DigiTimes is reporting that 1.35 million ereaders shipped to the global market in 2Q10, and that this is 33.2% fewer than the projected 2.02 million units [I presume the projection mention is by DigiTimes, itself]. This is because, they say, that shipments of new models were delayed ’till the third quarter, China Mobile Communications subsidized sales were lower than expected and volume of SiPix’s epaper shipments were delayed.
The article goes on to say that Barnes & Noble was in first place in Q2 with a 33% share, as opposed to Amazon’s 27%. However, they say that Amazon’s “new product” will put them in the lead again.
More info int he article.
B&N overtaking Amazon for the quarter? That seems almost impossible to believe, and is HUGE news, no?
It doesn’t take a genius to see that the iPad is the cause of the lowwer than predicted eReader sales. I see there are rumours of a Kindly 3. Imho though I believe there is a big future for eReaders as against the iPad, the speed of development of the Kindle is disappointingly slow and the price is still not right. The screen size to device size ration is still too low and Amazon needs to cross subsidise the price with book pre-purchases as the Telecoms do with mobile phones
Uh, it seems Digitimes was right.
New Kindle announced today and it’s a doozy:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703940904575395433036454208.html
Shasta Kindle is WiFi-only at $139. Pearl screen and grafite color shell.
3G+WiFi stays at $189 with the new screen and gray shell.
A better look at the K3 via engadget:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/28/new-amazon-kindle-announced-139-wifi-only-version-and-189-3g/
The 4-way rocker ring is a great move forward.
Available world-wide on August 27.
Let the whining/whinging on the price begin! 😉