A tale of two displays

Sara Ver-Bruggen - 20 Sep 2011

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A tipping point has been reached in the sale of e-readers and their titles, as figures suggest digital book purchases are closer to those of hardbacks.

It is just over two years since tablets, in the form of Apple's iPad, entered the market. Since then, several recent studies indicate that the e-reader segment is looking robust.

Tablets - multimedia entertainment devices enabled for gaming, films and e-books - have seen increasing consumer take-up, but the e-reader market is also seeing exponential growth. The US still accounts for the largest share of the e-reader market, at over 70%.

This year as many as 14.7 million e-readers will have shipped, according to analyst firm IDC, which forecasts growth to 16.6 million units in 2012. Consumers will benefit from the option of colour as well as lighter, thinner and more rugged glass-free devices, and more functionality such as video speeds. All these improvements will allow e-readers to better serve more e-book formats, from comics to textbooks.

E-book sales

Tablet sales have helped to bring e-books to a wider customer base. Tapping into the initial success of e-reading, Apple promoted e-books as a central application for its iPad when it launched in early 2010

According to a study from the Association of American Publishers (APP), February 2011 was the first month that e-book sales topped all other formats, including paper and hardbacks.

That month e-book sales reached $90.3 million (€63.7 million), up 202% compared to the same month in 2010. This figure put e-books at number one among all categories of trade publishing in February. The figure for e-book sales in January and February 2011 as a result of this dramatic growth was $164.1 million, while the combined categories of print books had declined to $441.7 million.

This article appears in full in Volume 4, issue 1 of +Plastic Electronics magazine, a displays special. Sri Peruvemba of E-Ink talks about what these figures mean for the e-reader market, and discusses how tablets are challenging more established technology.
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