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E-Reader Interest has declined by 40% in the Netherlands

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E-Reader ownership has been on the decline in North America for the last two years. A recent study found that only 19% of adults reported owning an e-reader, such as a Kindle or Nook in 2015. This is a sizable drop from early 2014, when 32% of adults owned this type of device. The apathy displayed towards e-readers is not entirely a US problem, but has also extended into countries that traditionally have a high adoption rate.

The Netherlands was one of the first early adopter of e-books and people are drawn to the format.  Booksellers who have an online presence have reported that e-books account for 24% of their sales.

A new report from Vergelijk.nl, one of the largest product and price comparison sites in the Netherlands says that overall interest in e-readers has decreased by 40% in 2015, tablet sales have also plummeted by 35%. Ben Kerkhof, one of the researchers of the report said “The tablet is currently still popular, but not as strong as a few years ago. It is quite conceivable that the smartphone, or an intersection (phablet) will take over the role of the tablet.

I think its true that people are buying less e-readers this year because the older models continue to work fine. Batteries in e-ink devices tend to last about five years before they they start to gradually degrade.  E-paper technology has not changed since 2013, giving people less of a reason to buy the latest and greatest.

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  • Jab76

    I’m confused. Does interest mean the purchase of new devices? Or the usage? What have people done with their ereaders. Thrown them away?

  • I think interest level means people browsing websites in the Netherlands to look at new/existing devices.

  • John Smith

    Whenever you see large shifts like this in a short period of time, you probably need to question the data or, at least the interpretation. Either the numbers before were over-inflated, the numbers now are under-inflated, or what’s being measured isn’t as important as what it seems.

    The bottom-line is, if reported results cause you to say “wow, look at that” AND there’s no real reason for it, something’s wrong, somewhere.

    As someone who spent a career in marketing research — both as a researcher and an owner of a firm — anomalous data was not uncommon and the challenge was to explain such in a way that A) didn’t cause the client to push the panic button and B) didn’t cause the client to question why they paid you for these results. It was not an easy task BUT, what you NEVER did with crazy results, was to state them and just walk away, like the people who reported *these* results have apparently done.

    It’s irresponsible.

  • Albert

    In the last 3-4 years, smartphones have grown from a typical 4-4.5 inch display to 5-5.5 inches (and more) which means they are encroaching on the 6-inch ereader territory. It may not be so much a drop in interest in ereading as in ereaders, now that smartphones can provide a comfortable reading experience.

  • az_uk

    Completely agree with you.
    The first set of figures in particular seems strange; 32% of adults in North America owned an ereader in 2014 and this dropped to 19% in 2015.
    So (even excluding new users and replacement devices) what happened to that 13% that owned a device previously and now don’t – did they all break/lose their ereaders?

  • Sjoerd Roland

    i guess people prefer books over ebooks?
    ebooks are cool though for traveling
    http://www.zwembadselect.nl/