E-book sales are on the rise, but apparently, so too is the competition facing e-readers.
According to June 2009 data from the International Digital Publishing Forum (the trade and standards association for the digital publishing industry) and the Association of American Publishers (the trade association of the U.S. book publishing industry), domestic sales of e-books rose 224 percent over June of last year to $37.6 million. This information doesn’t include retail sales or sales to libraries, universities and professional institutions, so the picture may even be rosier.
Does this mean e-readers will soon be a hot commodity? For now, there are differing opinions among industry analysts. A study by financial services group Credit Suisse (as reported by TWICE, a consumer electronics trade publication) predicts e-reader sales could penetrate about a third of the U.S. adult book-reading population within five years.
However, a survey by research firm Simba Information (as reported by the Associated Press) found that most users actually read e-books on their personal computers. And while Amazon’s e-reader, the Kindle, has sparked interest in e-books, downloads of e-reading applications for smartphones have far outnumbered the Kindles sold, according to a report by technology and market research firm, Forrester Research.
With PCs and smartphones competing for market share, some analysts think e-readers could benefit from increased features and flexibility. Talking about the Kindle, Paul Starr, professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton, said in a recent interview with MSNBC: "As it develops, how multifunctional will be it? More like a dedicated word processor, which only does one thing, or more like a computer, for which applications are written by the thousands? The more versatile it is, the better it will compete."
New developments continue to be made in the e-reader industry, suggesting more device versatility in the future. In fact, according to the Financial Times, Apple, Inc. is planning to launch a portable, full-featured, tablet-sized computer before the end of the year. The device, which book publishers reportedly see as an alternative to the Kindle, would enable access to the Web and to Apple’s online stores for software and entertainment. Full details haven’t been released yet.
Could the combination of an iTunes-type store for books and a “cool” device from Apple be a “Kindle killer?” We will have to wait and see what Apple’s product will look like. Will this “innovation” make e-readers the next “it” item, or just create disruption in the market?
