New Apple and Android tablets are literally killing the once-thriving eBook business, thanks in part to their multi-purpose functionality that includes gaming.
For the manufacturers of ebook readers, the pressure to keep costs to an absolute minimum will be extreme, especially in cases where the system manufacturer is not also a content provider. In such a context, Amazon is more insulated than other ebook reader manufacturers, because the giant bookseller can recoup some of its losses through the huge sales generated from ebooks and other content available through its online store. Amazon is also not being caught empty-handed in the hardware arena, having morphed its Kindle ebook reader into the Kindle Fire media tablet.
The decline of the ebook reader market will translate into benefits for media tablet suppliers along their supply chains. The market for tablet displays, for instance, is expected to double from 2011 to 2014, reaching almost $10 billion.
Semiconductor shipments for tablets will show a similar pattern of robust growth. Total semiconductor consumption by tablets will top $20 billion by 2016—more than twice the amount in 2011—making the area one of the most lucrative opportunities for the overall chip industry.
Sadly for ebooks, which looked like the “Next Big Thing” just a few years ago, their moment of glory came and went all too quickly, the expectations of explosive growth suddenly quashed by the arrival of a much more agile—and insurmountable—rival.
