Kindle

The hardware  
Amazon's website for Kindle Fire  
Barnes and Noble's website for the Nook  
 
 
   
Sales figures:  
Amazon doesn't release sales figures so the best we have are estimates:  
2007 - 189,000 units  
2008 - 380, 000 units  
2009 - 500,000 units (cumulatively about 1% of households)  
2010 - 2 million units  
2011 - 8 million units  
2012 - 7 million units (Note: the decline in sales!)  
by 2013 about 30% of all US adults owned an e-reader  
by 2015 about 19% of all US adults owned an e-reader  
   
   
Comparing the Kindle to other com tech devices first year sales:  
Nintendo Gameboy (1997) - 2.8 million  
Blackberry (1999) - 165,000  
iPod (2001) - 376,000  
iPhone (2007) - 5.4 million  
   
Competition from the Nook and other e-reader devices (ex. iPad)  
The Nook was launched in Dec. 2009  
Some industry estimates state that the Nook outsold the Kindle in March of 2010  
   
E- book sales  

Amazon 74%

 

Apple ibooks 11%

 

B&N Nook 8%

 
trending down since 2015-16!  
roughly 17.6% of all book sales (down from a high of 21.7 percent in 2015)  
In 2016 sales of hardcovers was greater than ebooks for the first time since 2011  
Print is not dead! (or is it the new vinyl?)  
What's driving this?  
E-book prices are rising faster than print prices  
Technology may be by-passing dedicated e-readers (smartphones account for about 18% of ebook reading!)  
   
For the Big 5 publishers, the share of the ebooks market is declining  
(Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, Penguin)  
They control 37% of the print book market, only 26% of the ebook market  

the rise of independent presses/authors

 
   
Who reads e-books?  
men/women about equal, 18-29 and 30-49 equal, $75,000+ largest group, college grad largest group  

What about the future (kids)?

 
   
Exclusivity  
Amazon offers some titles that won't be issued in print (ex. Stephen King's "Ur")  
   
   
Other issues:  
Skimming and scanning vs. deep reading  
http://blog.smu.edu/forum/2012/03/22/research-kindle-ing-interest-among-reluctant-readers/  
   
Technology and Schools  
E-Texts for Colleges  
Adult Coloring books (a bump for print sales)  
Subscription services? (ComTechUpdate)  

but, the proliferation of video subscription services is eating up $

 
International  
In the United Kingdom e-readers have declined in sales over the past two years, print sales are up slightly  
   
Tie-ins to theory  
Postman - what is lost? who benefits?  
Diffusion  
   
Tie-ins to the Bible  
Acts 17:11 Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.  
   
Master's thesis results  
Print readers read the Bible more than smartphone readers.  
Print readers are more likely to follow a reading plan.  
Smartphone readers are more likely to be disrupted and/or interrupted while reading  
Print readers and smartphone readers are just as likely to share verses with others.