Jun 25
Rafi Mohammed, Ph.D. of The Huffington Post has declared eBooks the official future of digital publishing. Read his article here to judge for yourself if his reasoning is sound.
It’s been a whirlwind year, and the recent developments are very promising, but do you think it’s too early to declare a win for eBooks? I’m still waiting for the eBook Reader priced $99 or less. Then we won’t be in Kansas anymore, yah?
Jun 24
Mashable posted that iPad Sales Topped 3 Million units since it first went on the market less than three months ago. I mention this because it stands to reason that this is the likely motivation for the sudden price war between eBook Readers like Kobo, nook and Amazon Kindle. Since there is clearly a healthy market for dedicated eBook Reading devices, why bother opening a multimedia front in the war?
Jun 23
Bloomberg Businessweek posted a story about Borders Group Inc.’s offer of a $20 gift card with the purchase of the Kobo eReader. The device is one of Borders’ Good, Better, Best Selection that includes the Aluratek Libre eBook Reader Pro ($119.99) and two Sony Readers. Kobo eReader’s industry-low $150 price was passed Monday by Barnes and Noble’s economy class nook eBook reader price drop to $149 and threatened yesterday by Amazon Kindle 2’s price plummet to $189.
The Borders gift card is a great value-added hook to get people into buying eBooks in a market where eBook consumers are filling up on millions of FREE titles, but who hesitate to buy eBooks with seller-proprietary formatting.
We’re going to reach that $99 eBook Reader mark sooner than we ever imagined.
Jun 22
I’m sure they’ll say they thought of it first, but Amazon has now dropped the price of their Kindle 2 eBook Reader with Whispernet 3G from $259 to $189 hot on the heels of Barnes & Noble’s nook dropping in price to $149 for its WiFi-only nook and $199 for its 3G WiFi nook. Read more on the story at FastCompany (and just about everywhere else on the net).
This is a shrewd move. Rather than fight it out with iPad for a multi-function market, fight for the E Ink market you already own, yah?
Jun 21
Looks like Barnes and Noble is making another exciting move marking the price of their nook down to $149 while offering an optional $199 3G model.
This will absolutely heat things up this summer, and I can’t help but think this is the work of Kobo’s $150 E Ink eReader.
The $149 nook doesn’t just beat Kobo’s price by a buck, it also comes with WiFi, a clear challenge to Kobo’s USB connectivity. (Most readers don’t care, but the convenience of WiFi might be a deal maker.)
On top of that, B&N is dropping the price of the nook 3G with WiFi from $259 to $199. (Connects anywhere.)
So, there’s a shot across Amazon’s bow as the smart eBook Reading Device makers opt out of a head-to-head competition with iPad’s multi-function and go for getting eBook Readers into the mainstream’s hands.
Can the $99 eBook Reader be far behind?
Jun 19
The Financial Post has a story about eReading platform Kobo announcing their services now extend to any Android-enabled smartphone.
On top of a desire to share their eReading experience anywhere on any machine, their open standards allow customers to access and read their selections on any device.
When linked to their $150 eBook Reader, Kobo is poised to set some fires under the industry front-runners.
Jun 18
Thanks again to Jorgen for links to a digital news story that he’s been monitoring. The developments involve Rupert Murdoch making some moves to get a firm toehold in the growing digital newspaper industry and mark a casualty in the eBook Revolution.
Click here for a story at TabletPCReview that details Murdoch’s purchase of Skiff, LLC, and the e-reading platform developed by Hearst Corp. and designed to deliver premium content to tablet PCs, smartphones, eBook readers and netbooks. Murdoch recently started moving his online news services to a ‘paid content’ format so the Skiff platform’s ability to protect brand identity fits the program.
The other link takes you to CrunchGear’s eulogy for the Skiff Reader. Murdoch bought the Skiff software platform but passed on the physical device. Do you remember the Skiff Reader? I think it’s a beautiful piece of technology that will eventually return from the grave when digital publishing becomes secure enough that niche markets start to evolve that will need large format E Ink devices to deliver broadsheet content. The Skiff Reader was just ahead of its time.
Jun 17
Authorlink News is carrying a story touting Barnes and Noble’s new CEO William Lynch as the main reason B&N is making huge gains in the eBook Market. I’ve got to agree, whoever is calling the shots is sure making up for ground the company lost after briefly shutting down its eBook Store in 2008. Since re-opening, it’s been one innovation after another as the Internet and Bricks and Mortar eBook retailer has charged back into the eBook Revolution. While its share in eBook sales increased by nearly 20% it still remains a distant second to the market dominator Amazon.com.
Still, that kind of thinking brings competition to a marketplace that needs it to lower the price of eBooks and the machines that read them.
Jun 16
Many thanks to our friend Jorgen who provided a link to an interesting discussion over at FUTUReBOOK.com about the future of eBooks on the web and the trouble with DRM. The post by Tom Williams ponders whether Google Editions has already won the eBook war with their cloud-based eBooks versus the proprietary formats offered by Amazon, Apple iPad and etc.
I think it’s still too early for a conclusion on this. The mainstream consumer still has to speak, and by the look of the poster after the article, some people just want to read on an eBook reader and are happy without the distracting net-experience that come with multifunction devices.
