When Apple introduced the iPhone, it made other mobile phones look like GPO handsets. The smartphone was born. The way was clear for Apple to forge a considerable lead before the competition bounced back with the Google Android OS.
Apple’s lead with the iPad is not so dominant. The competition was quick to retaliate with Android tablets of their own, and lurking in the shadows were the e-readers like the Amazon Kindle and the Barnes and Noble Nook.
Whilst a lot of attention has been on the iPad it would appear that the more humble e-reader has been gaining ground. Research by Pew looked at take up in the States, and e-readers have increased rapidly over the past six months, from just 6% to 12% of adults owning e-readers today. In comparison 8% of adults have tablets.
There is a 3% overlap, so 17% of people have a device to read digital books. Lets assume the total market is about the size of that for MP3 players i.e. 44% of adults, then we begin to see the remarkable move from print and paper to screen. A shift that is rapidly gaining pace, with around 40% of potential users already committed.
In May Amazon announce that it now sells more e-books than paperback and hardback combined.
This month, John Locke was the first self publishing author to reach sales of 1 million digital copies, and his latest bestseller, is a self-help guide titled “How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months”
In the past few weeks the Waterstones book chain, was sold by HMV to Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut, however the indicated direction of travel is likely to be more coffee stores with books attached, rather than visa-versa.
We are living through a revolution for the printed page, every bit as big as Caxton’s printing press, but what has taken five hundred years to blossom could be all but gone in the next five.
