Asus are ready to shake up the eReader market by releasing the Asus Eee eReader by end of this year.
Monica Chen and Joseph Tsai at DigiTimes got confirmation from ASUS president Jerry Shen and some details -
requirements for entering the e-book reader market are even lower than for netbooks.
key to success lies in establishing a content delivery platform.
demand for e-book readers is mainly concentrated in North America and Europe.
they are conservative about the business potential of e-book readers.
That certainly sounds like someone who has done a fair amount of thinking about eReaders.
What would an Asus Eee eBook Reader bring to the table?
Asus are currently #2 in the netbook market, and actually kick-started it with their EeePC. Their experience with netbooks includes -
- Completely changing the value for money ratio in personal computers.
- Making huge enhancements to battery life – 9+ hrs battery life even with LCD screens.
- Constantly enhancing and improving their netbooks.
- Scaling up sales drastically – Netbooks are on track to sell 33 million units this year. It was between .5 million and 2 million sales in 2007 (the first year).
The things that would probably translate to the eReader market are -
- Lower prices. We would definitely hit the $150 price point early i.e. by mid 2010 or earlier.
- Much faster iterations of product updates. Currently, the netbook market sees a new generation of netbooks every 6 to 9 months.
- Some important improvements in screens i.e. if Asus can get a 10″ LCD screen to last 9 to 10 hrs, what could they do with eInk screens? More importantly, what could they do with LCD screens on 6″ devices?
If an Asus Eee eReader shows up, can Acer, Samsung and MSI be far behind?
Well, we already know the Samsung eReader SNE-50K is out in Korea. Its only a matter of time before it goes worldwide.
Digitimes (in the Asus Eee eReader article) mentions rumors of MSI considering the eReader market -
Micro-Star International (MSI) is also evaluating the e-book reader market, according to industry sources.
Acer might be considering eReaders too. Plus it has experience of jumping into a market that someone else (i.e. Asus with Eee PC) started and stealing the #1 spot. If it were to decide to enter the eReader market it would present a bigger threat than Asus.
Especially since, much like Apple, it goes with a few exellent models, rather than confusing customers with 20 different options.
How much of a danger to Kindle is the Asus Eee eReader?
At the moment – not much. As Asus’ Chairman pointed out – the success will depend on establishing a content delivery platform.
What is much more of a scare is the fact that every new device is another avenue for Google and Barnes & Noble and other ebook companies to assault the Kindle and Kindle Store.
- Sony with its new readers has shown that eReaders will match, and perhaps at some point, exceed the Kindle as an eReader.
- There is no competitor to WhisperNet. However, the wireless companies are hungering for revenue sources.
- Google and Barnes & Noble are ramping up their content stores.
- The market is still young enough for a company to steal the Kindle’s #1 spot.
Amazon ought to be very worried about the tie-up of a best of breed eReader maker and a best of breed ebook seller via a non-greedy wireless company intelligent enough to see the opportunity.
Rather interestingly, what might dampen netbook companies’ appetites for eReaders is the mercurial growth of netbooks. For all its bluster about an Asus Eee eReader, Asus ought to be focused on a market that is poised to grow from 30 million netbook sales in 2009 to 40-50 million sales in 2010.
Filed under: eBook Reader Devices Tagged: | asus eee ereader, asus ereader
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