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.) 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.

Mar 17

John Grisham Gets With the Program

The New York Times “Arts Beat” has a post about bestselling author John Grisham getting over his fear of eBook pirates and diving into the eBook Revolution with his publisher Random House’s announcement that they will release his 23 backlist titles, including his recent short story collection Ford County, as eBooks. According to Random House, Grisham’s books have sold 250 million copies worldwide. Read the full article here.

Avoiding piracy is simple: Use an open format (EPUB). Charge a reasonable price and don’t use restrictive DRM.

This will be interesting to watch, yah?

Mar 16

iPad Orders Fall Sharply

Thanks Jorgen for a link to an update on Apple iPad sales. The post at CNNMoney.com cites trackers that show a sharp decline in the pre-orders that started with estimates of 25,000 per hour before dropping off over the weekend to just over 1,000 per hour. Read the full story for the rest of the stats.

It’s still pretty impressive, and there is bound to be a leveling off in the adoption of any new device, especially a device with over a year of pre-press and rumor bandied about by an intensely loyal cadre of Apple fans.

Mar 15

Delayed Release for Que Reader from Plastic Logic

We’ve mentioned the beautiful Plastic Logic Que Reader before here. Well, it looks like we’ll have to wait until summer for the release of this gorgeous piece of technology if this post at Seven-Sided Cube is correct. This sleek eReader’s bigger touch-screen (8.5″x11″) and futuristic profile is designed for the business sector, and will give other large-format machines like Amazon’s Kindle DX , Sony Daily Edition and the Apple iPad a run for the money.