Comments on: The page turns: Tablets to outsell e-readers by 2012

By: Kevin C. Tofel

Kevin C. Tofel — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 13:34:07 +0000

Michael, all good points about potential product developments specifically for ebooks. We’ve covered some of them here, in fact: Qualcomm’s Mirasol display and the Pixel Qi solution, for example. Unfortunately, either for technical or other reasons, these haven’t panned out yet in mainstream products, and they’ve been demoed for 2 – 3 years if not more. That doesn’t mean they aren’t coming, but until they arrive (or show an inclination of their arrival) it’s not likely they’ll be considered in any estimates. I think your last sentence sums it up nicely.

By: Kevin C. Tofel

Kevin C. Tofel — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 13:31:36 +0000

Charbax, as always, I love your enthusiasm, but sometimes it interferes with reality. ;) “Nobody reads an ebook on a backlit LCD.” Nobody? Really? Why would the Kindle app be a top app in the iTunes app store? How could Apple claim 130m iBook titles downloaded? I understand that some don’t want to read on a backlit display — I specifically said that, in fact — but some do.

By: kolo

kolo — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 08:26:23 +0000

I am worried when I read this kind of post.

E.ink e-readers and tablets are different products, addressing different needs. The bottom line is that I can read a book on a E.ink device but not on a LCD tablet.

I love my ipad for web browsing and to access multimedia contents but my kindle is my default device to read books and newspapers.

Please Amazon don’t switch to LDC tablet. You are going to loose your customers.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 06:55:54 +0000

Is it me, or researchers are wrong most of the time?

Did the researchers took into consideration colour ink that support animation? or glasses with augmented layer? or even simple solution as device which combine LCD and e-ink?

All mentioned solution are under development. Obviously they didn’t took into consideration what we still don’t know.

By: Mike S

Mike S — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 04:31:08 +0000

In other news, bread outsells dedicated e-readers, and so does milk. Apples to oranges in this article.

I have both a Kindle and a tablet, and I do extended reading on the Kindle. People who are heavily into reading will probably gravitate toward non-backlit displays, no matter how many tablets are sold. Do you really think that most people buying tablets are buying them to read on?

By: Charbax

Charbax — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 02:29:38 +0000

Nobody reads an ebook on a backlit LCD. No need to compare or talk about one replacing the other. Only when Pixel Qi LCD is in every tablet and it being as good as E-ink, then you can start talking about Tablets replacing e-ink e-readers, until then, stop your comparing.

Also, not 26% of consumers own an e-reader, but 26 out of 1000, which means 2.6% for e-ink e-readers and 3.8% of US consumers own a tablet, otherwise it makes no sense, consumers don’t buy this stuff that fast.

By: Yacko

Yacko — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 22:11:24 +0000

E-readers will break through the $100 mark and settle into the Franklin handheld niche with even lower prices. Tablets will hold value as they become more powerful and capable, displacing a large portion of mobile devices with keyboards.

By: Digithoughts

Digithoughts — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 22:05:51 +0000

Actually, tablets ARE outselling e-readers. WW-numbers for 2010: 11 million ereaders, 17.8 million tablets. This year, apple is on its way to sell 25 million ipads on its own.

By: Lucian Armasu

Lucian Armasu — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 21:59:49 +0000

This is why I think Amazon will try and take the Android tablet market by storm by the end of the year. Their 10″ Tegra 3 tablet seems to be competitively priced at $449, but I don’t think the 7″ Tegra 2 one should be $349. It may sound like a good price right now, but it might be too much by the end of the year. It should be $299 at most.

I also think they’ll continue to make e-ink e-readers, and will probably launch a higher quality $99 e-reader in the first half of next year. They might also try a Mirasol based e-reader, if they haven’t given up on that idea yet.

Either way, the shift from e-readers to tablets shouldn’t affect Amazon’s market share of ebooks too much.