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Will Tablets Kill Off e-Readers?
Nerval's Lobster writes "Are e-readers doomed? A research note earlier this week from IHS iSuppli suggested that, after years of solid growth, the e-book reader market was 'on an alarmingly precipitous decline' thanks to the rise of tablets. The firm suggested that e-reader sales had declined from 23.2 million units in 2011 to 14.9 million this year — around 36 percent, in other words. The note blames tablets: 'Single-task devices like the ebook are being replaced without remorse in the lives of consumers by their multifunction equivalents, in this case by media tablets.' Even Amazon and Barnes & Noble, the reigning champs of the e-reader marketplace, have increasingly embraced full-color tablets as the best medium for selling their digital products. Backed by enormous cloud-based libraries that offer far more than just e-books, these devices are altogether more versatile than grayscale e-readers, provided their users want to do more than just read plain text."
However, I don't think that e-readers will die completely. Those hardcore people who prefer reflected light for reading books will likely cling to their devices (I'm one of them).
I once took an excursion to Reddit, and later HN. Unlimited up/down voting sucks when dealing with a hive-mind.
The only reason I bought a Kindle is that I can't stare at a backlit tablet for hours on end.
Isn't it also reasonable to suppose that eReaders are on the decline because all the people most likely to buy them have already bought them?
No eReaders are not doomed by tablets.
eReader prices are doomed.
Bring a tablet, I'll bring my e-ink reader, and let's go sit in the sun and read for 4 hours.
Yes, they're a niche item, but it's a substantial and highly useful niche.
There is no question: anyone who spends more than a few minutes/day reading will agree reading books on LCD is really tiring. That is why I love my e-book reader, I can read for hours and my eyes won't get tired. Before it, I used to read on LCD, and after about 20 minutes my eyes would start bothering me.
On the other hand, I don't think most people read enough to be bothered by it, which is sad in many different levels. But hardcore readers won't give up their e-readers for LCD. Too bad we are a minority.
morcego
The e-Ink display gives insanely long battery life, is viewable in most light conditions and is easy on my ageing eyes. A tablet is heavy and chews through it's battery in a day.
However, web surfing on my e-reader is painful and apps/games are non-existant.
Just because they are similar looking doesn't mean they can (or should) do each other's job. Each has it's strengths and they are cheap enough that there's no need to worry about combining their roles.
Battery life.
A non-backlit ebook reader will last a very, very long time without recharging or fresh batteries. A tablet won't last through the day.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
What I want is the ten inch paper white touch screen at a reasonable price ($200 - $300 or so)
I also want the weight to be somewhat less than my ipad3.
I also want my kindle to support epub without having to do crazy side loading.
I don't use the kindle that much because it really is only useful for reading on the train and such, which I don't do that often.
I want a pony.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
A multimedia tablet with an eink capable covering would be the best of both worlds.
I don't own either type of device - e-reader or tablet - but imagine that e-readers offer a simpler experience for the user - no/fewer software and security updates, etc - and that will always appeal to various consumers. Tablets are more powerful and capable, but also more complex.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Speak for yourself.
I deliberately chose an ebook reader with an LCD, gleefully.
I've had it for a year now, and would not give it up willingly. Before I got the reader, I would download my ebooks in HTML format to read on my nice PC monitor.
And I'm not some young whippersnapper with good eyes....I'm 54, wearing tri-focals. I have never experienced the problems you allude to, and I am a voracious reader.
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
In the same way that smart phones killed of mp3 players and cameras for a lot of people. Why by a single purpose device when you can get many more features for a little bit more money?
Perhaps. I use my phone as a camera if it's all I have with me. But when I know I want take pictures when I go somewhere I'll take my Canon 40D, or even one of my smaller point an shoots. Any of those are going to give me a far superior picture compared to a phone camera. But when I see people taking pictures of something 50+ feet away using the flash on their phone, I suppose they really don't care about the quality of the picture.
I travel somewhat frequently and rarely use my phone to listen to music. I don't like it when I land and don't have enough battery power to make call. I'd like to be able to do this as I could stop carrying my mp3 player. But I don't care for the interface on my phone for music and It's pretty rare that the battery dies on my mp3 player before I land.
If ereader users are the hardcore traditionalists now, what do you call those of us who still like to read on paper?
I have a couple of both.
You're right, an e-reader of the simple sort is better than a tablet for reading in a number of ways. Epaper (are we still calling it that?) is easier to read, assuming you have a light source in or near the reader. Managing the device is obviously simple... updates are pretty rare. Battery life far exceeds a tablet. They're usually much more compact. They're simple to operate and they're less expensive.
That said, I rarely use mine anymore. It's just simpler to carry around the tablet that will do whatever I want. And they've come down in price now so much that some are pretty competitively priced, compared to an ereader.
So yeah, I think tablets will all but kill the reader market. As with most tech the readers won't go away entirely. At least not for a good, long while.
We're hideously antiquated, old bean.
*adjusts monocle and top hat*
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Apple shares are took a beating because of a massive slump in ipods [Now they are just simply dropping], which are being replaced with modern smartphones, and I believe those usurped the cd-players, and tape players that were so universal.So the answer is often Yes
Maybe the people who wanted an e-book reader (typically the technically minded with a great love for books) already have one?
Tablets have gone through significant upgrades, but e-book readers are very damn similar today than they were 2 years ago. They still have predominantly black and white e-ink screens of roughly the same size. They still are incredibly thin. They still have a battery life of about a month or so. There's no fast paced upgrade cycle like there is with tablets or phones.
Everyone I know with an original iPad has ditched it for the iPad 2 or the iPad !3. Yet everyone I know who bought an ebook reader more than a year ago still has that ebook reader and has no intention of upgrading.
Am I missing something? The 6th generation Kindle Wi-Fi looks very similar to the 4th gen models of yesteryear. It's hard to take the marketing of it being lighter than previous models seriously when they were already lighter than paperback novels to begin with. And as for the touch experiment, why the hell would you want touch on a Kindle? I actually know people who went out of their way not to get the Kindle touch.
I really want a large screen e-ink display for reading at work, led/lcd screens are really inferior to paper whereas e-ink screen is less so. This would be in additon to my exiting screen. The current crop of tablets really such for reading a novel or event short papers.
I have both (Kindle and Nexus 7) too. If I had bought the tablet first, I wouldn't haven't bought the Kindle. While reading text on the Kindle IS nicer than on the tablet, reading PDFs on the Kindle is a nightmare -- the page renders are slow and hard to make out, and moving around on a page isn't exactly a breeze. A PDF on the tablet is totally straightforward and renders perfectly.
What would be interesting however, would be a tablet with an Epaper touch display. Most of my beef with the Kindle is that for PDF applications, it is slow and clunky. Take that away by giving the device some processing power and a good resolution, plus the ability to run other apps, and the only downside to Epaper would be a lack of color. In other words, an Android tablet with an Epaper display might be interesting -- not for games -- but for reading the web, books, documents, emails, and stuff like that.
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
Leatherman killed the tool market when it came out. Why buy a single-purpose tool when you can get many more features for a little bit more money?
Sometimes having something that *doesn't* slice, dice, and julienne fries is the better choice. I mean, sure, I could do many small repairs using just a leatherman, but a nice set of wrenches and drivers makes working on my bike *much* nicer. Or how about crescent wrenches (or shifting spanners, as the case may be)? You can handle all variety of nuts, bolts, and fittings. SAE, metric, square, hex? All are open to you. Yet anyone who spends much time working on mechanical things knows that a crescent wrench, while convenient, is often vastly inferior to a good set of wrenches.
When I'm out on a ride, I carry a small multitool that *does* do a bunch of things in one small, inexpensive, unobtrusive package, just as when I'm out and about, I can get some reading done on my Nexus 7. The Nexus 7 is convenient, but if I ever broke my e-ink Kindle, I'd have a replacement ordered that very day. E-ink readers are basically designed to fill the niche of "electronic trade paperback for avid readers". They fill that niche exceedingly well, and avid readers are a renewable resource.
My local iFan ended up using an e-ink reader. She likes it a lot better. It is smaller, better suited to reading, and has killer battery life.
She started out with an iPad.
It's a bogus question probably written from the point of view from some fanboy ninny that things that "Apple is inevitable".
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
eReaders are dirt cheap. They can probably be considered a loss leader. They're there to enable the sale of content. They are the proverbial razor handle. They will likely never go away because of this.
They simply don't need to compete as an independent product.
So market forces likely won't cause them to go away.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
So maybe the right answer is a tablet... with an Epaper screen on the back.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Read on paper? Insane tree murderer!
...they can invent a full-color passive display that can match the screen update speeds of existing active color displays, and is perfectly scalable to at least tablet screen sizes.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
The problem with E-readers is that there seems to be very little MUST-UPGRADE-NOW mentality in the users. There is no real reason for me to buy the latest-and-greatest E-ink reader when my current device works just fine.
Compare this to a smartphone/computer/tablet. Most people I know wait for their contract to expire and get a new "free" phone immediately. I know people who get new laptops every 3-4 years. Both from a hardware and software point of view, upgrading offers significant benefits for these devices (I can't personally speak about tablets, having never owned one). For some devices, the software upgrades aren't available on older devices (either due to a hardware limitation, or to get people to upgrade their devices).
I bought a Kindle DX soon after it was launched, and I have a smartphone. The collections "feature" was the latest good update I recollect for my Kindle. Sure, it might be nice to have lighting on the device, but I can just get a clip on light if I really want to. My Kindle DX is a device I use regularly, but unless they make great software improvements in handling PDF documents/improved page refresh, I don't see any reason to upgrade (especially since I don't really care for a smaller E-reader).
My phone on the other hand runs Gingerbread (flashed my own ROM), and I don't think it can support the latest Android OS. It doesn't have two cameras, or the best sound, or the fastest hardware. So I clearly see the benefit of upgrading to a new phone.
E-readers seem to be like toasters/microwaves - if it works, I'm not going to buy a new one. They are, in a way, dull devices. A tablet/smartphone is like a car. Sure, last year's model might be sufficient, but this year's model gives some improvements that (while not central to what I want a phone for) make it feel that upgrading is worth it.
My Mother-in-law is approaching a point where we may have to look at an ebook-type solution for her because of her macular degeneration, since the type could be scaled up. She wouldn't be interested in a device that has to be plugged in every night.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
But why a tablet in the first place? I don't honestly know many people who have them, and those that do have them are the sort of people who always buy something new merely because it's new (they have desktop computer, laptop(s), tablet, ereader, and more than one smartphone).
Because they can be got for $90-150 plus tax, delivered? And hold thousands of books, magazines, reference documents, play games, browse the Internet, provide video chat, play Netflix, work with Office documents and such, have an accessible library of 600,000 apps - most free? For $90?
It's not like the price is a huge barrier to entry. You can get a pretty decent Android tablet for under $150 now. Go ahead: treat yourself.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
And my E-book reader can go two weeks (of heavy usage) on a charge (you don't even need to turn it off!
I killed da wabbit -Elmer Fudd
I have a pretty good experience with PDFs on my Kindle. I'm reading a book in PDF right now and I didn't notice any problems with rendering speed. The text is easy to read, as usual.
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And my E-book reader can go two weeks (of heavy usage) on a charge (you don't even need to turn it off!
It's not a useful metric. A paper book can go even longer without a charge. What does that prove? If a tablet lasts whole day of regular use, who would lose sleep over the need to drop it into the cradle for the night? Most tablets, as designed and as used, last several days.
I have a pretty good experience with PDFs on my Kindle. I'm reading a book in PDF right now and I didn't notice any problems with rendering speed. The text is easy to read, as usual.
Some PDF's are just images (usually jpegs) of pages, those are slow as hell on Kindles. PDF's that are text, not images are a lot faster.
Be seeing you...
I have a Kindle Paperwhite. Before that, I had a Nook and a Kindle Touch. Before that, I had a first-gen iPad. Way before that, I had a Compaq iPAQ on which I once read Dracula, so I'm counting it here.
Reading ebooks on the dedicated eReaders is superior to a first-gen iPad (and the iPAQ, natch). However, I recently got a new (retina) iPad, and, well...in some ways it's better than the Kindle. Despite the lighting and battery issues, the iPad has clearer text. This is a combination of vastly superior contrast, perfect screen refreshes, higher DPI, and a more even backlight. It also switches pages faster than a Kindle, and thanks to the perfect refresh, it never has text artifacts (you can enable this in the Kindle, too, but the screen flickers black every page turn and it eats up battery faster).
The Kindle, though, still has some advantages. You don't need to look at it straight-on; it's clear from any angle. Its battery lasts longer, though I find I still need to recharge every 7-10 days. There's less eyestrain--but I think a better way to describe that is it's slightly easier for me to focus on the text than it is on an LCD. The device weighs less, and I can easily hold it in my hand (I could probably do this with an iPad mini or a 7" tablet). You can read it in direct sunlight--in fact, it looks better this way!
The point to all this is that tablets have made strides in the eReader field. They used to suck, but they've gotten quite a bit better. I wouldn't be surprised if they supplant the dedicated readers altogether at some point. They're good enough for most people. I think the ideal situation would be an LCD/eInk hybrid screen, an idea that has seen something of a resurgence of late.
If you can't convince them, convict them.
I charged my kindle a few weeks ago; and read for about 4 hours last night and most nights previous. That's not abnormal for it, I've gone a month or more without charging it when I was only able to find a few series in paper form. Just got about 30 free books from amazon yesterday, so I might have to charge it next week some time.
Frankly, I've tried reading on my phone, and the backlit display just doesn't help my already bad eyes. I can get by with it when I have to, but the paper-like display of a non-lit e-ink reflecting light from a nice warm LED bulb is just more comfortable.
That's a good example as to how eink is pricing itself out of a market. It's taken years of being difficult to get hold of a non-kindle eink device and now LCD tablets have taken the niche that could have been filled with cheap eink devices four or five years ago.
you can hold a laptop computer in the palm of your hand, and read a book on your phone's 4" screen?
Until tablets come out with a display that can be as easy on the eyes and a battery that lasts 2 months, I don't think I'll be ditching my e-reader.
If you travel though, it's one less charger to bring.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323339704578173173413977046.html Its a phone with two screens one with e-ink the other lcd. Its...interesting.
This is why I think E-Readers are doomed. My family and friends that like books like more than the LOOK of the book, they like the feel, they like the smell, they like being able to just chunk it around, dog ear a page, etc. Whereas those that like digital devices will naturally like something that can read AND surf AND check their email AND watch videos.
If the price of E-Ink had dropped a LOT faster, if they would have come up with even 16 bit color, then maybe E-Readers would have some life left, but when you can get a 1.2Ghz Cortex A8 tablet with ICS for $80-$100? Well its obvious to me which one is gonna be the winner. Mark my words, tablets with dual core CPUs for less than $60 this time next year for a 7 inch, which will be the final nail in the coffin.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
#1 market for e-Ink readers: beach books. iPads are barely usable at max brightness in the shade - no chance against the sun. Tropical noon makes an e-Ink device look better
But it IS a good metric. The main reason I bought an kindle is because of its battery life. When I travel, I don't always get a chance to "drop it into the cradle for the night" Besides, how many times have you forgot to do that? And then you had nothing the next day?
My counterpoint to this is simply the bulk; I love my Kindle Keyboard that I've had for about two years now because I travel a lot... both personally and business. Carrying books around in a carry-on is a pain and as my girlfriend discovered when we returned from Ireland two years ago having a large number of books really confuses TSA agents. I wish I were kidding!
Now having said that, there is an argument here that a tablet would be even better still since it can do so much and is really small. I would agree with that except that I have an iPad and have had a few Android tablets. Honestly; the form factor sucks for reading anything but magazine-style stuff. Actual books; the Kindle is FAR superior. The iPad I have to hold in both hands and because of its weight have to hold it with something supporting my arm to be comfortable. The Kindle is so light and compact that I can hold it in one hand and still turn pages back and forth with my thumb. It's also dead-easy to bookmark ("dog-ear") a page at any point and even sync those bookmarks and your current read page to the "cloud" so when (if) you do fire up the Kindle app on your phone, iPad or whatever you can continue where you left off, or open a specific bookmark.
The Nexus 7 and iPad Mini are better form factors for reading, but you still have the issue of weight. Also, you can't turn the page with one hand... you have to use the rather retarded "page swipe" or call up an onscreen menu and click a button. This puts you back in a two-handed mode which is rather uncomfortable for long periods of time.
This year my vacation for myself and my son was to a beach. Having the Kindle to kick back on the sand and read a book while my son had a blast in the sand and sea was a godsend. I did try the iPad briefly on the first day and hated trying to ignore reflections, peer at the relatively dimly lit screen etc.
Have tablets impacted sales of eReaders? Yes... and they will continue to do so. Will they supplant them? Of that I am far less sure; my Kindle is also incredibly handy for technical documentation and a friend of mine uses his for carrying around maintenance documents for some of the steel cutting and bending machinery as well as CNC machines he works on. He tried an Android tablet and in that manufacturing environment the screen was broken in about three days. The Kindle... OK he's on his third because of breakage but with a good case they last one hell of a lot longer than the tablet. That and the battery life; you use an iPad as an eReader and the battery life is not great... the Kindle he just throws it on a charger occasionally. For him it's a huge improvement on the old way of going to find the maintenance books (which are huge!) before working on one of them. Maybe eReaders are a bit of a niche product... but they always were. But I don't think it's a niche that's going away.
I for one will buy another similar Kindle if/when I kill or lose the one I have.
That's very true... but as a general rule I'd say you're an exception. The vast majority of people who buy an eReader also use the store that it's tied to. Same with tablets; particularly with Android tablets it's relatively trivial to side-load free apps but the majority of people who buy them use the apps they can buy.
I have a lot of free content on my Kindle as well, but I also spend a decent amount at Amazon every month (including an Audible subscription) because sometimes I just get a hankering to read something specific while sitting at the gate at an airport.