E Ink market drying up forever? Hardly, but PVI revenue dropped 30.7 percent in May. Kindle eBay bargains ahead?
The TeleBlog curse? Just yesterday I reminded people that the recession might slow down the demand for e-gizmos, and sure enough, we now learn that PVI’s May revenue declined 30.7 percent to $538 million from $777 million for April.
Digitimes reports "fast declining demand from China’s white box handset market, as well as weakened e-paper orders from the US." Guess which company supplies displays for both the Kindle and the Sony Reader?
More Kindle bargains ahead on eBay?
Could fears of an economic slowdown help explain why Kindle’s price dropped some $40 recently? Not sure. Main reason could simply be what Amazon says—namely, the manufacturing is more efficient now that the company’s suppliers have had a chance to ramp up.
Still, thanks to the recession, could we see oodles of bargain-priced Kindles soon on eBay? Maybe even from people who have yet to buy the machines? Demand appears to be strong now, but who knows where the economy is headed if the recession persists and spreads around. Whatever the reason, the eBay seller of the $275 machine wrote: "This price is a steal! I have to sell this quick- so BUY IT NOW! :)."
I don’t want to see homes foreclosed on, or cash-strapped people separated from their Kindles because they lost their jobs, but it could happen. For some lucky and savvy buyers, however, more affordable used Kindles could be good news.
Reminder: E Ink’s just part of E
The other possible good news is that e-books are about much more than E Ink. In fact, might the current economic slowdown help small e-publishers that give their customers lots of value with reasonably priced DRMless books that you can enjoy on a $70 refurbished PDA? Hard to say.
Good luck to all the players, big and small. One month doth not a permanent trend make. The optimists, as I see it, could still be right, even for 2008.
The R word and geography
Another interesting question is whether a prolonged recession—let’s hope it isn’t!—could lead some major publishing houses to move away from an expensive place like New York and focus more on E. Some agents have already left town. A little more on that and a related matter later today.
The public d
omain and CC angles
Yes, just as use of public libraries goes up in a recession, so might the downloading of public domain books (as well as the free Creative Commons variety). That’s one more argument for modification or repeal of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act and other anti-consumer legislation. Can anyone get presidential candidates to take a stand? Remember the Net’s increased importance as fund-raising turf.
The R word and the TeleRead angle
During the Great Depression, FDR started the Works Progress Administration, which employed writers. Might the next president consider the same? Long shot, long shot.
Meanwhile, however, think about readers, whom a TeleRead-style approach could help during a recession or depression—in terms of free, library-style access to books and other items.
It could happen for a speck of the cost of the Iraq War and help kickstart the e-publishing industry for real. Beyond the educational benefits, TeleRead is a way to reconcile the demand for freebies and the need for publishers and professional writers to get paid.
(Via MobileRead.)
June 11th, 2008 at 10:17 am
I agree it’s worth keeping in mind that PDAs still make pretty good readers. I’ve read a number of novels on my Palm III xi–which is a 1990s technology (gray scale, optional back-lighting, 8 MB of memory). The screen is significantly larger than an ordinary cellphone, making it work for reading. I prefer the even larger screen of the eBookWise (or Kindle or Sony) but even though I read more on my eBookWise since I got it, I still read on the Palm because it’s easy to throw in a pocket and have with me.
I’ll bet that if people are patient, they can get a decent used PDA for significantly less than $75 (or a larger-screen PDA like the NEC Mobilepro for about $75). The NEC, by the way, makes a really excellent reading device.
I agree that the current economic mess is a mixed bag for small publishing and for books in general. With more people being laid off and not having the money to drive around, they’ll have more time to read (and reading remains a very low-cost entertainment). And paper books will continue to rise in price (as will the cost of delivering books or the cost of driving to the bookstore to buy a book). I don’t see the net as being positive for reading overall. Reading is not, in economic terms, an ‘inferior good.’
Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForaBuck.com
June 11th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
>>>Yes, just as use of public libraries goes up in a recession
– and their budgets also get cut! Bloomberg wants to kill six-day service.
June 12th, 2008 at 4:00 am
A z22! Yay! I read on one of those cheap, tiny little things. The screen could be bigger, and a better battery life wouldn’t hurt, but overally I’m pretty happy with Mobipocket and eReader on there. I have yet to get Plucker working in a satisfactory way.
October 2nd, 2008 at 4:57 pm
households now owe 100% GDP - as much as the entire US economy can produce in a year
October 3rd, 2008 at 12:22 am
Get a Cheap Laptop.With Even Windows 95. Project Gutenberg & Baen & Christian Classics Ethereal Library = enough to read Forever, FREE. Add in a slightly later Windows that’ll suppurt Adobe Acrobat & you’ve enough to read Forever twice over, FREE.