This time Gadget Lab picks up the story and puts Kobo’s $150 E Ink eBook Reader on a collision course with Amazon’s Kindle. I mentioned the device the other day and called it a game changer for the eBook Revolution, but I have to agree with Gadget Lab. This $150 machine is going to be more painful for eBook reading devices that offer grayscale E Ink displays like Kindle, Nook and Sony Reader but cannot match Kobo’s low price. Read the complete story here.
Mar 26
Is it time to re-invent the eBook?
Thank you Jorgen for pointing us to a post by R. David Lankes at the School Library Journal titled: “Ereaders, the iPad—Is That All There Is?” Seems Lankes was under-impressed by the recent launch of iPad. (And it sounds like he was none-too excited by the eBook Reading Devices that were already on the market.)
None of his discontent has to do with the machines themselves. He accepts that they perform admirably as viewers for digitized avatars of earth-bound volumes. His desire, it seems, is to see the actual eBooks re-invented. So far, he contends, we’re missing an opportunity to redefine among other things: How they display, what they contain and how we interact with them.
Lankes makes some excellent points, but I’m afraid he’ll have to be patient. He’s describing the future of the eBook.
Mar 25
Kobo eBook Reader $150 – The Game Changer
To people who would be happy simply reading an eBook, we introduce the Kobo eBook Reader for $150.00.
Kobo announced the device at the MobileFocus event in Las Vegas with what eBook Revolution historians will call PERFECT TIMING. Instead of going head-to-head with iPad, here they’ve given us a basic eBook reader at an extremely affordable price, hooked up to a world class eBook retailer Kobobooks.com. While other designers reel back to the drawing board after iPad’s flashy full-color release, Kobo gives us a fairly priced device that people can comfortably read with.
Kobo, formerly known as Shortcovers, is the far-reaching digital arm of the Canadian bookselling giant Indigo. Bookseller Borders is another investor in Kobo, so we’re looking at some shrewd decision making by industry leaders at a time when the right decision might translate into market dominance. The Kobo eBook Reader will be available at Borders stores summer 2010.
The relatively small price tag makes the device a must-have for early adopters and the curious mainstream. While the designers do battle with the multi-function iPad, the rest of us can get reading.
For $150 you get 6″ E Ink screen, Bluetooth connectivity (no WiFi or 3G to keep cost down), 5 font sizes, 1GB internal storage, expandable SD card slot and a battery rated for 8,000 page turns. Read more about the announcement at Technologizer.
THIS is the game changer.
Mar 24
The Same Old Song and Dance at Amazon–er, from APPLE this time!
Remember when almost a year ago Amazon started fooling around with pricing, allowing publishers to raise their prices until there was a massive consumer backlash? (The $9.99 Boycott by Kindle owners, where they refused to buy eBook titles that were priced over $9.99)
Anyway, get ready for the Apple iPad iBook Boycott. Having already signed on six huge publishers who’ve been allowed to charge higher ‘agency’ rates, Apple has announced the inclusion of two more publishers: Perseus Books Group (they offer titles from 330 smaller publishers) and the Workman Publishing Company. This deal heralded in a New York Times post here, looks like the same shakedown where publishers are allowed to set their own agency rates.
Okay, this is the destructive quote from the article: “In talks with publishers, Apple has said it would not let other retailers sell any book for a lower price than the price in its new iBookstore. Several of the larger publishers are seeking to renegotiate agreements with Amazon and other e-book retailers to mirror the deals with Apple.”
Amazon could say: “Been there, tried that…Didn’t WORK!”
This is how you throw cold water on a hot market. The publishers are working deals, and the eBook retailers are offering the moon… and then they expect the consumer to pay anything they ask. There’s a reason that Amazon sold titles for $9.99. (Which many consumers still consider unjustifiably high.)Â The consumers made it very clear that $9.99 was all they were willing to pay for an eBook title, especially after they’d just forked out hundreds of bucks for the eBook machines to read them on.
Stop trying to manipulate the market APPLE! The Consumer has the final word.
Mar 23
iPad Web Addresses for Sale…
Some forward-thinking entrepreneurs (aka good-guessers) are hoping to make millions from the sale of iPad web names. CNNMoney has the story here. To get you started, one chap listed the web addresses: ipaddownload.com, ipaddownloads.com and ipaddownloads.net at eBay for a cool million each.
In case anyone was wondering why the iPad’s a little pricey.
Mar 22
Apple iPad More than Hype?
Joe Wilcox at BetaNews is stirring the pot in his post: “Be smart, don’t buy into the iPad hype.” Any time you want to stir the pot, say something negative about new Apple products. You’ll always get burned by hardcore fans and early adopters.
I don’t think this article is an attack on the iPad–just its delivery. Wilcox is suggesting that a product needs more than ‘hype’ to achieve market ubiquity. Read the article here. It digs into the roots of the phenomena.
Mar 21
A few words on the future of eBooks…
Thanks Jorgen for a link to a post by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes at ZDNet entitled “The iPad will kill ebooks as we know them.”
Rather a gloomy piece, but it makes some good points while ignoring the vast market of readers who just want to read on a device. They’re happy with the eBook’s (book’s) special and unique qualities. The written word gives the reader a personal and intimate vacation from fielding telephone calls, skimming through movies, returning emails and playing music.
There is a market for iPad, but it would be perilous to generalize about the preferences of people who enjoy reading.
Mar 20
More Amazon eBook Action…
In an effort to hang onto its 90 percent share of the American e-book market, Amazon is starting to talk tough with publishers in the weeks leading up to the iPad’s arrival. If you’ll remember, Amazon already got into a dustup with publishers that resulted in the eBook retailer removing the ‘buy’ buttons from resistant publishers’ products, only to reverse their decision days later. That dispute involved the publishers insisting on price-hikes up from Amazon’s market-tested $9.99 per title. The publishers wanted to charge agency rates, and change their existing deals with Amazon to match new deals they were making with Apple. Amazon conceded. You can read some background on that fight here.
Now, we see that the price for that concession might involve these publishers signing 3-year exclusive (fixed-price) contracts with Amazon or risk having the direct sale buttons removed from their titles at Amazon.
Read the specifics on the strong-arm tactics in the New York Times. The eBook Revolution is heating up!
Mar 19
Free Amazon Kindle eBook Reader for Mac
Okay. I guess all this talk about Apple iPad has either got Amazon missing the limelight or reminded the online eBook retailer that their Kindle is not the only eBook Reading device on the market. Read the post about the Free Kindle Reader for Mac here at DigitalBeat. Get the FREE Kindle Reader for Mac here.
Amazon is also planning a Kindle Reader App for iPad, so we’re perhaps seeing the “democratization of publishing” that eBook Revolution pundits have been chattering about. We know that Barnes and Noble is preparing its own App for iPad, so the question now is: Will Apple approve them?
Mar 18
More about John Grisham’s Digital Dive
Deadline New York gives an expanded description of the process that brought John Grisham’s titles to the eBook Revolution, and hints at the wider-ranging impact. The inclusion of this publishing heavyweight certainly adds legitimacy to an exploding literary form.
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