2013 wasn’t a great year for e-readers. Sales of the
devices continued to decline and a study released in December found that 60% of the consumers who downloaded e-books
never read them. Michael Kozlowski, editor of the blog goodereader.com, is
predicting more of the same in 2014.
First, E Ink will start moving away from e-reader
technology. The e-reader business has been losing ground to tablet technology
for more than a year and Kozlowski wrote that expansion into the digital
signage market will be its next move.
The E Ink shift away from e-reader technology may be
helped along if Kozlowski is right about Barnes and Noble. He predicted that since
B&N makes more money on digital content sales, it will decide to give up on
the Nook. He also expects Sony to give up on its e-reading devices to focus
more on tablet and multimedia-based experiences.
He also predicted declines in both reading on tablet
devices and e-books in general.
Reading on tablets will decline because manufacturers
will move away from producing as many tablets in favor of more smartphones in
2014, which should produce more smartphone readers. Or maybe, with e-book sales
flat or in decline throughout 2013, people will just head back to hardcover and
paperback books.
“With the way things have gone in 2013 in the e-reader
and tablet sector, some people may be optimistic about the future,” Kozlowski
wrote. “I, for one, am not.”
