooks from other sources than stores as well...

[Cinisajoy]

Well now, I haven't picked up near as many books of all formats this year as I did last year.
TBR and space are the reasons.

[thejoker954]

Yeah, less e readers being sold doesn't really mean much.

A tablet or cellphone wears down a lot quicker than an e reader does. Cellphones and tablets have many more things that could break and cause you to need a whole new device. Not to mention cells and tablets are just about always on our persons leaving more time to break something.

About the only tech that changes on a e reader is the screen. You don't need multiple gigs of ram or the newest 8 core processor to use an e reader. So it's life cycle is by design longer then that of a cellphone.

Combine the life of an e reader with the general lack of reading most people do, along with prices that are a bit high for a device that is very specific in what it does and doesn't need a lot of hardware to do it. -and of course sales are down.

Now if we could get some more android e ink options I think more people would be attracted as then you could do more with the device than just read a book. And that just goes back to what this thread started as.

More e-readers would be seen more often if said e reader could also let you tweet, check your email, text a friend, play some games and other basic tasks.

[cvkemp]

The reason I love my e-ink reader other than the screen being easy on my eyes, is that it is just that and reader, and doesn't to bother me or prompt me in any way to disturb my reading.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by cvkemp

I have shown my voyage to a lot of my retired friends and about half of the ones that read very much have gotten an e-ink reader of some kind or other. Most of them have either gotten the PW2-3 and a few the voyage.

I live in a retirement home and I've helped a number of people here get started with ereaders, mostly with Kindles and a couple with Kobos. It's kind of a natural for a retired person. Our eyes are usually not that great anyway and this lets us adjust the font size easily and the lighted devices make life a lot easier, especially for people who can't move around easily to get the best lamp light.

Also most of us don't have a lot of money to spend and ebooks mean big savings. It works out nicely.

I do read on my phone in the last couple of years when I'm away from home. At home I've usually used my e-ink device but more and more I'm using my phone at home too for short reading sessions. It's always in my pocket and when I have a few minutes it's easy to pull it out and start reading. I do that enough recently that I think it's starting to become a significant percent of my reading. I have no real idea what percentage I do on my phone but I wouldn't be surprised if some days it approached 50%.

Barry

[barryem]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

Doesn't the Voyage have a glass screen, rather than the plastic substrate the many of the others do? I've wondered if there would be an increase in the glare from overhead lights with a glass screen.

The Voyage screen is glass but the surface is ground or pulverized or something, I forget just what, to give it an almost frosted appearance. If you look closely comparing it to a Paperwhite you can see the difference but it's not really obvious and there's no more glare. They've done whatever they did very well.

I have a Paperwhite and a Voyage (as well as some Kobos) and I read with both and I really don't care much which one I'm using. The Voyage in it's case is easier to hold than the Paperwhite in it's case but the Paperwhite without it's case is a bit easier to hold than the Voyage without it's case because of the square edges of the Voyage. Other than that they're so much alike the differences don't matter.

That's the thing with ereaders today. These things are all gems. There really aren't any bad ones. My new Nook Glowlight Plus with it's "don't you dare touch me" home button is as close as any of them come to bad and when I get that problem solved it might become my favorite reader.

Barry

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

True,
The source might also only only record the sales of most popular devices, aka: Kindles, Sonys and Kobos.
Some people actually are happy with their devices, and may have purchased a lot of books on them in the beginning which they now start reading over time.
Some people might be very happy with their first generation e-ink reader, and as long as the battery holds up, keep it.
Especially seniors are prone to not throw anything functional away, but keep it until it gives the ghost, even if there are ten newer and better devices out there!

Another thing,
more and more content is becoming available for free;
not sure if the numbers are recording paid sales, free sales, or include free ebooks from other sources than stores as well...

This is me. I don't see the point in buying a new reader as long as the one I have works. I do buy new books for my old reader.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I suspect that many of us here work on backlit LCD screens all day. I certainly do.

I can easily spend an hour or two at a time watching a Netflix movie but I can't read a book for an hour on my phone. I can even surf the web for an hour although that will make my eyes start to water.

With my phone I usually am fine for 10 or 15 minutes, sometimes 20 minutes, and then my eyes start to water. If I keep going I get eyestrain and headaches and eventually blurred vision. And that takes less than an hour.

I think there's a lot of difference in watching a video and reading a book. Even reading web pages isn't the same as reading a book because I'll read a bit, look something up, go back to reading, etc, and my eyes get a break. With a book, with only occasional exceptions, I'm constantly staring into the light.

I'm just guessing that's the difference but it seems to fit the patterns that I find.

It's not at all unusual for me to read an hour or two on my phone in a day, 10 or 15 minutes at a time. But I can't do it a lot longer.

This was also true when I was working as a programmer. I could work all day long, sitting at the computer, screen in front of me. But I couldn't read a long user manual on the screen. For that I'd print it out.

Something I just remembered, in the early days of CRT screens with white text on a black background I didn't have a lot of problem reading. That might be because there weren't many computer based manuals in those days but I don't recall eyestrain until the green text on black backgrounds came along. Then it became a constant issue for me. That was solved to some extent with amber screens when they became available but it was still a bit of an issue. With LCD screens it got better.

I have some very nice modern tablets such as the Galaxy Tab S but reading on them is no better than reading on my phone, at least in terms of eye strain. It's too big to be comfortable anyway, of course.

Still, reading on my phone in shorter sessions isn't a bad thing. I can stop for 10 minutes and then go back to reading and I'm fine for another 10 or 15 minutes. Not ideal but not so bad.

Barry

[barryem]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Hey I just thought of something. What you are seeing or think you are seeing may not be the reality.
I know a guy that shops the thrift stores, dresses about like I do and from looking at him one would assume the guy is either retired working class or still working to make ends meet.
He is worth at least 8 or 9 figures.

Same goes for devices. What you see may not be all they own.

My Dad was a flight instructor and I used to work for him on weekends. This was back in the 1950's when working people wore jeans and corporate people didn't. One of his students was the chairman of a fortune 500 company, probably a very wealthy man although I don't really know that. And he always came to the airport in jeans and a western shirt.

The day he got his private license he walked over to the Piper dealer and grabbed a salesman and asked for information on their most expensive plane. The salesman told him to come talk to him on payday and walked away laughing.

He came back to my Dad's office boiling mad and drove over to the Cessna dealer, across the field and came back with a new twin Cessna. He then gave me a ride in it and after we landed he taxied over to the Piper dealer and we got out and he asked for the manager, explained why he'd bought the Cessna when he really wanted a Piper and we waited around while the manager made a very big show of firing the salesman.

Watch out for that shabby dressed guy. You just never know.

Barry

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by barryem

My Dad was a flight instructor and I used to work for him on weekends. This was back in the 1950's when working people wore jeans and corporate people didn't. One of his students was the chairman of a fortune 500 company, probably a very wealthy man although I don't really know that. And he always came to the airport in jeans and a western shirt.

The day he got his private license he walked over to the Piper dealer and grabbed a salesman and asked for information on their most expensive plane. The salesman told him to come talk to him on payday and walked away laughing.

He came back to my Dad's office boiling mad and drove over to the Cessna dealer, across the field and came back with a new twin Cessna. He then gave me a ride in it and after we landed he taxied over to the Piper dealer and we got out and he asked for the manager, explained why he'd bought the Cessna when he really wanted a Piper and we waited around while the manager made a very big show of firing the salesman.

Watch out for that shabby dressed guy. You just never know.

Barry

I remember my sociology class. (Note I was in my early 30's). The professor put on a test, what is your social class. Ok I honestly thought the question was unethical and none of his darn business. I asked another professor what I should do and told him that I thought the question was none of the other professor's damn business.
The professor just said answer it honestly and by the book. Note we have some 7 figure friends.
Anyway the unethical professor thought about counting off for what appeared to be one very smart-ass answer. But he knew if he did and I could prove everything it would be his butt on the line. He asked the same professor I had talked to if everything was true. The professor said my friends would make both of them look like paupers and told the guy what I had said. The one that asked the question was more concerned then that I had been misquoted because I would never use the d word.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Why? Seems pretty reasonable to conclude that if, as is claimed, fewer ebook readers are being used then fewer ebooks are being bought.

Unless more ebooks are being read on phones, which I've heard is the case.

The APA has been talking about ebook sales being down but they're only counting their members books, and their bigger members have just greatly increased their prices so it's understandable that their sales are declining. But their figures don't count books from other sources than the APA members, such as self published books and books from very small publishers. The blogs I've been reading say that overall ebook sales are up a bit, but that the increase is smaller than last year.

Barry

[barryem]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I remember my sociology class. (Note I was in my early 30's). The professor put on a test, what is your social class. Ok I honestly thought the question was unethical and none of his darn business. I asked another professor what I should do and told him that I thought the question was none of the other professor's damn business.
The professor just said answer it honestly and by the book. Note we have some 7 figure friends.
Anyway the unethical professor thought about counting off for what appeared to be one very smart-ass answer. But he knew if he did and I could prove everything it would be his butt on the line. He asked the same professor I had talked to if everything was true. The professor said my friends would make both of them look like paupers and told the guy what I had said. The one that asked the question was more concerned then that I had been misquoted because I would never use the d word.

I'm curious why you thought that question was unethical in a class on sociology? I also took sociology in college and we had similar questions, designed to make us think.

I remember a discussion at my brother's house about what social class we were in. By rights we were pretty squarely in the middle class. Most of our family were either salaried professionals or owners of small businesses. But my idea that we were middle class made him fairly angry. We were the upper crust and he was dismayed that I didn't know it. I'm sure he'd have thought my professor was unethical too but I think I learned a lot from that sort of questions and from my families reaction to them.

Barry

[Cinisajoy]

It was in the college handbook that professors could not ask personal questions even on tests.
He did ask me why I didn't just do like the other students and lie.
Similar would have been fine, but it was an exact.
Of course I grew up confused about social class.
After the divorce (my parents), with mom it was poor. With dad, we were expected to act like dad was rich because he owned his own company. I still don't remember much money.

I still tend to be frugal. Both my kindles are used.