Kindle USA market share

[Richwood]

I ran across this on the Wikipedia Kobo entry. The latest info I have seen.

"As of August 2018, Amazon's Kindle e-reader had an 83.6% share of the U.S. e-reader market while Kobo had a 13.4% share. Data was not yet available as to how the Walmart deal had begun to affect market share.[40] In June 2019, the Walmart website listed four Kobo models, the Clara, Aura H2O, the conventional Aura and the 8-inch Forma model."

This leaves a whole 3% for B&N Nook and all other current Ebook readers in the USA market. Makes me wonder how much longer B&N will remain in the market. Also unless you are a bit of a Ebook reader hacker whether or not purchasing anything other than a Kindle or Kobo reader makes much sense if you are in the USA. No idea of how other brands are doing in Europe and the rest of the world. Per Amazon and ebay there are a lot of them out there.

BTW I personally own readers from Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Sony Ectaco and Aluratek.

[JSWolf]

The numbers are meaningless as they are not up-to-date.

[Richwood]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The numbers are meaningless as they are not up-to-date.

May be but the latest info I could find and with the current Coronavirus mess who knows what has happened to the ereader market. Also has Walmart listing the Kobo helped sales, unknown at least to me. They seem to be carried in few of their stores.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Richwood

May be but the latest info I could find and with the current Coronavirus mess who knows what has happened to the ereader market. Also has Walmart listing the Kobo helped sales, unknown at least to me. They seem to be carried in few of their stores.

We know that the Forma sold out not that long ago. There's stock now.

So I would say that having Kobo at Walmart may have helped sales. It means people can get a Kobo at a local store. May have to order it to be picked up, but that's better then having to get it from Canada. Some prefer to have a B&M shop behind their purchase.

[Quoth]

All Kobo models are sold out in the UK Sainsbury owned Argos stores in Ireland.
A couple of other places had them briefly.
The Kindle is far more available even online and of course on Amazon search for eReaders or even kobo brings up Kindle.
Tesco sold Kindle here for a while, no longer. Still in Argos Ireland, though only the adverts versions.

I'd guess that in UK, Ireland and USA the Kindle might be 90% of sales now?
People even call my Kobo a "Kindle"!

[stumped]

Originally Posted by Quoth

All Kobo models are sold out in the UK Sainsbury owned Argos stores in Ireland.
A couple of other places had them briefly.
The Kindle is far more available even online and of course on Amazon search for eReaders or even kobo brings up Kindle.
Tesco sold Kindle here for a while, no longer. Still in Argos Ireland, though only the adverts versions.

I'd guess that in UK, Ireland and USA the Kindle might be 90% of sales now?
People even call my Kobo a "Kindle"!

john Lewis still has the Libra
Colour Black
Product price
£149.99

Currently in stock online

strangely, the forma, though out of stock, is showing at £199. I paid John Lewis £239 for mine, not that long ago.
maybe thay had a brief sale & sold out, or maybe they are about to discontinue them. - JL is having a hard time nowadays so if the margin on Kobo is poor, they may be rationalising ?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

All Kobo models are sold out in the UK Sainsbury owned Argos stores in Ireland.
A couple of other places had them briefly.
The Kindle is far more available even online and of course on Amazon search for eReaders or even kobo brings up Kindle.
Tesco sold Kindle here for a while, no longer. Still in Argos Ireland, though only the adverts versions.

I'd guess that in UK, Ireland and USA the Kindle might be 90% of sales now?
People even call my Kobo a "Kindle"!

Back when I was using Sony Readers, I would get a lot more people asking about then I do now. If anyone would mention Kindle, I would correct.

[Quoth]

When I first read about the Sony ereader the Kindle didn't exist.
MUCH later when I saw one in real life in a Dublin (Ireland) shopping centre I'd have bought it, but couldn't afford it. The Kindle STILL didn't exist.
It's a shame that the success of an ereader seems tied to having a massively successful online bookstore. Sony ereaders are long gone. The PRS350 I was given more recently as a present is still excellent.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

When I first read about the Sony ereader the Kindle didn't exist.
MUCH later when I saw one in real life in a Dublin (Ireland) shopping centre I'd have bought it, but couldn't afford it. The Kindle STILL didn't exist.
It's a shame that the success of an ereader seems tied to having a massively successful online bookstore. Sony ereaders are long gone. The PRS350 I was given more recently as a present is still excellent.

Think about it. You buy eBook(s) and then sync and there they are. No plugging in. No downloading to the computer. None of that. A lot of people like that. You go on vacation and decide to buy an eBook, you don't need to have a computer. You just download and you are good to go. So yes, I can see why a good bookstore helps sell Readers. This is a very good reason why you see very few Readers outside of Kobo, Kindle, and nook in the US.

[Quoth]

I can do it with my phone, but then I first had a computer before IBM brought out the PC and I first had a "smart phone" in January 2000. So I know my phone just happens to be called a phone and able to do phone calls and SMS via the mobile network, but it's really a pocket PC where the physical keyboard is optional.

MS had a watch once.
Then Plays for Sure, then Groove. All gone.

I've lost track of what Google and Yahoo have closed.
My Nokia phone had widgets once and then Nokia killed them to have the pointless Ovi store, pointless because people already could get more apps elsewhere.

The "Cloud" and Internet only benefits the dominant player, hence Google Search, Google's Youtube, Google's Android is well over 80%, Zukerberg owned social media, Wikipedia and MASSIVE Amazon.

The logical result of people using the "convenience" of Amazon and lack of regulation / proprietary format is that there will only be Amazon and the Kindle. Then one day to save costs they might not bother with eink. They did call the Fire (a locked down Android Tablet) a Kindle Fire.

As I said, it's a shame and it's why with unbridled capitalism with no consumer protection you end up with a dystopian cartel of megacorps.

[stumped]

Originally Posted by Quoth

As I said, it's a shame and it's why with unbridled capitalism with no consumer protection you end up with a dystopian cartel of megacorps.

it's darkly amusing that books, movies about dystopias are a best-selling genre for the dystopian cartels

modern day bread & circuses