LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ebooks have many advantages over their print counterparts, such as easy storage and portability, as well as a generally lower price. For some time, publishers and bookstores feared that ebooks would make print books obsolete, threatening to put many people out of business. For several years, ebook sales eclipsed hardcover sales, with almost a third of all US adults owning e-readers. However, Infiniti Research notes that this trend is changing, and print books appear to be making a comeback.
Market Insights
In 2016, hardcover books outsold ebooks for the first time in five years, according to NPD BookScan. In 2015, the number of US adults with e-readers fell to 19% of the population. Major publishers are seeing ebook sales begin to plateau or fall. In the UK in 2016, sales of consumer ebooks reached their lowest level since 2011.
There are a few different drivers of this change. Publishers have been raising the average prices of ebooks, from $6 to almost $10 in 2015. This removes some of the advantage these books have over print. The prevalence of smartphones may also be hindering ebook sales. As more people buy and rely on expensive smartphones, they are less likely to want to invest in and carry around a separate expensive device that can only be used for reading books. However, while smartphones and tablets can also be used to read ebooks, the experience isn’t as pleasant as on an e-reader, so people may be more inclined to pick up a physical book instead. The multiplicity of ebook formats and the fact that consumers technically license them rather than own them are also strikes in favor of print.
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