E Ink Claims E-reader Sales Increasing

[Sirtel]

I was remarkably non-techie in my teens and early twenties, and hadn't even seen a computer (let alone PDAs and stuff like that) until 1996, when I started to work on one. I bought my first personal computer much later than that (although I had used the internet and online stores on my office computer for years by then).

My move to ebooks was caused by one reason only: I ran out of shelf space for paper books. To my surprise I liked my first Kindle immediately and from then on preferred ebooks to paper.

[Fat Abe]

I would hope that the increase in the sale of eInk ereaders was helped by Walmart's entry into the market in mid-2018.

http://straussconsultants.com/walmar...aders-selling/

I'm not certain how many of the brick & mortar Walmart stores have the physical readers available to touch, but being able to see an item in person can influence a buyer to purchase one. The ability to return it to a store can also be an incentive. Due to the cost of postage, the US Kobo online store disallows free shipments to Hawaii and Alaska. Yet, Walmart did not enforce a lockout, and I was able to get a Libra 2 with a gray cover.

Back in the first decade of this century, even BestBuy was carrying eink readers. Now they only sell products by Amazon and Boox. While it is nice knowing that eink readers are still being made, I'm still worried about the non-Amazon ones becoming extinct.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Fat Abe

While it is nice knowing that eink readers are still being made, I'm still worried about the non-Amazon ones becoming extinct.

They're hardly in danger of becoming extinct, if you consider the fact that in many countries local ebooks are sold in epub format. Kindles are useless in those countries, unless you're a hardcore nerd who uses Calibre for everything.

Amazon may be a towering giant in the US, but not in most other parts of the world.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Fat Abe

Back in the first decade of this century, even BestBuy was carrying eink readers. Now they only sell products by Amazon and Boox. While it is nice knowing that eink readers are still being made, I'm still worried about the non-Amazon ones becoming extinct.

Whereas here, the local Best Buy carries Kobo and Amazon ereaders. The search is a bit fun since the Best Buy marketplace vendors seem to carry every Kobo and Amazon eInk ereader plus the Amazon Fire tablets. Sorting down to Best Buy only sadly shows they don't seem to believe in sale prices. Their pricing matches Amazon and Kobo's pricing to the penny. They do have the two Paperwhite 6.8" devices listed as on sale at the same price as Amazon.ca. Oddly, Amazon.ca shows both devices available though Amazon.com shows them as temporarily out of stock.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Ebooks have existed 30 years approx before the first eink based dedicated ereader...

And Harlan Ellison was suing 'em!

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

To my surprise I liked my first Kindle immediately and from then on preferred ebooks to paper.

That was me, I bought the Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight because I thought it was a neat device (queue pointless and wrong slagging from Jon), but the instant I started reading on it, I fell in love. I haven't read a paper book since.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

That was me, I bought the Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight because I thought it was a neat device (queue pointless and wrong slagging from Jon), but the instant I started reading on it, I fell in love. I haven't read a paper book since.

I bought a nook STR as a backup for $20 from Radio Shack. It was a waste of $20.

[Pajamaman]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

They're hardly in danger of becoming extinct, if you consider the fact that in many countries local ebooks are sold in epub format. Kindles are useless in those countries, unless you're a hardcore nerd who uses Calibre for everything.

Amazon may be a towering giant in the US, but not in most other parts of the world.

Apparently in China they say the only use for a kindle is too keep your coffee warm.

[leebase]

Originally Posted by Quoth

That article mentions the iphone (2007), but ebooks read on PDAs before phones and the iPhone was about NINE years after the first smart phones. Mobipocket was selling ebooks for PDAs and phones more than 6 years before the iPhone.

Otherwise good article.

The first Gutenberg PD ebook may have been 1971 but the first actual ebook was probably much earlier than 1971. But I don't remember. The first ebooks were just plain text.

I'm betting that the amount of books read on an iphone eclipsed all the books ever read on a pda or pre-iphone phone -- in about 3 years of the release of the iphone.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by leebase

I'm betting that the amount of books read on an iphone eclipsed all the books ever read on a pda or pre-iphone phone -- in about 3 years of the release of the iphone.

Maybe in some parts of USA because iOS is about 50% there. People here that bought iphones were not book readers. Also reading ebooks on phones was low still by 2010 (iPhone launched 2007). Outside USA Android is about 80% +
Android launched in 2008.
Bigger screens made phones more popular than tablets for reading on the go.
The first iOS Kindle version was about March 2009.

[binaryhermit]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

I wondered too if the pandemic itself might have caused a bump - in many places it became much easier to buy 1 device then download books onto it rather than making repeated trips to a physical bookstore

If it were purely only about "1 device" people would be reading on the smartphone they already had.

But yes, I'd be interested to see the numbers pre-pandemic, much like how my publicly traded grocery store employer reports year over year same store sales and was at least for a time reporting same store sales vs 2019 because 2020 was weird.

EDIT: Like, same store sales going down 25% for the period corresponding to March 2021 vs March 2020 might not be that bad because, like I said, 2020 was weird and incredibly abnormally inflated.

[Spinningwoman]

I was reading on my Palm for years before I got my first e-reader. I know I was practically queuing at midnight to buy the first Kindle Keyboard when they were released in the U.K. The free connectivity was a big plus on foreign holidays too - imagine that being the easiest way to download emails on holiday!

[leebase]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Maybe in some parts of USA because iOS is about 50% there. People here that bought iphones were not book readers. Also reading ebooks on phones was low still by 2010 (iPhone launched 2007). Outside USA Android is about 80% +
Android launched in 2008.
Bigger screens made phones more popular than tablets for reading on the go.
The first iOS Kindle version was about March 2009.

iPhone has never been the majority smartphone and yet it still dominates in many usage measures like most photos.

I don’t have a source of info on ebooks, but I’d still put my money on iPhone users reading the most by far

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by leebase

iPhone has never been the majority smartphone and yet it still dominates in many usage measures like most photos.

I don’t have a source of info on ebooks, but I’d still put my money on iPhone users reading the most by far

You are falling for Media hype and product placement. It only dominates in hype & profit margin.

[John F]

"iPhone US market share hits all-time high, overtaking Android; dominates global premium sales"

https://9to5mac.com/2022/09/02/iphone-us-market-share/