Why aren't PocketBook devices more popular?

[Mr Avid]

I picked up an Inkpad Lite recently and after spending some time with it, I have been thoroughly impressed with the software.

Maybe it is because I have more a niche use case, but I am blown away by how easy it was to get up and running and how well it works out of the box. I am really surprised that more people aren't talking about these.

There are so many great things about the software:

• Can be used without a login - There is nag at the beginning and whenever you update the firmware but otherwise it leaves you alone. In fact, you don't even need to connect it to a network if you don't want to.
• The interface is simple and uncluttered. There is little to no advertising to be seen.
• Library interface is fast and allows browsing by Author, Genre, Collection, Favorites, Folders, Formats and Series. This is better than anything else I have tried if you have a big collection of books.
• Built-in reader is very good and allows basic line spacing, basic margins, hyphenation, font, and some minor control of what is in the status bar.
• If you don't like it, it is easy to install koreader and use it as the default reader without any jailbreaking or hassles.
• All buttons are semi programmable
• Supports syncing with dropbox, adobe, and pocketbook
• Can set what is displayed when the device is powered off
• Supports dark mode
• When it is completely off, it only takes about 10 seconds to get in book. For comparison, my kindle Oasis 3 is about 5 seconds and the Boox Page is over 40 seconds.

There are also a few things I don't like:

• If you swap the order of the page buttons, the swapping only impacts book reading and not the UI. This means you need to remember it is reversed when browsing the library for example.
• The automatic light control is terrible. It makes it way too dark. If there is any material amount of ambient light it turns the light off.
• Oddly, my timezone isn't present in the list of timezones.

None of the cons are deal-breakers for me.

Unfortunately, I will be returning the device. The form factor is not right for me or the way I read. I thought I might like a bigger device but it ends up causing me too much strain on my hands and wrists. I think, realistically, I would need to read with something to support it but that isn't really how I read.

I may, however, try an Era if I can't come to terms with the Boox Page I am currently trying to make work for me.

[Scoob]

Another plus is that some devices take SD cards too. The button placement at the bottom of some devices is a little weird to me though but it's great they still have them.

[Sirtel]

Where exactly aren't they more popular? MobileRead? MR is an English-language forum; in English-speaking countries Amazon with its Kindles dominates the ebook/ereader market. And in Canada Kobo is popular because it's a Canadian company.

Pocketbook was an Ukrainian company and is now based in Switzerland, AFAIK, so it's not well known in English-speaking countries and often is not sold there.

[kacir]

If you look up old posts about PocketBook 301 and 360 from 15+ years ago you would see they had superior software even back then. It was super configurable and the company even sponsored competitions in writing software for it. It even had alternative UIs created during those sponsored competitions. They published developer toolkit and source code for their main reading app FBReader, so there was much improved version you could install. (They used open source to develop the app in the first place.) You could install new reading software and apps without hacking anything, just place it in an appropriate directory on reader. There was even ftpserver and linux terminal for it to help us with tinkering.
We are STILL reaping the benefits from that time. It was truly revolutionary company. After the company got successful they moved from Ukraine to Switzerland and slowly ceased encouraging tinkering.
They were never big in the USA, Amazon and other American companies were dominating there.