The Huffington Post has a piece by Steven Haber “Why the iPad Won’t Kill eReaders” that will calm any E Ink lovers who might feel a bit crowded by all the press about iPad taking over the world.
A great weekend read by someone who knows readers.
Apr 30
Apple iPad Causes Insomnia?
Many thanks to Jorgen who dropped off a link to a rumor that sounds like it might have been started by Amazon’s Kindle designers. The post at PRNews says that reports are starting to filter in about Apple iPad users suffering from insomnia. Apparently the experts believe a backlit screen (like iPad’s much-touted full-color display) could suppress the hormone melatonin in the body, causing people to stay awake when they would otherwise be ready for sleep. Read the full story here.
Interesting to see this rumor appear just as the war between full-color and E Ink displays is heating up, yah?
Apr 29
eBook Sales Continue to Rise
YoungMoney.com posted on a report from the International Digital Publishing Forum showing a 200% increase in wholesale eBook sales since January.
Check out the cool graphs on first quarter growth at IDPF. While it’s an impressive visual display, it’s important to view this rationally. Yes, it looks like eBooks are here to stay, but all growth will seem explosive if a product did not exist before it became popular. The really interesting graphs will come at year end and show whether this growth continued through 2010. I think it will.
Apr 28
Adapt or Die in the Digital Publishing Age
Here’s a link from Jorgen that stands as a clear example of how fighting the flow will only bite you in the ass. Marketplace.com has a story about Random House, publisher of William Styron’s books (e.g. Sophie’s Choice), losing the digital publishing rights to Styron’s titles to a new company “Open Road” that will represent the family of the deceased author.
Apparently, the text in Styron’s contract does not cover eBooks.
It’s clear that Random House either underestimated the potential of the eBook Revolution or overestimated the strength and breadth of its publishing contracts. As the story says, Random House is not going to go down easily and will fight the decision, since this development leaves all of its publishing contracts open to reinterpretation. With eBooks signaling the future of industry growth, Random House (and others) might be left twisting in the wind.
Change is only bad if you’re unwilling or unprepared to adapt to it.
Apr 27
nook Pulls Past Kindle, iPad Pushes for the Lead.
Electronista reports Barnes and Noble’s nook outselling Amazon’s Kindle in March making it the first time the frontrunner has been surpassed by the growing competition. Read the specifics here. We should mention, the results also say that iPad may have outsold both in the weeks around its release, even though only a third of those adopters said they would use the multi-function device to read eBooks.
Exciting developments, with B&N playing it’s bricks and mortar card to win. This also explains why Amazon is courting storefront representation for Kindle as shown in its recent deal to sell their device through Target stores.
Apr 26
Barnes and Noble adds value to the Nook
It looks like Barnes and Noble is going to ramp up the performance of their eBook Reader, the nook, with some new abilities specifically designed with the bricks and mortar experience in mind. Some of these new elements will only work if you take your nook next time you visit a B&N near you. For instance, your nook will automatically connect to their fast and free Wi-Fi to activate the new Read In Store feature that allows customers to peruse entire eBooks free of charge–in store. Read the rest of the post at TradingMarkets.com for a full list of new features, that includes a wider range for wireless connectivity.
I’m still giving B&N top marks for finding novel ways of integrating the new eBook experience with the traditional bricks and mortar template.
Apr 25
Color E Ink on the way…
Jorgen popped by with a link to an interesting PCWorld story about Color E Ink Readers on the none-too distant horizon.
Liquavista is working on high efficiency color E Ink displays that show text, still photos and animation. The process is called electrowetting and it may offer some interesting options for eBook Reader designers who want to give iPad-like functions without the eyestrain.
Apr 24
Are eBooks ‘Greener’ than Books?
Our friend Jorgen commented on yesterday’s post with a link to an article at EbookWeek.com that delves into the environmental impact of eBooks and compares it to ‘paper’ book greenness with much more depth than The Washington Post story.
It seems that there is a clear environmental benefit to going digital.
Apr 23
Environmental Impact of Books versus eBooks
Yesterday’s Earth Day celebrations included this article in The Washington Post by Political Bookworm Steven Levingston that begins to compare the environmental cost of switching to eBook Readers from paperback and hard cover books. The eBook publishers tout the move to digital as more environmentally friendly, sidestepping the need to harvest the millions of trees required to feed the world’s appetite for paperbacks. However, as the article points out, the use of technology in eBook Readers raises the specter of toxic waste.
As I said, the article ‘begins’ the comparison. eBook Readers need time on the market for their environmental impact to be accurately calculated.
Apr 22
Book versus eBook Pricing Revisited
Many thanks to Jorgen for digging up this contentious and detailed article by BNET’s Erik Sherman where he takes The New Yorker’s Ken Auletta’s book-pricing arithmetic to task.
I found it an interesting investigation of the number crunching, though it hardly settles the debate regarding the public perception that low-maintenance eBooks should be low-priced.
Missing from Sherman’s piece is any mention of the publishers’ sometimes dodgy mathematics and their unwillingness to change their business models to suit the eBook Revolution. All that overhead may be difficult to justify in the shift to digital.
Good Reads
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