Though the e-book phenomenon is now taking off around the world, Chinese e-reader sales actually fell 5.1 percent, according to Analysys International’s Enfodesk.
The fall is blamed on problems at market-leading e-reader maker Hanvon, whose own sales dropped “because of insufficient content and internal system problems”, Analysys says, adding…
“In addition, the lack of content was hanging over the whole market which also caused the sales down. Manufacturers made less effort – they reduced the investment in marketing and promotion, which will reduce the trade volume to some extent.”
Though mobile is exploding in China, the e-reader market so far is relatively tiny for such a large country – compare the 295,200 devices sold in Q3 with the one million Kindles Amazon.com (NSDQ: AMZN) says it is selling weekly.
But this also suggests future head room for a growth opportunity for new entrants…
- Chinese e-commerce firm Dangdang is set to shake things up when it launches its own e-reader and e-book store this month.
- Amazon, which recently rebranded under its own name in China, is negotiating with the country’s government to release Kindle there, and wants to go it alone rather than partner.