Which Platform is Winning the eBook War?
Which Platform is Winning the eBook War?
Posted 08/24/2010 at 4:09am
| by Paul Lilly
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Back in early June, Steve Jobs went on stage and made a bold claim about the iPad. According to Jobs, "in the first 65 days, users have downloaded over 5 million books," equating to about two and a half books per iPad. By his numbers, that put the iBooks market share of ebooks from five or six major publishers to 22 percent in just 8 weeks time, an impressive feat, if it was true.
Jobs may very well be right, but if he is, not all authors are seeing those same kind of numbers. Mystery author J.A. Konrath, for example, is one of the few authors who publishes numbers on ebook sales, and according to his most recent blog post, Apple's iBooks platform doesn't hold a candle to Kindle.
"Publishers might be looking at enriched or enhanced ebooks as their new big-ticket items to replace hardcovers," Konrath writes. "But the major ebook retailer, Amazon, isn't set up for video. Kindle isn't even able to do color yet. That leaves Apple, and according to my numbers, Apple is a very small part of the ebook market. I sell 200 ebooks a day on Kindle. On iPad, I sell 100 a month."
That adds up to 6,000 ebooks through Kindle per month, versus 100 for the iBooks platform, or a 60-to-1 ratio. If his numbers are any indication of across the board performance, Jobs may need to invest in a new magical calculator.
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skywalkr2
August 24, 2010 at 11:18am
I've downloaded from both Kindle and Apple's book store. I just buy from the retailer who has the cheapest prices. As I imagine everyone would. They are both readible.
SuperSpy
August 24, 2010 at 9:44am
Doesn't the ipad have a kindle app from Amazon? Couldn't books sold to ipad owners via Amazon for use with the kindle app be getting counted as both an ipad ebook purchase and an Amazon ebook purchase?
Craig-g
August 24, 2010 at 6:29pm
Probably not. I'm guessing Amazon wouldn't be sharing those figures with Jobs.
iftegod
August 24, 2010 at 9:15am
This seems to me that the bulk of the ebook downloads are from the Public Domain. Why wouldn't you download a few hundred free ebooks, especially in this economy.
Silver925
August 24, 2010 at 8:51am
It doesn't matter if his numbers are based on facts or arrived at using logic or some form of realistic measure.
It sounded good when he was on stage, and I'm sure the investors ate it up. Jobs seems well versed in fabricating things that soudn GREAT, but are not based in complete (or any) fact.
Craig-g
August 24, 2010 at 6:33pm
Note Jobs said downloaded, not bought. The iPad bookstore is not yet active in Australia, but I've still downloaded two books. The free winnie book and the ipad manual. He probably counts those as well.
Elric
August 24, 2010 at 7:55am
Pirated ePUBs. Same as it ever was.
The whole eBook thing is retarded. This is a technology no one really wants/needs, IMHO.
Craig-g
August 24, 2010 at 6:46pm
I'm an academic librarian with a dual IT degree. My librarian side says I'm supposed to be pro-book. But my IT side loves tech (as do most librarians, more and more of our collection is online). I bought a kindle with the aim being to use it for free books and checking out new authors I wouldn't normally buy. I now use it almost exclusively to purchase and read novels. I can also see see several kindles sitting on desks from here and one iPad which I know is mainly used to read kindle books and browse the web during meetings.
My point is there is a market for this technology:)
jgrimoldy
August 24, 2010 at 10:26am
I used to think so too...
Then I got my wife a Kindle DX. These things satisfy a unique niche.
If you try to compare a Kindle to a laptop, tablet, or smartphone it will fail miserably. The two areas where a Kindle shines, though, are very hard to beat: Battery Life and Readability in bright light. The battery in the Kindle can last up to a couple of weeks between charges. Try reading from a smart phone sitting around the pool or at the beach mid-day.
eReaders are neat little toys. The Kindle DX is pricey as hell, but fun if someone else is paying.
jlh304
August 24, 2010 at 4:21am
It's just a math error like how the iphone determines signal strength. If you hold your ipad a certain way I’m sure the number of books sold increases…
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