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Jul
28
The blogger at The Blue Skunk Blog writes that he’s been using the Kindle “for a solid month. I’d like to be able to say that I either love it or hate it, but I can’t. The reading experience isn’t better or worse than a paper book, just rather different. And there have been some surprises - fewer of a technical nature and more of those that are behavioral or social.”
The blogger notes, among other things, that he’s “amazed at the body of support that has already developed around the Kindle. Stephen Windwalker is releasing the draft of his book The Complete Users Gide to the Amazing Amazon Kindle. Lots o’ blogs, discussion groups, etc. ‘I was so busy learning how to use the book, I never got around to reading it, ‘Groucho might now say.”
With the blogger keep using the Amazon Kindle?
You better believe it - I’ve got $360 wrapped up in this puppy. It works great for trips. It’s much easier to read at a table when eating alone. It has features I’ve not yet explored enough. And it does become transparent when the reading material is compelling. It just needs to be priced much, much lower to find a popular market.
Jul
28
Textbooks, e-Books, and Digital Devices
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Connecting the Dots takes a close look at issues of textbook affordability, textbook sales, and tools and devices such as the Amazon Kindle and the rumored-to-be-in-the-works Apple Tablet.
It’s not just about the tools and technologies to build and deliver a replacement for highly expensive paper books. It’s all about aligning incentives, but here’s the kicker: I don’t think the solution is going to come from government, advocacy groups, those buying the books, open source/open content initiatives like Wikibooks, or even the backpack police concerned about kids and college students schlepping huge and heavy materials around, but rather from a vendor or vendors who deliver a platform, provide tools, and a device that will capture the imagination of everyone concerned.
The article continues:
Think for a moment about the opportunity represented by a combination of a development platform with tools, a way to combine content that delivers most of it on a device but has connection to the internet and application functionality in “the cloud”. There could be tremendous upside potential in an ongoing stream of content updates, connections with other students . . . and the textbook would become a living, breathing and dynamic offering vs. something the college publishing industry manipulates in order to maintain revenues and gross margin.
Jul
28
Growth Foreseen for Amazon Kindle and E-books
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The future holds sontinued growth in sales Amazon Kindle and Kindle-compatible digital books, according to a Bloomberg News article at Seattlepi.com.
By 2010, Amazon may get 3 percent, or $741 million, of its revenue from sales of the paperback-sized reader and digital books, according to Citigroup Inc. analyst Mark Mahaney, a Kindle user. That’s up from this year’s 0.3 percent, or $60 million, he said.
The Web retailer cut the price of the Kindle, which Newsweek magazine called the iPod of books, to $359 from $399 in May. Amazon initially sold out of the white, 7.5-by-5.3-inch reader within 5 1/2 hours of its November release, [Amazon vice president Ian] Freed said.
The article noted that electronic books figure in the plans of publishers Simon & Schuster, and HarperCollins.
Kindle users include, the article added, include Martha Stewart, and The Washington Post’s Donald Graham.
Jul
28
e-Books from a Writer’s Perspective
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Ugolino’s Teeth recently examined e-books and ereading devices, and the effect of PDF book giveaways on hardcopy book sales, from the perspective of the working writer.
E-books, in other words, are not books and those who have suggested that giving away free novels will increase sales have yet to prove their case. Pdfs are like the little samples of food they give away in supermarkets — good for publicity, but not enough by themselves to fill a belly. They are not product.
A real test will come with the mass arrival of e-ink readers. With devices such as the Sony Reader, or the Amazon Kindle, we are entering a world where, for the first time, the e-book experience is every bit as valid as the printed page. Sure, there are a proportion of people who collect physical books and have to have them at any cost. But most of us, just want to lose ourselves for a few hours in Carribean Steampunk. Giving away an e-book to the owner of a Sony Reader, is the equivalent of giving them product and makes it very unlikely that they will buy the real thing. In fact, the offer of a free softcopy of something they had already been considering, might well lead to a slight dip in sales.
Jul
25
Ectaco jetBook Gets Accessorized
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The Ectaco jetBook - it’s not just for lovers of the color Burgundy anymore. PR News Now reports that the jetBook is being made available in a variety of colors, and with additional accessories:
As the release of jetBook has become a market success, Ectaco Inc. presents it in new colors. Now, in addition to the Burgundy edition there will be White, Gray and Graphite jetBooks. The line of jetBook accessories has also been extended by the Earlight (a spot-light device which allows reading in darkness with more comfort for the eyes) and the Silicon Sleeve (a skin-thin transparent dust protection cover). More accessories and colors are on the way . . . .
Jul
25
Amazon Kindle Demonstrates A Viable Market For Ebook Reading Devices
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Ebook devices are drawing worldwide attention. CIOL in India views the sales of these devices as driving demand (and vice versa):
Amazon.com’s Kindle has proven there is a viable market for eBooks with shipments expected to reach 1 million units in 2008, according to iSuppli.
“It’s possible that Amazon’s Kindle could do for eBooks what Apple’s iPod did for MP3 players,” said Vinita Jakhanwal, principal analyst for mobile displays at iSuppli. “Indeed, there are indications that Kindle sales in the first quarter of 2008 surpassed its total sales for the entire year of 2007.” Sales of eBooks will be propelled by demand from key markets, including:
* Education, including textbooks, reading and reference material, electronic dictionaries and organizers,
* Consumer markets, such as novels, magazines, guides and newspapers,
* Professional segments, including trade publications, manuals and product literature, and
* Other areas, such as government documentation, military maps and religious books and material.
Jul
25
Sony Reader Heads for the UK
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Last week there were rumors that the Sony Reader would soon be available in the UK. This week there’s an announcement. ITProPortal reports:
Sony has rolled out its renowned Sony Reader, in the UK market and is available on a pre-order basis from today.
The device which is intended to store and show the electronic books is all set to hit the market with a bang and it will be launched in collaboration with Waterstones Stores.
The e-books are expected to be cheaper than their paper version, and a number of key publishing houses, including- Random House and Penguin, are already transferring their content into ebook format.
Which? notes that the Sony Reader “will come with a free CD containing 100 classic ‘ebooks’ and you’ll be able to choose from a further 25,000 books through the Waterstone’s online store.”
Jul
25
From Inside Higher Ed comes a report that university presses have started to make their products available via the Amazon Kindle. Princeton University Press, for example, will be trying some new when it releases a new book by Yale economist Robert Shiller: “Two weeks before print publication the book will be available as a Kindle e-book.”
The Kindle’s connection to Amazon, the article continues, “has given it a market that is attractive to many publishers — including university presses.” Princeton University Press plans to make hundreds of books available via Kindle by this fall, and Kindle publishing also figures into the plans of Yale University Press, Oxford University Press, and the University of California Press.
Books that rely heavily on illustrations will not likely be sold by the unversity presses via Kindle, according to the article. “Permission is so difficult to obtain for online books that most presses aren’t trying — and many believe that Kindle doesn’t yet provide optimal viewing for all illustrations.”
Jul
25
Sony Reader Takes the Open Road
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The Sony Reader is getting a lot of media buzz heading into the weekend, all resulting a Thursday announcement from Sony that its model PRS-505 Reader will be “the first eBook reading device to support the EPUB format, the International Digital Publishing Forum’s XML-based standard format for reflowable digital books and publications.”
Beginning in August, Sony continued, the PRS-505 “will be able to access and accept secure and non-secure ebooks in the EPUB format.” In addition the PRS-505 Reader “will support Adobe eBooks with digital rights management and have the capability to reflow standard text-based Portable Document Format (PDF) eBooks for improved flexibility and readability.”
Continue reading about the Sony PRS-505 Reader . . .
Jul
16
The Oxford University Press USA blog recently crunched some ebook numbers to discern some 
The blog article took note of a Time Magazine report that sales of the 130,000 titles available at the Kindle Store now constitute 12% of the sales of those titles in other formats. This figure amounted to a noticeable increase from the May figures announced by Amazon (% of 125,000 titles).
What can we learn from these numbers? Here’s what the Oxford University Press USA blogger has to say:
The doubling of the percentage on a bigger base points to two very interesting trends – the first is the clearly growing number of Kindle owners – I cannot imagine that kind of ebook sales growth is possible on a similar number of devices. The device sales must be skyrocketing.
The other trend that may be exposed here is the sheer number of ebooks being purchased. Last month some of the bigger trade publishers announced they were increasing the number of titles available for the Kindle. This was done not because of any arm-twisting by Amazon – but clearly as a response to the demand. And just as lack of product has helped to keep ebooks unsuccessful to date, the opposite is helping drive consumer enthusiasm and buying.
Jul
16
Is Amazon Kindle 2.0 On the Horizon?
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CrunchGear reports that an insider “let slip that two new Amazon Kindle models will hit stores this holiday season, with the first coming as early as October.”
One model, the report says, will be an update of the current version, with an improved interface. The second model, “which is shaped like an 8 1/2 x 11-inch piece of paper, is considerablybigger than the current model and should be available next year.”