E-Reader Sales In Decline


The popularity of e-readers really took off when Amazon launched its original Kindle back in 2007. The Kindle wasn't the first e-reader on the market, not by a long way, but it was really the catalyst for the rapid growth of e-readers.
Even the original Kindle wasn't an immediate success. It was a big h
it with early adopters of course, but it's odd physical appearance and funky QWERTY keyboard made it a bit of an oddity at the time.
It wasn't until the launch of the Kindle 2.0 in early 2009 that e-readers were really adopted in huge numbers by the public. It was, as you might expect from an update, a much better device and the public loved it. It soon became a popular gift choice and hit the number one spot on Amazon's bestseller list - a position which the Kindle, in one format or another, has held since 2009.
It's a great product for Amazon. It seems natural, to many people, to buy their e-reader hardware and e-books from a company that has a proven pedigree in the world of books. It's no coincidence that Amazon's main competition in the e-reader and e-book market has come from Barnes and Noble since they launched their Nook reader in 2010.
In 2011, e-reader sales hit just under 25 million units worldwide. In 2012 this had fallen to just under 15 million. A little over 10 million units are expected to ship in 2013.
Those falling sales could be due to the fact that the rate of growth in evidence simply couldn't be sustained in the long term. E-reader owners aren't like smartphone users - they don't feel the need to "upgrade" every time there's a newer model released - so the more people who buy e-readers, the smaller the market for further sales becomes.
Another factor that might be influencing the slow down in e-reader sales could be the advent of smaller, more affordable tablet computers. Both AMazon and Barnes and Noble have now extended their range to include small, 7" tablets - at prices which are considerably lower than Apple's market leading iPad.
Whilst there's no doubt that the iPad is the all singing, all dancing king of the hill in the tablet market, many people seem to be quite happy to forego (quite) a few features if the price is right. For sending e-mails, playing games and watching the odd video, cut down entry level tablets like the Kindle Fire and the Nook Tablet seem to be more than enough for a large sector of the market.
Tablet computers and e-readers are, for the moment at least, very different devices. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses and will appeal to different market sectors. Some people will be quite happy to have one of each for that matter.
E-readers, despite their sudden rise to fame, have not killed off printed books. It seems improbable that tablet computers will kill off e-readers - at least not for some time to come. However, it does seem as if the period of rapid growth and booming sales figures may be coming to an end for the e-reader market.
Find out which reader is best - the Paperwhite or Glowlight - or check out this site for more information about e-readers and tablet computers in general.

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