Apple finally disclosed some official iPad sales figures and here are the three figures that stood out -
- 1 million iPads had been sold by Friday. That’s almost as many as the number of articles written about the iPad (think about it before you dismiss the idea ;) ).
- 12 million apps were downloaded.
- 1.5 million eBooks were downloaded from the iBooks store.
It’d be nice to know some more details – especially the ratio between paid and free downloads.
Here are some interesting ways of looking at that data -
- In the first month, when users are most likely to make purchases, 1.5 books were downloaded per user per month. Not very promising – We don’t even know how many of the 1.5 million ebooks downloaded were paid books.
- Ratio of apps to books downloaded was 8:1. The notion that people are going to be doing lots of reading can be put to bed.
- The most hyped product in history sold 1 million units after 3+ months of publicity and 1.5 months of preorders and availability. Imagine how well it would have done if people could actually figure out what it’s for.
It just isn’t that impressive to sell 1 million iPads and get 1.5 million ebook downloads after the biggest launch of the year and 4 months of non-stop coverage. 1.5 million books downloaded in a month is hardly a threat to eReaders.
Perhaps the high prices (of the device and the books) are getting in the way of the iPad’s plans of eReader domination.
Speaking of price, Buy.com has the Sony Reader Pocket Edition for $140 with free shipping. That’s a pretty good deal (courtesy CNet).
Playing Devil’s Advocate
Let’s take the same numbers and paint the iPad as the future of the eReader -
- All 1.5 million of those ebook downloads were paid books. That’s 1.5 books a month and 18 books a year.
- Kindle for iPad and Kobo and other eReader Apps will add another 1.5 books a month – That’s another 18 books a year.
- This is just the beginning. By end of the year there will be 10 million iPads – each accounting for 36 book sales a year.
Perhaps we could go as far as claiming that people will actually read more books in later months than in their first month. Perhaps we start saying that not only will people buy books through eReader apps they will also buy individual book apps.
It’s pretty easy to twist the numbers.
People’s Reactions
Not many people are talking about books. Nearly everyone thinks we should consider the iPad a success now.
Let’s wait till end of the year – Especially when it comes to assessing impact (or lack thereof) on the sale of eReaders.
For Apple lovers Teleread has a pretty sobering comparison -
Engadget has reported that 1.5 million ebooks were downloaded to the iPad in the first 28 days after its introduction. Wow! the press says. “It shows that the iBookstore will rule the world”.
Not.
Feedbooks distributed 2.6 million books during the same period!!
The 8:1 apps to books ratio is equally interesting. People are greatly underestimating just how difficult it is to focus on reading when you have thousands of distractions.
Is any company as full of itself as Apple?
Here’s a paragraph from Apple’s Press Release (split and highlighted by yours truly) which highlights why it’s hard for me to like the company despite them having made the iPhone -
Apple ignited the personal computer revolution with the Apple II, then reinvented the personal computer with the Macintosh. Apple continues to lead the industry with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system, and iLife, iWork and professional applications.
Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store, has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.
This is the type of write-up professional resume writers probably dream of.
It reminds me of this billionaire in India who’s building an entire skyscraper (literally) as a house – Even after earning billions he still needs to have (and people to know he has) 3 floors of gardens and 2 swimming pools to feel good about himself.
Perhaps that’s what it is – perhaps Apple has a little bit of the nouveau riche thing going on. After all those years of losing to Microsoft they are delirious to be doing so well and can’t help releasing gaudy press releases and thrashing the very life out of words like magical and revolutionary.
Filed under: iSlate Apple Slate Tagged: | ipad reading, ipad vs ereader
Buy.com has the Sony Touch edition at a good price too — $254.99 –
http://www.buy.com/prod/sony-prs600sc-ebook-digital-reader-touch-edition-6-display-silver/q/loc/111/211584613.html
I’m finding that I’m spending most of my e-book reading time on the iPad — not at all what I expected. Why? Well, the battery life on my
Kindle 2 and DX absolutely suck, the Kindle 1 doesn’t receive Whispernet where I live, and the iPad isn’t really all that heavy. I am thinking of eBaying all the Kindle hardware and just using the iPad to read Amazon content. Best of both worlds.
Some other things that are going to skew your data:
* The iPad does not contain just ‘one reader’ like Kindle.app. My reading is diffused between Newsrack (RSS), Instapaper (flagged reads), GoodReader (PDF reader, like online mags at PragProg.com), and CloudReaders (PDF, comic book reader).
* The iPad is also a general internet device. Those folks can also do mail & web if they so choose.
* It’s also a general *media* device. It’s trivially easy to convert video content (say, from EyeTV, or movies from archive.org) and have enough to read and see whilst on an airline flight, even going over oceans. It’s even more trivial to have an App like AirVideo and spool from a PC or Mac to your iPad over your own WiFi network.
As Jim said, ‘it isn’t all that heavy’.. even tho Apple has devoted MOST of the weight to battery. Like a lot of users, I’m seeing 10 hours of life even with watching video footage.
When Amazon gets on the ball and ports the iPhone app to ‘Universal’ or ‘iPad’ version, that’s when you’ll see what the retention to Amazon’s solution (vis a vis the iPad hardware) really is.
I don’t know what Jim’s thinking. Kindle 2 battery life sucks? With 3G on, you can get a week between charges (and up to 2 weeks with wireless off), yet he wants to switch to a platform that gets 10 hours between charge? What?
But that said, I think we also need to look at Kindle App book sales on the iPad. I’ve seen a number of people saying that’s where they’re buying most of their books, on the grounds they can take those books to the PC or to a Kindle should they want a dedicated eReader later.
i’ve downloaded a ton of books to my ipad…..well sort of, they are all in my kindle app
i didn’t buy the ipad to be a kindle (my wife has one of those) but it is nice that the app works and i can read on it…
honestly anyone buying books on itunes when the same books are available cheaper on the kindle app …is well… and idiot!
Hello, I’ve got 2 (off-topic) proposition:
1. you should consider adding small graphics to each post, it’s very popular on other blogs. It’s both visually pleasent and it helps quickly determine what the post is about…
2. you should consider asking other people, as much interested in reading and (e-)books as yourself, to write guest-post here or even periodical-guest-posts… It’s a great blog to follow, but it would be even better if more people paticipted… Take a look at TechCrunch or even Gizmodo… both stared with a single blogger/writed/editor and now there are lots of writes working for the creators…
Good luck
thanks for the advice – it’s good advice. Can’t handle the images because my website is barely in the top 50% in terms of speed.
guest posts take a lot of effort. Will have to think about it.
You can also provide a way for people to send you news stuff directly for your purview or information.I came across an article this morning about One Book One City with Neil Gaimann and I thought of this blog…but there was nowhere to send it.
Although your love and bias for the written word is evident , pictures do tell 1000!
You can use free stock photo sites to pull relevant images. For some reason when online the human psyche is drawn to images.
This is an interesting blog indeed. I found the book I was reading in one of the Free Books of the month posts.
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it is almost as coolicious as the iPad ;-D
It’s been a while, but I could swear that Apple press releases talked like that about the company even back in the bad old days of System 7 and 8 when Mac was all but dead as a brand and they certainly had nothing else up their sleeves.
There’s an article today in the San Francisco Chronicle regarding the purchase of the iPad by eldery people who find the screen much easier to read than other such devices. Take a look at the article.
[...] i tanti commenti alla notizia suona piuttosto ironico quello riportato da iReader Review che sottolinea come gli iPad venduti siano praticamente pari al numero di articoli scritti prima [...]
I’m not sure that the number of books bought in the first month of ownership is the important metric; you probably need to wait a couple of months. There are two contrary trends in play.
First, the “wow” factor. I’ve got a new toy and need to fill it up. This would mean that the number of book purchases would be higher in the first month or so of ownership.
Second, the preperation factor. (Sorry, I don’t have a cool name for it.) I had hints that I woud be getting my Kindle for over a month. So prior to my getting my Kindle, I found a bunch of free books at PG and Baen, and loaded them into Calibre. I also read a few of them on my phone. But when I received my Kindle, I immediately attached it to my PC and downloaded about 150 books. I don’t think I bought more than one book on my Kindle for at least a month.
How these factors balance out between consumers is impossible for me to determine. It coud result in higher than long term sales, or lower than long term sales. So while the early data is interesting, it will be even more interestng to see how it plays out a year or so from now.
Also, new toys tend to get played with a lot, but the test of whether it really fits your lifestyle is in whether you’re still using it regularly months down the line. If the iPad is going to make an impact as an eReader, people are going to need to still be using it regularly in the long run.
just a note from a “serious” reader about what *I* intend in my e-reading future…(i suppose if anyone cares, it might be you…) i have always considered myself an *average* kind of person…well, maybe a bit toward high average…but i wont get carried away with that here…
i received a sony prs 600 for christmas…at this point, i have purchased 42 books from the sony ereader library, i have downloaded 6 instruction manuals (sewing machine, computer, sony reader, etc) in pdf format, 6 books from sources other than sony, and 4 magazines *weekly* using calibre…
i have used my sony so much that the silver coating on the “page forward” button has worn off…
i am ready for a new reader…and for my next e-reader purchase…
a. not another sony… the hardware is fantastic; i like the touch screen, i like the ability to draw sketches (i am a designer and i like the kewl “etch-a-sketch” thing for jotting down notes and ideas as i meet with clients…) but the selection of books is ***horrible***..and it is my experience that sony ereader library will not post bad reviews of books…i dont like censorship…additionally, customer support is “less than satisfactory”
b. not an iThing either…i want to read books…not play games or watch movies…additionally, their book selection is probably just as abysmal as the sony library…
c. possibly nook 2…depending on advancements in hardware/software…i was less than impressed with B&Ns inability to get the nook to market for the christmas season, and i am beginning to think that i desire a larger screen for reading…i am unsure that B&N has “worked the kinks out” of their product
d..which leaves me with amazon’s kindle (probably a DX model, especially if they introduce a DX2) as a “serious” reader, the selection of books is amazing, reviews are well written, and although there have been a few complaints about their customer service, i have read lots of good things as well..
but that is just *my* opinion….
thanks – this blog would have long been discarded if it weren’t for serious readers. your comment is much appreciated.