TFT-readers are replaced by tablets and e-ink books

During the first three months of 2014 the volumes of sales of electronic books in Ukraine, including readers with TFT displays and electronic ink (e-ink), decreased by a third. The analytical agency Gfk Ukraine reported that in the January – March 2014 sales fell by 34% to 46,700 devices. In the monetary terms the market lost 32%, which is equivalent to USD 5.57 mn in Q1 2014.

Analysts at the IDC research company also mention the loss of consumers’ interest in e-books. According to their estimates, in January – March the supplies of e-ink readers dropped by 51% to 14,800 devices. Last year, the market share of the cheapest devices (priced at less than USD 100) has increased from 23% to 52%. The market share of devices priced at USD 100 – 150, on the contrary, fell by three times to 14%.

IDC has been observing reduced supplies of electronic books worldwide since 2011. Consumers’ interest shifted to tabs and pads. “Many people are satisfied with the same features in tablets, which are more multi-purpose devices”, says one of the company’s reports. Tablets and pads are the only category of mobile devices, the supply levels of which increased in Ukraine in Q1 2014, according to IDC. The growth of the number of devices was 41% (to 278,000) and 31% in the cash equivalent.

IDC classifies TFT-readers as tablets. The company estimates that total supply of e-books and tablets in the 2nd quarter of 2014 will decrease to approximately 200,000 devices.

The market decline is based on multimedia TFT-readers, so-called “semi-tablets”, says Director of the PR Department at PocketBook Yulia Zaderyaka. TFT-readers are mostly non-sensor devices with LCD color displays and sufficient functionality to play videos. However, they are not readable in the sunlight and can be unsafe for the human eye. This category is replaced with more up-to-date tablets above all others. “The demand for such products is rapidly decreasing, leading to complete extinction of this category,” says Zaderyaka.

Sales of TFT-readers in the 1st quarter of 2014 dropped by 74% in natural units, while the market share decreased from 25% to 11%, according to Gfk Ukraine. Sales of e-ink books fell only by 19% and their market share is currently 89%. In terms of prices, expensive electronic books costing more than US $150 still remain the most attractive devices for users. Their share in sales increased from 22% to 26%. This is also a consequence of a significant decline in sales in the low-cost TFT-segment, explains Maria Hubarenko, an analyst at Gfk Ukraine.

Manufacturers of electronic books believe that analysts hastened to shelve the market. “E-readers are a stable market niche”, says Zaderyaka. She also added that sales of e-ink books are not in decline. On the contrary, they are growing by 15–20% annually. “From the point of view of development and saturation the CIS market is the second largest market after the U.S. with a high degree of penetration of the product, but the U.S. consumes more on the whole”, she says. In 2014 PocketBook predicts that the market share for e-ink readers will be close to 200,000 devices in Ukraine and at least 1 – 1.2 mn devices in Russia.