Sep 23

eBooks and Agency Pricing

Thanks to Jorgen for this link to FutureBook.com and a story that explains the negative impact of the agency model for pricing eBooks, and how it’s set to help publishers and nobody else.

Hey, that just leaves readers and writers out in the cold, which is a setup that dragged traditional publishing into the sewer. The difference now is piracy will pick up the slack the same way it did during the early days of digital music publishing.

Let’s hope that thoughts of the agency model for pricing will die a quick and quiet death.

Sep 22

The eBook Market Continues to Prep for Christmas

Back in July we mentioned Borders selling the Aluratek eBook Reader Pro for $120. Well, they’ve now dropped the price of the Aluratek Reader to just $99.  Check out the specifics at Borders here.

Its exclusive Reflective Light LCD Screen Technology is not the E Ink display used by industry leaders Kindle, Kobo, Nook and Sony, but the makers claim it is easy on the eyes, good on batteries and delivers the goods without any flashing or flickering.

Having read eBooks now on the Sony Reader, Nook and my HP Mini via Adobe Digital Editions I can easily see the jump to the Aluratek device. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s just a delivery system for eBooks, and each has its own pros and cons. In this case, the extremely low price makes it perfect for mainstream consumption.

Sep 21

More Expensive Kindle 3’s for Canadian eBook Revolutionaries…

There’s a great Vancouver Sun article about the price of Kindles for our Canadian friends. Looks like they’re not going to enjoy the recent Amazon Kindle 3 price drop to $139 WiFi and $189 3G versions in the same way that their American cousins can. Because they have to order direct from Amazon.com rather than Amazon.ca, shipping and import fees are being dumped onto the new Kindle price and spoiling some of the fun.

Check out the article here. Perhaps things will be different whenever Kindle finally gets into stores.

Sep 20

Tablets, Printers, eBooks and Bandits!

Hewlett-Packard is taking things to a new level offering a $399 all-in-one Photosmart eStation that includes a web-browsing tablet. The tablet comes with WiFi and 7-inch diagonal screen pre-loaded with Barnes and Noble eBookstore, Facebook and music player among other Apps. Read the Seattle Times post for pictures and video here.

And, our friend Jorgen dropped off a link to a Futurebook.net story about moves in the publishing industry that might start a dangerous climb in the price of eBooks as publishers again chortle over the idea of adopting the expensive agency pricing model for eBooks.

It’s a great idea if they want to encourage piracy and file sharing. But the truth is the move is nothing short of a money grab. Sadly, the consumer pays for this needless manipulation of the market. (At least until the black market gets into the swing of it.)

Sep 19

Blio – Free eReader launches September 28

We talked about the Blio eReader platform way back in January when it was announced at the 2010 Consumer Electronics show.

Now Singularity Hub says Blio creator K-NFB announced the September 28 release of the long-awaited Free eReading program that they’re calling a game changer.

The full color Windows software allows you to read books as they were originally formatted with options for displaying on various devices that use Android and iOS systems (iPhone, iPad, etc).

Check out the full story here.

Sep 18

Barnes and Noble Shareholder Drama

The BookSeller.com reports on Barnes & Noble C.E.O. William J. Lynch urging shareholders to reject a bid by billionaire investor Ron Burkle to take controlling interest in the retail book giant’s business, a move deemed unnecessary with expectations of $1-billion in eBook sales projected by 2013.

Read the full story here.

Sep 17

Full Color eBook Reader: the Sharper Image Literati

PCMag.com introduces us to the Sharper Image Literati, a full color eBook Reader that will be out in December at more than 7,000 locations including Macy’s, Bed Bath and Beyond, Kohl’s and many, many more for a rumored price of $159. PCMag writer David Pierce reports on his time with the 7-inch LCD Literati here.

More fantastic news for the eBook Revolution. I’ve always said that people have to get their hands on an eBook Reader to make the jump from paper. Honestly, it’s as simple as that, and I think this Christmas is going to outpace all predictions in sales and mainstream adoption of the devices.

Sep 16

eBook Market is Hot. eReading is Cool!

Misty Harris of PostMedia News has a story at the Montreal Gazette that makes some suggestions about the future of the eBook Revolution, nails down some interesting motivations for the move to digital publishing and gives solid reasons for the resurgence of reading in a time when 3-D movies and television stand poised to spoon feed us art, entertainment and experience.

Could it be that eBooks are the perfect bridge between the passively interactive digital world and the personal social experience? Explosive sales of eBooks and the devices that read them are telling us that reading is an interactive experience worth working for.

Sep 15

Amazon Kindle Takes Jab at Apple iPad in New Commercial

Nice to see some friendly competition. Check out the video below. The eBook Revolution is coming of age.

Sep 14

Kindle Quality Issues Raised at ZDNet

Jorgen dropped off a link to a ZDNet story about the quality of eBooks available for the Amazon Kindle. While I think the criticisms in the piece apply specifically to technical and graphic-dependent texts, they can be applied to the greater mainstream fiction titles as well. The ‘re-flowable’ text form that makes the Kindle (and other eBook readers) possible, also alters the look and navigability of traditional paper books. While I think this is a case of growing pains, it could suggest some urgency to eBook sellers, since the price of an eBook should reflect the quality of the product.

Jorgen added that the author of the post failed to mention: the Kindle typeface cannot be changed, the user interface leaves something to be desired and Kindle’s eBooks come in a proprietary format that cannot be read on other devices.