Busy days in the e-reader universe. Apple announced it has sold three million iPads (not strictly an e-reader) in the first 80 days the product was on the market. Both Amazon and Barnes & Noble have lowered prices on their electronic devices and Borders is throwing in a gift card with every purchase of its Kobo e-reader.
"It was obvious that the price of stand-alone e-readers had to come down," James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research, told The New York Times. "We just never thought it was going to happen this rapidly."
Conversations RetailWire has had around these announcements have been of the glass half-full and half-empty variety.
The position of those positive about the developments suggest that lower prices will democratize the e-reader universe and bring more of the public into the market. The real money, they say, is not in the sale of the devices but the e-books that follow.
Those with a more negative take say all the price cutting in the wake of iPad's impressive beginning is a sign that most of the e-readers on the market are ready to go the way of the dodo bird.
Jason Perlow, writing the Tech Broiler blog on ZDNet, points out that Amazon's Kindle started out selling for $399 a few years back. By Mr. Perlow's estimate, retailers may still be making money at the new lower prices (he puts manufacturing costs at between $90 and $125 per device), but just how low will they be willing to go?
William Lynch, chief executive of Barnes & Noble, told the Times that he can see e-readers going for under $100 within a year. "I don't see more than two, or maybe three dedicated reading companies in the market for selling e-books. I think you are starting to see a shake-out now."
Discussion Questions: Is the e-reader market ready for a shakeout? What do you see as the future of the market?