Friday, December 03, 2010

Schumpeterian Creative Destruction in IT

1. The Apple iPad is a Kindle Killer - Amazon Kindle's market share fell 15 points in November to less than half of the e-reader market (47%), due to competition from the Apple iPad (32% market share). 

2. "A research firm predicts that in 2011, computing’s third major technology wave will become mainstream, when computers held in one’s hand — smartphones and tablets — really take over and start putting personal computers in the rearview mirror."

8 Comments:

At 12/03/2010 12:23 PM, Blogger Benjamin Cole said...

I wonder about handheld computers. A physical reality--the hand is too big to type on small tablets.

My guess: Hardware gets cheaper and cheaper, and we use both.

Hardware of all kinds gets cheaper all the time, software becomes nearly free--except for military goods, which always become more expensive in each budget cycle.

 
At 12/03/2010 12:25 PM, Blogger Buddy R Pacifico said...

The I-Pad is a Kindle device killer but not a Kindle software killer. Amazon has over half the e-book market and Kindle reader software is available for free download to computers and smart-phones. Amazon has created e-book critical mass for itself.

Amazon will continue to build on the e-book model by offering publishers a larger share of revenues. In exchange for higher revenue Amazon gets preferential treatment from publishers. This is all done without a physical inventory and very low distribution costs.

The Kindle device is a very good product but it is really the "razor" and e-books are the "blades", for Amazon marketing.

 
At 12/03/2010 3:31 PM, Blogger Hydra said...

Hand helds are taking over, My pc is dormant most of the time. Now, if I ever get the hang of the droid speller......

 
At 12/05/2010 7:52 PM, Blogger Les Cargill said...

Computing is overwhelmingly a thing of accretion. Everybody I know who has an iPhone also has a laptop and very likely, a desktop. Small sample, but still...

 
At 12/06/2010 12:20 AM, Blogger misterjosh said...

Mark - I don't see creative destruction in the iPad/Kindle story. It's really more of an example of the niche-ification of the modern market.
Consumers are pickier than ever and want exactly what they want. The two devices serve different needs, and the e-book market, at least at present, can support both devices.

 
At 12/06/2010 10:36 AM, Blogger juandos said...

I'm wondering if the Kindle will migrate (abilities wise) towards what the iPad can do now?

 
At 12/08/2010 4:03 AM, Blogger Matthew said...

It doesn't really follow that it's a Kindle killer, simply from market share. If you define Heinz Tomato Ketchup as an e-book then its market share would be huge. I'd look at downloaded books or something similar.

 
At 12/08/2010 1:05 PM, Blogger juandos said...

"The two devices serve different needs, and the e-book market, at least at present, can support both devices"...

Hmmm, well misterjosh I used to and still think the same of cell phones and personal GPS units but now look...

Now the 'smart phone' is here and it can do a Kindle type job, a watch type job, a phone type job, a GPS type job and last but not least a personal entertainment (music/movies/live streaming video) type job...

So maybe just maybe there's something to this 'creative destruction>' stuff...:-)

 

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