4 ms·

I don't see any market evidence to support these statements. The Kindle, Nook, and ereaders in general have sold like crazy. Many people can and will read on

by habosa 14y ago

I don't see any market evidence to support these statements. The Kindle, Nook, and ereaders in general have sold like crazy. Many people can and will read on smartphones/tablets, but almost nobody prefers long-form reading on a backlit device to an ereader (that's excluding comics and textbooks). As Amazon continues to push the price frontier lower and lower, the ereader will become practically an impulse buy. One can already purchase an Amazon Kindle, the top name in the business, for $50-70. That's 1/3 the price of the cheapest decent tablet. People make comparisons to the iPod, how it was the best dedicated music player before it, too, was cannibalized by the smartphone. And the same goes for the low-end point and shoot. However the ereader is different in that it is based entirely upon a technology (eink) which has made nearly zero appearances in other devices. Until there is a tablet that can switch to eink mode, there will always be a market for dedicated readers. As for Barnes and Noble, it's never easy to compete with Amazon and as far as I'm concerned that's all there is to it.

saturdaysaint 14y ago
Kindle, Nook, and ereaders in general have sold like crazy. E Ink (the company that makes the screens) posted losses in every category except Q4 last year, not coincidentally the first full year that tablets above 200 dpi have been on the market. Amazon essentially ordered nothing from them in the first quarter. And this came right after Amazon slashed the price of the cheapest Kindle to well below $100.
sarvinc 14y ago
"Many people can and will read on smartphones/tablets, but almost nobody prefers long-form reading on a backlit device to an ereader (that's excluding comics and textbooks)." I agree that e-ink is probably superior for reading but it's going to get harder and harder to find customers who only want to read on their devices. "As Amazon continues to push the price frontier lower and lower, the ereader will become practically an impulse buy. One can already purchase an Amazon Kindle, the top name in the business, for $50-70. That's 1/3 the price of the cheapest decent tablet." True but the price point of other devices will also become impulse buys so ereaders will still be competing with tablets etc. "People make comparisons to the iPod, how it was the best dedicated music player before it, too, was cannibalized by the smartphone. And the same goes for the low-end point and shoot. However the ereader is different in that it is based entirely upon a technology (eink) which has made nearly zero appearances in other devices." Right, iPod was based on a different technology (digital media) and the point and shoot was based on a different technology (digital image capture). Smartphones/tablets added both and now those markets are diminishing. How does this make ereaders different?

by habosa 14y ago

saturdaysaint 14y ago

Kindle, Nook, and ereaders in general have sold like crazy. E Ink (the company that makes the screens) posted losses in every category except Q4 last year, not coincidentally the first full year that tablets above 200 dpi have been on the market. Amazon essentially ordered nothing from them in the first quarter. And this came right after Amazon slashed the price of the cheapest Kindle to well below $100.

sarvinc 14y ago

"Many people can and will read on smartphones/tablets, but almost nobody prefers long-form reading on a backlit device to an ereader (that's excluding comics and textbooks)." I agree that e-ink is probably superior for reading but it's going to get harder and harder to find customers who only want to read on their devices. "As Amazon continues to push the price frontier lower and lower, the ereader will become practically an impulse buy. One can already purchase an Amazon Kindle, the top name in the business, for $50-70. That's 1/3 the price of the cheapest decent tablet." True but the price point of other devices will also become impulse buys so ereaders will still be competing with tablets etc. "People make comparisons to the iPod, how it was the best dedicated music player before it, too, was cannibalized by the smartphone. And the same goes for the low-end point and shoot. However the ereader is different in that it is based entirely upon a technology (eink) which has made nearly zero appearances in other devices." Right, iPod was based on a different technology (digital media) and the point and shoot was based on a different technology (digital image capture). Smartphones/tablets added both and now those markets are diminishing. How does this make ereaders different?