Apple’s growing share of the ebook market
There’s been a lot of excitement for Apple fans this week. With the release of the iPhone 4, Apple has garnered a lot of media attention in the tech world. But another story also got a lot of attention and scrutiny from Apple: CEO Steve Jobs’ assertion that because of the iPad, Apple has eaten up 22% of the ebook market.
That’s a very large chunk. When I see numbers that big I become skeptical. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t doubt that Apple is now cutting a large slice of the ebook market pie. Just how much, though, is up for debate.
According to a post by AppleInsider Apple grabs 22% share of the ebook market, Jobs gives some more details:
In the first 65 days, Jobs said users have downloaded more than 5 million books — amounting to 2.5 eBooks for every iPad sold and giving Apple a near-instant 22% slice of the eBook market. Five of the six largest publishers in the world are on board with iBooks, releasing content for the Apple-supported format.
The sixth large publisher to hold out is Random House. Why they are missing the opportunity to have their catalog of books available to iPad users is beyond me.
While Apple claims to have gained 22% of the ebook market, it’ll be interesting to see how long-term trends play out.
iBooks competing with Kindle, B&N and Stanza apps
There is one factor that makes analyzing Apple’s appearance on the ebook stage much more complicated. iPad users aren’t obligated to buy ebooks only from Apple. They can download free ebook reading apps from Amazon and Barnes & Noble, not to mention the very popular Stanza app (which is owned by Amazon). Users can buy ebooks from those respective retailers to download to their iPads.
If Apple was determined to take as much of the ebook market as possible, then they’d block out all other ebook apps on the iPad. But they haven’t. This tells me Apple isn’t so much worried about where users are buying their ebooks from, as long as they’re reading them on an Apple device.
Amazon and Barnes & Noble, Beware!
Because Amazon and Barnes & Noble sell both the ebook device and the ebooks, they probably have the most to lose from Apple. It has been widely reported that Amazon loses money on ebooks sales while making a profit from selling their Kindle. I’m assuming the same holds true for B&N.
The problem, as I see it, is that iPad users have so many more choices with regard to where they purchase their ebooks, they can afford to be selective. Users can buy ebooks from any number of ebook retailers based on price, availability and even how ebooks are rendered. It’s even being reported that Apple will start supporting PDFs, something stand-alone ebook readers still struggle with.
My guess is that to survive, Amazon and B&N will need to drastically lower the prices of their ebook devices to stay viable in the long term. As of this writing, both the Kindle 2 and Nook cost $259, a price that works okay now but won’t work in another year or two – especially as Apple drops the price on the iPad when a new generation comes out (like they do with the iPhone).
The good news in all this is that the price of ebook readers will only decrease as the technology improves and more players come onto the market. Great news for ebook fans!
I always still laugh, however, when I see Apple touting iBooks because it was only a few short years ago when Steve Jobs said Apple will never get into the ebook business because no one reads anymore.
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Read More: eBooks, Publishing News, Technology
