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65,000 ebooks sold in Germany so far in 2009
August 31, 2009 | 2:57 pm
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By Paul Biba
I
s this a lot or a little? According to Publishing Perspectives nobody really knows:
The GfK (Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung), a market research and consumer insight agency, recently announced that 65,000 e-books were sold in Germany in the first half of 2009. Boersenblatt editor Michael Roesler-Graichen analyzes the significance of this figure, stating that most industry insiders are agnostic as to whether this should be seen as a success or a failure. The Google translation of the article is after the break.
The first GfK statistics of e-books for sale in the retail market has provoked a zweispältiges echo. 65,000 e-books in the first half – and this may really believe no industry participants. Which could have a signal that figure, analyzed financial newspaper editor Michael Roesler-Graichen in a comment.
There is nothing more precise than numbers. At least if they come out of the hands of statisticians, market and opinion researchers. »65 000 e-books sold in the first half? A success, “to maintain the one -” 65 000 E-Books? A disaster, “the others. Somewhere in the middle between half empty and half full glass you will meet in the industry. Whether the number of GfK’s really true, and whether they really would not be much higher, is initially of secondary importance. One can doubt rightly, that the GfK consumer panel has collected some sample explanatory power. And it would be an amazing coincidence if they cavort calculated under the selected panelists representing the “technical innovators,” market analyst for the vanguard of e-book keeping buyers (But if they have they?).
But no matter how reliable is the number now – it is nevertheless an indicator. It displays a scale that makes clear how microscopic the e-book market in Germany is now unclear. But he has opportunities to grow in the coming years to a noticeable segment of the consumer, booksellers and publishers feel real – even in the turnover statistics. Once there is a network of mobile, wireless readers, offering an attractive title and a functioning distribution infrastructure, we will have to do it in the German market with changed circumstances. This has nothing to do with media hype. It is only a beginning.
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Comments:
when one considers a. how few e-ink devices have been available in the german-speaking countries so far this year; b. how expensive they are this early in the product life-cycle; c. the current state of the economy; and d. how few german titles are available in e-editions, and e. the fact that the german-speaking population is itty-bitty when compared with the english-speaking population.. 65,000 starts sounding a little more impressive.
c’mon, fischer, insel, suhrkamp, dtv, rowohlt, and reclam! give us worldwide downloads of your titles — kindle editions, too! i don’t want to have to burn petroleum to get the latest books from across the pond into my hands. i want to read ‘stiller’ for a third time, but my paperback edition’s getting really tattered. i’d definitely buy an electronic copy. i want to read ‘zauberberg’, but it’s too big to carry around!