Marketing Pilgrim believe that this is the year for eReaders to make the transition from early adopter’s toys to widespread acceptance:
“We’ve covered the Kindle here a couple times, but I’m willing to bet most of you don’t have one. Sometimes we like to think that means that eReaders and eBooks are nonstarters. But according to new research from Forrester, that’s just not the case.“
The article makes the very valid point that this isn’t about a format war – that books and eBooks can co-exist side by side, in much the same way that cinema, television and radio do.
Yet I’m not convinced. As a red-blooded British male, I love my toys and gadgets work tools, as do many of my friends. But I don’t yet know a single person who has any sort of eReader. And here in the UK, we can’t even buy a Kindle from Amazon.
I can buy Sony’s Reader and Hanlin’s (who?) eReader, and I can even buy a Classic Leather Case Cover for the Kindle that I can’t own. But no actual Kindle.
But let’s assume that the Kindle becomes available here in the UK sometime soon. Let’s also assume that the early adopters dive onto it (I know I will), and that in a number of months, they go from early adopter items to the mainstream.
At that point, your company is looking at a great new marketing opportunity.
For some software applications, a manual or user-guide installed on an eReader might make good sense.
And if you start making your existing free content (white papers, PDFs, guides etc.) available for installation on an eReader, you can guarantee that you’ll get more downloads and views. At least initially. Once the trend really takes off, every one of your competition will be doing the same thing, and your potential customers won’t be actively looking for free and useful content to pass their commuting hours.
If Marketing Pilgrim are correct, then now might be a good time to start looking at formats. The early adopters will ride the top of the wave.
eReaders, eBooks Poised to Grow
