US Kobo Sales double?

[Quoth]

A Tech backlash? Amazon control/lockdown or hate of Bezos's politics?

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/...es-double.html

[rantanplan]

Is that the reason why their website became unbearable slow?

[Quoth]

The UK website is a lot slower too lately.

[enuddleyarbl]

Last sentence:

"We haven't been losing the person who reads 12 books a year... that cohort is very stable," he says.

Yeah. But, they're losing the person who reads 50 books a year... because they don't sell an 8" e-reader. (which isn't mentioned at all in that article).

[John F]

Originally Posted by enuddleyarbl

Last sentence:



Yeah. But, you're losing the person who reads 50 books a year... because you don't sell an 8" e-reader. (which isn't mentioned at all in that article).

Were ebook sales mentioned anywhere in the article?

eink hardware sales are nice, but if everyone is reading on their phone/tablet ...?

[enuddleyarbl]

I didn't see anything about ebook sales. From the way that article is written, it looks like they're talking about hardware sales.

[rantanplan]

Originally Posted by enuddleyarbl

But, you're losing the person who reads 50 books a year... because you don't sell an 8" e-reader.

Are they losing you (as in singular person) or do you mean this as a more generalized anecdote (as in cohort)?

[Cactus Chef]

I didn't see much of a surge on this forum, but we definitely saw a huge surge of new converts on the r/kobo subreddit once the color readers arrived from Kobo. For whatever reason, having covers in color or just the possibility of reading comics/manga in color (even if it's a thoroughly mediocre experience on a 6" screen) seems to have spurred many people who were on the fence.

[rantanplan]

I'm a bit of a statistics nerd so I'd love to see any insights. Like what kind of demographic loves ~8 inch devices, how much % of sold readers are now color readers, what is the buyer's remorse on that etc.

[JSWolf]

The more Readers Kobo sells, the less eBooks Amazon sells.

[Yapyap]

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

I didn’t see much of a surge on this forum, but we definitely saw a huge surge of new converts on the r/kobo subreddit once the color readers arrived from Kobo. For whatever reason, having covers in color or just the possibility of reading comics/manga in color (even if it’s a thoroughly mediocre experience on a 6” screen) seems to have spurred many people who were on the fence.

A lot of it seems to be the ~aesthetic~ generation who spend a lot of time decorating their devices with stickers and making them pretty (clear cases are a must) and are happy to see the tiny cover thumbnails in colour - and aren’t bothered by the need to have the frontlight up quite high as it’s what they’re already used to with their digital devices.

(Just to be clear - I’m not being disparaging! Whatever makes people happy and gets them reading is great. Just noting that it seems like a fairly specific subtype of brand new e-reader owners who have come on board in the last couple of years, probably many through TikTok/BookTok and Instagram.)

[Cactus Chef]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

A lot of it seems to be the ~aesthetic~ generation who spend a lot of time decorating their devices with stickers and making them pretty (clear cases are a must) and are happy to see the tiny cover thumbnails in colour - and aren’t bothered by the need to have the frontlight up quite high as it’s what they’re already used to with their digital devices.

(Just to be clear - I’m not being disparaging! Whatever makes people happy and gets them reading is great. Just noting that it seems like a fairly specific subtype of brand new e-reader owners who have come on board in the last couple of years, probably many through TikTok/BookTok and Instagram.)

Yeah, I don't get it either. For reference, I am a mod on r/kobo and we agonized for awhile on whether to allow those "Show off my decorated Kobo" posts that pervaded the Kindle subs. I was not in favor, as I felt like it drove down the average qualitative discussion on the sub. But it definitely drove up "engagement," insofar as people showing off their Kobo's decorated with their little stickers or clear cases seemingly had a bandwagon effect encouraging other people to crossover.

So whatever. If it gets more people to move away from Amazon, and more importantly if it gets more people to read, I'll tolerate people showing off bejeweled cases. I've still got MR for all the nerd talk.

[rantanplan]

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

Yeah, I don't get it either. For reference, I am a mod on r/kobo and we agonized for awhile on whether to allow those "Show off my decorated Kobo" posts that pervaded the Kindle subs. I was not in favor, as I felt like it drove down the average qualitative discussion on the sub. But it definitely drove up "engagement," insofar as people showing off their Kobo's decorated with their little stickers or clear cases seemingly had a bandwagon effect encouraging other people to crossover.

Yes, I was thinking about reddit immediately. It seems to have quieted down. I was more annoyed by the fact that reddit doesn't seem to have an option to filter your home-feed by flair than by users uploading their decorated readers.

I love seeing people decorate their devices with stickers but I'm not in the mood for that whenever I open reddit.

[Yapyap]

I have to admit that 99.99% of the sticker-decorated backsides I’ve seen have looked dreadful to me - just a bunch of random pics haphazardly stuck next to one another.

But … I mean, I’m 51, not 15, and I’m quite aware it’s not for me they’re doing this; many are probably also quite young, and I certainly don’t want to rain on their enthusiasm, so I cringe a bit (quietly to myself) and move on. But yeah, some days it seems the “look at my stickers!” and “I decorated my Kobo!” posts make up two thirds of the content on that subreddit, LOL. The ability to filter by flair would certainly be helpful!

(ETA: TBF, it really is almost even worse on r/kindle - it’s like 45% decorating, 45% “look at my hand holding a Kindle and my toes somewhere there enjoying reading in the mountains / in Paris / in a café / in front of my fireplace”, LOL. But again, people are clearly enjoying themselves and their devices, so … filtering would be handy though!)

In the end, if they’re reading (and not tying themselves to Amazon), it’s all good. If a bit of enthusiastic decorating is something that someone needs to give them that push to pick up their e-reader (or to get others to join the e-reader bandwagon), then it serves a purpose.

… I just wish and hope that the future of e-readers is a bit more wide and varied and Kobo (who currently honestly seems to be the worst offender, what with having no current/available BW device at all that would be bigger than 6’’ and smaller than the very pricey Elipsa, although Bigme also seem to be pushing colour hard) will also consider those of us who just want slightly larger BW e-ink devices, even if they’re not “cute”.

[mrmikey]

I've had a few KOBO's, a Glo, another I can't remember the name of and currently a Clara HD. I wouldn't buy any other brand but as they all still work, only reason I got a different one is...well....I wanted a different one LOL.
In my opinion and mine only, I'd have to say the reason Kobo appears to be more popular is because they work, not forever as nothing does but longer than competitive brands. Load an EPUB and you're good to go with no hoops to jump thru.
Look at Scamazons Kindle, they stopped supporting older models, they tried to prevent people from downloading books they paid for and everything they sell is so proprietary.
Just my 2 cents worth, (1-1/2 cents since I'm in Nova Scotia, Canada :-) )