Lackluster UK sales of e-readers and book downloads

Peter Kilborn | 02/01/2010

I wasn’t able to get to the Publishers Association’s digital seminar this week, colourfully but rather puzzlingly entitled ‘Blue Skies and White Clouds’, but reports suggest that clouds – not necessarily only white – continue to stand in the way of unimpeded digital sunshine.

All the big names were there – the top publishers’ digital directors, Google, Sony, Adobe, and an audience which outgrew the originally planned venue – and the conference focussed on the usual problem areas which are part of the Publishers Association’s core activity - interoperability, DRM and accessibility, and piracy – without reaching any easy answers. From the reports – and I wasn’t there myself – it does sound as if the emphasis was on the bad news rather than the expectation that digital is going to be good for publishers.

The problems may come later but one hopes that they will be problems associated with success. First, the industry desperately needs a market for e-books and robust channels for supplying them. Publishers have invested heavily in digital infrastructures and in the digitisation of backlists – largely on the unproven assumption that there will be payback at some stage, but not any time soon - and the emergence of a genuine and sustainable market is critically needed.

We can’t complain about a shortage of e-reading devices any more. Indeed it’s arguable that a glut of dedicated e-readers is harming the market rather than helping it, causing confusion and cost to consumers, and certainly not showing any signs of driving prices down. Many of them, though, are not available or operable in the UK where, to make matters worse, there are few obvious retail channels for acquiring them. And all that is before we consider multifunctional devices such as smartphones or PCs.

There is, though, little evidence coming from the UK of any breakthrough in sales of digital content. They are growing undoubtedly, but from such a low base as to be meaningless. The absence of statistics from device manufacturers, retailers and publishers itself points to an unflattering picture of digital consumption.

All hopes seem to be pinned on Apple and the long awaited announcement of the iPad. First reactions are that this will go down well with the many Apple fans out there and its bookish relationship with the iconic iTunes store will do no harm at all. However, there is some doubt as to what this product actually is: a tablet PC or a reading device. It may just be another reinforcement of the view held by many, including me, that multifunctional devices are the real future of e-reading. There may not be an iPod moment for e-books, but the increasing availability of textual material on a wide variety of different devices may in the end become some sort of tipping point.

Meanwhile the iPad has no immediate UK availability or price…

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