In Price War, New Kindle Sells for $139

SEATTLE — Amazon.com will introduce two new versions of the Kindle e-reader on Thursday, one for $139, the lowest price yet for the device. 

Amazon is hoping to convince even casual readers that they need a digital reading device. By firing another shot in an e-reader price war leading up to the year-end holiday shopping season, the e-commerce giant turned consumer electronics manufacturer is also signaling it intends to do battle with Apple and its iPad as well as the other makers of e-readers like Sony and Barnes & Noble.  

Unlike previous Kindles, the $139 “Kindle Wi-Fi” will connect to the Internet using only Wi-Fi instead of a cellphone network as other Kindles do. Amazon is also introducing a model to replace the Kindle 2, which it will sell for the same price as that model, $189. Both new Kindles are smaller and lighter, with higher contrast screens and crisper text. 

“The hardware business for us has been so successful that we’re going to continue,” Jeffrey P. Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, said in an interview at the company’s headquarters. “I predict there will be a 10th-generation and a 20th-generation Kindle. We’re well-situated to be experts in purpose-built reading devices.” 

When Amazon introduced the Kindle in 2007, Mr. Bezos described it as a must-have for frequent travelers and people who read “two, three, four books at the same time.” Now, Amazon hopes that at $10 less than the least expensive reading devices from Barnes & Noble and Sony, the new Kindle has broken the psychological price barrier for even occasional readers or a family wanting multiple Kindles. 

“At $139, if you’re going to read by the pool, some people might spend more than that on a swimsuit and sunglasses,” Mr. Bezos said. 

Some analysts are predicting that e-readers could become this year’s hot holiday gift. James L. McQuivey, a principal analyst specializing in consumer electronics at Forrester Research, said a price war could for the first time reduce at least the price of one e-reader to under $100, often the tipping point for impulse gadget purchases. 

Amazon has slashed the price of the Kindle at a speed that is unusual, even for electronic gadgets. By last year, the price of the device was to $259, down from its starting price of $399 in late 2007. In June, hours after Barnes & Noble dropped the price of its Nook e-reader to $199, Amazon dropped the price of the Kindle to $189. The Kindle DX, which has a larger, 9.7-inch screen, is $379.

With Amazon’s latest announcement, it is again waging a price war. Barnes & Noble offers a Wi-Fi version of the Nook for $149 and Sony offers the Reader Pocket Edition, which does not have Wi-Fi, for $150. 

Of course, price is just one factor people consider before making a purchase. The quality of the product, adequate inventory and appealing marketing are just as important, said Eric T. Anderson, a professor of marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

But as the e-reader marketplace has grown crowded “there are lots of substitutes out there so the only way they can create demand is by lowering the price,” he said. 

Still, the iPad’s $499-and-up price tag has not stifled demand for that device. Though the iPad does much more than display books, customers often choose between the two, and are willing to pay much more for the iPad because it is an Apple product, said Dale D. Achabal, executive director of the Retail Management Institute at Santa Clara University. “The price point Apple can go to is quite a bit higher than the price point other firms have to go to that don’t have the same ease of use, design and functionality,” he said. 

Apple says it has sold 3.3 million iPads since introducing it in April. Amazon does not release Kindle sales figures, but says that sales tripled in the month after its last price cut. 

Two of the most compelling aspects of the iPad — a color display and touch screen — are elements that some customers have been yearning for on the Kindle. Keep waiting, Mr. Bezos said. 

“There will never be a Kindle with a touch screen that inhibits reading. It has to be done in a different way. It can’t be a me-too touch screen,” he said. Earlier this year, Amazon bought Touchco, a start-up specializing in touch-screen technology, but current touch-screen technology adds reflections and glare and makes it hard to shift one’s hands while reading for long periods of time, he said. Color is also “not ready for prime time,” Mr. Bezos said. 

The new Kindles, which will ship Aug. 27, have the same six-inch reading area as earlier Kindles but weigh about 15 percent less and are 21 percent smaller. The Kindles have twice the storage, up to 3,500 books. 

Original post by CLAIRE CAIN MILLER and can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/2efqb3b

Barnes & Noble Debuts NOOK For Android As eBooks War Heats Up

Barnes & Noble is launching an Android app for its e-reading platform, Nook, today. Barnes & Nobile already has NOOK apps for the iPhone and iPad. The new app also represents a shift in B&N’s branding; the company will now be brand all of its e-Book platforms and apps with the NOOK name.

NOOK for Android allows users to browse and shop in Barnes & Noble’s eBookstore of more than one million eBooks directly from their mobile device. Any customer’s personal Barnes & Noble eBook library, if it is purchased on a NOOK eBook Reader, online at BN.com or on another BN eReader-enabled device, will sync to their device in so their library goes wherever they go.


NOOK customers can also share some eBooks for up to two weeks with friends, who can read the digital titles on the NOOK eBook Reader, or on any of the NOOK’s mobile apps. The app itself has much of the same functionality as its sister iPhone app, including the ability to access your personal B&N library from the app, the ability to customize your eReading experience by font, size, landscape view, or portrait mode. You can also sort and filter your eBooks by author, title or recent reads. New customers downloading the Android app will get free versions of Dracula, Little Women and Pride & Prejudice as well as samples of two current bestselling eBook in their library.


While it’s good news that Barnes & Noble is expanding beyond Apple’s mobile platform, the space is fiercely competitive. Amazon recently launched an Android app, and slashed the price of its Kindle device. And Apple is now playing in the space with iBooks and the iPad. Plus, Google is expected to launch Google Editions, their e-Book platform soon.
Barnes & Noble recently rolled out a new pricing for NOOK with Wi-Fi at $149, and a new lower price for its NOOK 3G model at $199.


Original piece from TechCrunch and can be found here: http://tcrn.ch/9WmQ0q

Amazon’s Exclusive New Publishing Deal Threatens to Fracture E-book Market

Just a few minutes ago, I received a tweet from Mashable with the news of Amazon's new and exclusive publishing deal. I could not help but retweet as well as re-publish on this blog. All of us involved in book sales and publishing need to take note of the deals taking place in the market. Who knows what might happen next? The piece by the way was written by Lauren Indvik and can be found here: http://bit.ly/bDIww1

Anyway, here is the piece in its entirety:

The Wylie Agency has signed a deal to bring the e-book editions of 20 classic titles, including Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita and Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, exclusively to Amazon’s Kindle Store for two years, the company announced Thursday.

Publishers were, unsurprisingly, less than pleased. Today, Random House declared in a statement that the trade publisher would “not be entering into any new English-language business agreements” with the agency, which represents such illustrious authors as Martin Amis and Salman Rushdie, “until [the] situation is resolved.”

“The Wylie Agency’s decision to sell e-books exclusively to Amazon for titles which are subject to active Random House agreements undermines our longstanding commitments to and investments in our authors, and it establishes this agency as our direct competitor,” a spokesperson for the publishing company said.

The problem is that it’s still unclear — at least to Random House — who has the rights to publish the electronic versions of older titles, whose contracts don’t specify those rights because e-books simply didn’t exist when they were drafted. Random House sent a letter to literary agents in December 2009 asserting ownership of those rights, citing clauses in older agreements that allow the company to publish texts “in book form… in any and all editions.”

Agents and authors were surprised to receive the missive, given the outcome of a lawsuit between Random House and RosettaBooks LLC in 2001. According to the WSJ, Random House tried to prevent the latter from selling the e-book editions of works by William Styron, Robert Parker and Kurt Vonnegurt Jr.; the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled in RosettaBooks’s favor, claiming that Random House’s earlier contracts didn’t cover e-books. A federal court of appeals affirmed the decision.

The Future of E-book Distribution

The latest dispute between the Wiley Agency and Random House is, then, just one in what promises to be a long line of disagreements — and not just about older titles. Perhaps inevitably, authors and their agents will increasingly make deals directly with the likes of Amazon and Barnes & Noble’s e-book division to distribute the electronic versions of their work.

Several, including Stephen King, already have. The bestselling suspense author released his most recent novel, Blockade Billy, as an e-book one month before releasing the hardcover version in the U.S. and Canada. He also distributed a short story, “UR,” exclusively through the Kindle Store in February 2009, shortly after the Kindle 2’s release.

Most recently, widely read Japanese author Ryu Murakami revealed his plans to publish his next novel on the iPad, stepping around his publisher and securing a greater share of the sales revenue in the process. According to Fast Company, publishing houses typically offer authors and agents 25% of the net proceeds of e-book sales. By releasing his novel directly in Japan’s App Store, Murakami and his partners will receive up to 70% of sales proceeds; undoubtedly, bestselling authors could negotiate with Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. for even more lucrative deals.

It thus makes sense that authors and literary agents wouldn’t want to fork over e-book rights to their traditional publishers, when they could potentially profit more by making deals directly with e-book retailers. And traditional publishers are of course worried, as e-book sales are making up an increasingly greater share of overall sales; earlier this week, Amazon revealed that it is now selling more e-books than hardcover books.

What This Means for Consumers

In the end, however, it’s the consumers who will suffer most. While it’s great that 20 works of classic contemporary literature are now available in electronic format for Kindle owners, it’s not so great for those with a Nook, iPad or one of Sony’s or Borders’s low-priced e-readers.

Unless different arrangements are made, consumers can expect a frustrating future in e-book purchasing, in which popular titles and authors are made available only on certain platforms — at least until a set number of copies are sold or period of time elapses, at least. Amazon and its ilk will offer increasingly competitive deals to secure top selling authors, and users will have to toggle through an array of apps and devices to download the books they are looking for.

As Devin Coldewey of Crunchgear cheekily suggests, consumers may return to the “portable, DRM-free, region-agnostic” paperback for convenience’s sake.

Who do you think is in the right here, Random House or the Wylie Agency? Do you think the dispute and other recent developments bode well or poorly for the future of the publishing industry? Share your thoughts in the comments.

 

Image is courtesy Farm3 on Flickr (http://bit.ly/aAyndv)

Why there are no blog updates as promised

Last week, we promised to bring you our review of both the Que Pro and Aluratek eReaders. As you can see we have not done so. There are two good reasons for this but this should not be considered an excuse.

First, we are in the middle of revamping our site and as you can imagine, there are intense discussions as to which direction we should take. Some feel that we should stick to book reviews while others want us to continue in the direction we are at the moment. The discussions are so intense that we felt we should hold all blog updates for the moment. We are also in the middle of figuring out which products to keep and which to stop selling.

Second, many of you might have heard of Plastic Logic’s Que Pro eReader’s delayed launch. Some in our team have argued for not bothering with the review while others feel different. Again we have had intense discussions, which it must be said rage on.

The decision not to continue with these blog pieces was made so as to find a common ground in all discussions. We must say, however, that these blog pieces are not completely off the table. We will endeavour to keep you all posted. Thank you for your patience.

A Trip Through Kindle: The Author's Perspective

If you have been reading TNW US over the last several weeks, you will have noticed that we have been covering the e-reader market nearly every day. Much is happening in that part of the technological kingdom, and it has important future implications.

Questions such as: will publishers maintain their current clout in the market, will authors increasingly publish their own work, will the average e-book price itself at $9.99, or $2.99 or $12.99, are all bouncing around without any clear answers. A quickly growing fan of the e-book idea and a recent Kindle convert on my iPad, I decided to test publishing on Kindle myself. Until you try, you do not know.


For the indie author, does self publishing on Kindle live up to the hype that it liberates you from every needing to find a publisher, or is it more a small scratch on a bigger itch that you can’t fix? The answer, not surprisingly, from my now personal experience, is somewhere in between. If you have the resources and the drive, I see no reason why you could not become a successful, selling author on the Kindle (et al e-readers) platform. I can also see how you could spend months writing a tract, and sell two copies. Let’s break it down.


Effort In, Success Out


I wrote a short essay, mostly gave it away for free (on Scribd, put a short version on HuffPo, published it on my blog, etc.), but also sold it on Kindle. This was however, no small side project. I had three separate people assist with editing over three drafts. I paid a graphic designer to draw a cover for the work. I promoted it where I could, and it performed well on Amazon, shooting (temporarily) to the #1 book on Kindle in the Atheist genre, and the #3 book on Atheism overall for about half a day.
Did it sell huge quantities? No. In fact, I doubt that it will recoup the money I paid to have it prepared. Worth it? To me yes, the project wasn’t about money.


However, there seems to be a feeling among many indie/smaller authors that Kindle is some sort of panacea, and that merely being ‘out there’ on Amazon (and iPad, etc) will ensure that people pay for their work. Here is a little secret that every blogger knows, but that many old-school printy people just don’t seem to get: the horse may drink the water, but you have to drag it to the damn pond. This is even more true when you expect people to actually pay for your writing, unlike in blogging where you give it away for free.


Being on Kindle means that you have made the first step to selling your work, but not that you will actually move a single copy. You have merely opened the door. Once you are on Kindle, the real fun begins. Promotion is the last thing that authors and writers like to do, even us online types, but it is part of the game, period. The more effort you put in, the more success you will receive.


I’m In A Niche!


If you follow e-books, you have heard the following statement: “E-readers are great! I can write on my narrow, narrow niche, and still reach people with my great content!” Small tip: niche genres are more publishable on Kindle than in print, but they are still niche. You will be effectively limiting your sales potential out of the gate if you write about a small one.


People protest this. “But there are millions of Kindles out there, so there must be thousands who also like to cross-stitch using organic hemp cat gut! They need my $24.99 guide!” Maybe, but see our previous point. It is doubly true in a narrow genre. If your work is mass market, you promotion efforts will have greater effect. If you reach 1000 people in your campaign, and your work is 50% mainstream, then 500 people might be interested in it. If your topic is 5% mainstream, then only 50 of those people are potential readers. The math makes niche, well, niche.


Be careful that you don’t paint yourself into a corner and end up with 50,000 words that no one will ever read. Not sure if you are too niche? Find the last book in your genre that was a bestseller. Not one in the last five years? Move on.


Is Kindle Easy?


If you want to do it poorly, yes. It sounds trite, but you can publish into Kindle and the other platforms simply, or you can do it well. My essay was only 3,000 words so I went with simply (poorly), but if you need chapters, an index, and the like, you are going to need to get nitty gritty into the world of HTML. Don’t want to play? Then don’t show up to the game.


Like it or not, Kindle is not kid’s stuff. It’s a professional platform that you can use to reach millions of readers. If you show up like an amateur, you will be ignored like a chump. If you actually expect people to give you their hard earned money, get ready to provide legitimate value. If you need help, go talk to the guru of Kindle, J. A. Konrath.


Amazon Versus The World


What does all of this say in the ongoing e-book wars? Initially do note that, despite all of my warnings, Kindle is still the simplest and best place for anyone who likes to write to self publish something that they have written. The Nook and iBooks platforms will catch up shortly, but for now, Kindle is the winner.


Of course, most of the books (I presume) that are sold on the big three e-reader platforms are not works by indie authors, but by big names on the bestseller lists. So, this Kindle edge I just stated is (probably) not that big a structural advantage, but it can’t hurt. Do remember that Kindle still has the most titles and usually the cheapest price of all the e-platforms. It’s competitors are experimenting with good products like NOOKstudy, but for now, Kindle reigns.


During my first run through Kindle, everything was smooth as a button. I have not a single complaint. I really can’t recall the last time that I tried a new platform (for me) and could say that. Have you tried Kindle? What do you think?

By Alex Wilhelm, who is a Chicago based technology blogger and entrepreneur. The piece can be found here: http://thenextweb.com/us/2010/07/17/a-trip-through-kindle-the-authors-perspective/

The Fast Company Guide to E-Readers

Although it seems that all we ever talk about these days is the tablet--how gorgeous the iPad is, how the tablet will kill off the netbook, a little bit more about the iPad--the more dynamic market of the moment is e-readers. Not a day goes by without the launch of a new model--latest being Asus's Lumibook, and with Marvell muscling in on the Chinese market--and, to be honest, it's all a bit confusing.

Apple has so blurred the boundaries between e-reader and tablet because of its iBook Store, that one could almost argue that the traditional, monochrome version (think Kindle) is almost obsolete. Almost--but that's down to the wondrousness of electrophorectic technology, the fancy (and un-trademarked) name for e-ink, that uses minimal power and is ace for reading in natural daylight. You can see the effects that the iPad has had on the market, however: Engadget uncovered a half-sized iPad simulacrum from Asus (it runs Android, so hints of the B&N Nook there) and, although Jeff Bezos recently claimed there's a color version of the Kindle lurking somewhere in Amazon's labs, it's E.T.A. is "some ways out."

So, when it comes to choosing the right e-reader for you, whatchoo gonna do, Willis? FastCompany.com has separated the wheat from the chaff, and please find, for your delectation, a selection of what we consider to be the most interesting upcoming (and already available) e-readers around. And not an iPad in sight. Well, almost.

Best browser: Bookworms among you may not even be aware that some of the models have Web-browsing capabilities, including the Kindle and the Nook. However, I'm going to blow the black-and-white thang out of the water and say, how about the Pandigital Novel? It's color, it's got Barnes & Noble's half-a-million-volume library, it browses, it's not out yet, but oh ho ho, expect this one to do well. At $200, it's less than the price of a--no, my lips are sealed.

Best book store: They're all pretty damn good, really--although you've got to wonder just how Google will sew up the market if they ever dare to dip their toes back into the hardware market, following their contretemps with the Nexus One. Sony has just announced it is to launch a content-distribution service in Japan, China, Australia, Spain, and Italy. I'll let both Nook and Kindle carry this one off jointly, as they've both got Gut--that's Gutenberg's 1.8 million free books on top of their 500,000 titles--and as I'm a nice girl.

Best for light travelers: As recommended by fellow FC-er, Dan Nosowitz (a more seasoned voyageur you will not meet) the $155 Sony Pocket Reader is, with a mere 5-inch screen and no bulky keyboard, significantly smaller than the competition (even pocket-sized, if you're not wearing skinny jeans). Its memory is beefy enough to allow you around 350 books on it, and it supports books lent from public libraries (any major city library should have an ebook lending system). It's a bit barebones--no search, no annotations, no wireless connection--but it's beautifully designed, absolutely teeny, and it can sometimes be found for $110, nearly impulse-buy territory. If you're not already in hock to the Kindle or Barnes & Noble stores, it's a great option.

Best for someone with a bag-carrier: Oh, without a doubt Plastic Logic's Que. They call it a ProReader, it looks just dreamy, and if ever you want to best someone with an iPad, then this is the e-reader to do it with. It's the business--I'm in no doubt that this is the kind of thing that Tom Ford's minions would be carrying for the great man himself. Price is a little sticky, however--$649 for the 4GB Wi-Fi version, rising to $799 for 8GB Wi-Fi and 3G. I asked, but it doesn't come in a cut-price 1GB version that you pedal yourself. Sigh.

Best apps: If apps is really the only reason you want to buy an e-reader, then why don't you just go to the Apple store and buy the--no, no, I won't say it. If, however, $500 is not the kind of wonga you're planning on shelling out, might I suggest the Nook? Although Android is not quite as hot on the app front as Apple, Barnes & Noble recently churned out a firmware update that lets you upload all kinds of fun and games on its second, color screen. Cost is, like the Kindle, $259.

Best value: If it's all about the money, then plump for the Libre Pro, Borders' riposte to Barnes & Noble's Nook. Costing $120, it comes with 100 free books and a Borders' desktop app. It reads the pretty universal e-book standard file, ePub, as well as .pdf files, has room (via an SD card slot) for 40,000 titles, syncs to your computer, and you can listen to pre-downloaded MP3s on it.

Best for bookworms: It's got to be the Lumiread, Acer's Kindle-esque e-reader, which should be out next month. Acer is staying schtumm about the price so far, but they're known for not beating too much money out of the consumer. Plus, it's got a dinky little scanner that you can use when you're in your local bookstore on a book's ISBN number and which links you to online sites where you can download the e-version of whatever tome it is caught your eye in the Macabre Horror section.

Best if you're not that into books: All right, I'm going to say it--the iPad.

Original piece by Addy Dugdale and can be read here: http://tinyurl.com/32av5rk

Will the iPad Undercut Digital Readers?

The electronic book market is looking increasingly hot, flat and crowded. A vicious price war has broken out among producers of digital readers because of Apple’s success with the iPad. Companies like Amazon hope that selling tomes across multiple devices will fill the profit gap. But competition in e-book distribution is heating up and could pressure margins there, too.

Apple has sold more than three million iPads in about two and a half months. While Amazon doesn’t give figures, analysts think it has sold a similar number of its Kindle e-readers over two and a half years. 

Investors haven’t missed the implications. Amazon’s stock has fallen 8 percent since the iPad arrived. That’s about the same as the market as a whole. The stock of Barnes & Noble, another e-reader seller, has fallen more sharply, losing a quarter of its value. Yet both are still richly priced compared with the market. Amazon trades at 40 times estimated earnings this financial year, and Barnes & Noble at 20 times. 

Meanwhile, Apple’s shares have risen 13 percent since the beginning of April, adding more than $30 billion to the company’s market capitalization. Of course, booming iPhone sales account for a large part of this rise. There’s a three-week waiting list for the latest version when you buy it online, despite some kinks with its antenna. But the iPad figures as well. Analysts’ expectations seem to be rising weekly. Several now predict Apple could sell more than 10 million this year. 

Devices like the Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s Nook and Sony’s Daily Edition e-reader are made specifically for reading, so they have gray screens that are easy on the eyes and batteries that last for days. The iPad, by contrast, has a bright color screen and a battery that drains more quickly. Its success suggests the perceived advantages of e-readers may turn out not to matter too much to consumers. 

After all, iPad users have already downloaded more than five million e-books. It may be that many people prefer a more versatile device that allows them to browse the Web, watch videos, read e-mail and download games and other applications — and act as an e-reader as well. That’s a potential nightmare for Amazon and other purveyors of e-readers. Think how jack-of-all-trades mobile phones have pushed out initially successful dedicated personal digital organizers.

Pricing trends seem to support the thesis. E-reader sellers slashed their prices this week, some by a quarter. But even corporate clients with giant orders for iPads can’t expect to score any discount. Basic e-readers now go for well under $200 and will almost certainly be offered for less than $100 by Christmas, according to Gartner. 

There’s a battle brewing over e-books, too. Before Apple’s iPad appeared, Amazon sold most Kindle books for $9.99 and lost about $3 a book, analysts reckon. That increased Kindle sales and helped establish both the e-book market and Amazon’s place within it.

The iPad has given publishers ammunition to demand higher prices for digitized books. The net result could be a wash, at least for Amazon. Citigroup estimates the Kindle and e-books combined will continue to account for about 5 percent of the company’s total sales and profit, in line with current levels. 

Apple’s bookselling rivals increasingly hope customers will buy e-books via applications that can be used on multiple devices, including iPads, the BlackBerry and computers. Moreover, e-readers’ ability to provide instant gratification via wireless downloads may mean the market for digital books will continue to grow. 

Since Amazon has a large stock of e-books, the Internet retailer’s reader app should have an advantage over some rivals, including Apple. It was the size of Amazon’s book collection that first established the company as a force to be reckoned with a decade ago.

But Barnes & Noble has an e-book app not so dissimilar to Amazon’s, and plenty of content. Google is preparing to open its digital bookstore this summer. And the talk is that technology companies like Dell and Nokia might see the opportunity, too. 

If most consumers aren’t locked into a specific device, they will presumably shop around for the best bargain. After all, it’s easy to download multiple apps. Electronic books may be gripping for those who buy them. But once competition sets in, the bottom lines of the companies hawking them may not make such a good read.

Originally posted by Robert Cyran of Reuters Breaking News, and can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/technology/28views.html?src=busln

Ebooks: Now what?

Well we all knew it was coming. The arrival of the iPad and the pressure that Apple suddenly began to apply to the Ebook Reader market was bound to have an effect, just as Apple and the iPhone forced the telecom industry to respond just be being there. I was also pretty sure that the first thing that the iPad would affect would be price. After all, it is the easiest thing for most tech vendors to change as it simply means cutting the margin finer, and it was sure to have a major effect on consumer and the tech press.

Of course, what we didn’t expect was how quickly the price war would ramp up and pull the major players in. Borders introduces bare bones (no wireless) Kobo reader for $149, which B&N matches a few weeks later with a Wifi only Nook for $149 and challenges Amazon with a price drop on the full Nook to $199. Sony Readers apparently ALSO drop their prices to match (though no one noticed it at the time, which says something). Amazon responds by dropping the Kindle 2 to $189 the same damn day, which means Amazon was just waiting for B&N to announce the new pricing to pull that trigger.

So, what have we learned in the first salvos of the Ebook Reader price war, and where will things go from here?

Many analysts (the same ones who have been saying that the incredible iPad will eliminate netbooks, notebook computers, passenger trains and the letter M from the civilized world) are saying this “race to the bottom” spells the beginning of the end of ebook readers (and good riddance, they usually add). I disagree. Certainly the market is changing due to competition and we are seeing the major players responding to that..what else would they expect? Ebook readers are not going the way of the dinosaur, just the way of every other niche technology. As they become more mainstream and their functionality is incorporated into more devices, the price they can charge drops. There ARE lessons to be learned from this, but “Ebook Readers are Dead” is not one of them.

Rather, one thing we can learn from this, well, really it is more something we are being reminded of, is just how high the profit margins are on these devices. B&N took a fifth off the price of the full Nook, and Amazon knocked a full THIRD off the price of the Kindle just like that. Also, everyone always says the screen is the most expensive part of an ebook reader, but B&N removed the 3G antenna from the Nook and dropped the price by nearly HALF. Clearly these devices cost far less to produce then previously assumed.

Which of course also means we can expect the prices to drop even further. If we assume that both Amazon and B&N are working from the classic “Give away the razor and sell the blades” business model, then the prices are going to drop A LOT more. After all, both companies (and soon Borders) are making most of their money off selling the blades, that is, the books and not the readers. They all provide their software free for other devices specifically to encourage you to shop in THEIR online book store for books, where the real money in this business is.

If Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Borders are really looking at the bottom line realistically and understand that the serious profits are from book sales, then over the next few months we will likely see the Nook and Kindle drop to the point where they are just breaking even on them. Loss leaders. Borders is at a disadvantage on this one as it does not have it’s own Ebook Reader but is licensing readers from other companies, and it’s main device, the Kobo Reader, has it’s own library to feed.

To be honest, I would not be shocked if down the line, both the Kindle and the Nook end up being free, or with free versions that don’t allow sideloading your own books or PC syncing. Do you think Amazon would accept giving away a few bucks worth of tech if you could only use it with books from their own online store? Is Jeff Bezos annoying? (the answer to that is DAMN RIGHT).

I feel that the whole “It is easier to read on E-ink Displays” argument, which doesn’t hold up too well already, is going to carry less and less and weight over the next few months as more tablets appear. In the end, I think both Amazon and B&N will give up on trying to say their devices are better for reading than a tablet and focus completely on leveraging their enormous libraries. I think they already view the Kindle and Nook as simply a platform to sell books, the whole “reading experience” thing is just marketing blather for them. Therefore, expect them to price the platform as low as they need to, even free, to move more ebooks.

However, that move is a little bit down the road I think. What will be the next step in the price war? Well, pity poor Borders. They made a big noise about the fact the readers they were selling (from Kobo and Aluratek) were a bit limited (no wireless), but the cheapest out there…now they are not looking so cheap as the Kindle and the Nook price down, and they aren’t even on sale yet! Borders is also scrambling to push their software on Apple products, just like Amazon and B&N, only with less success.

Therefore, before the July roll out date for Borders’ new AreaE ebook strategy, expect the prices of the Kobo and Libre readers to drop further. I would imagine when they are actually released the Kobo will be the one selling for 119 bucks…and the Libre? 89.95 baby, plus tax. Let’s see how Amazon and B&N like THOSE apples

Piece posted by Zealot and can be found here: http://www.mobilitysite.com/2010/06/ebooks-now-what/

Audio Books July Bestsellers

The following are best sellers from Audible in the month of July:
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E-books pave way for more blockbusters, serials

(Reuters) - Stieg Larsson copycats take note: The slow rise of electronic books is paving the way for more safe-bet fiction blockbusters and serial-type books, at least in the short term, according to some book experts.

With book sales stagnating in recent years, the nascent e-books market has thrown the industry into turmoil. In response, large publishers are taking fewer financial risks and betting more of their dollars on established authors, said Eileen Gittins of self-publishing company Blurb.com.
"In the face of these economics, publishers just cannot take the risk," said Gittins. "They need some sure wins."

Similar to movie studios' betting on well-known franchises to bring box office gold, Gittins said publishers want to market more blockbuster authors writing serial books featuring a distinctive leading character to lure repeat readers, as was seen with the success of prolific, late Swedish author Stieg Larsson, or crime fiction writers such as Michael Connelly.

With prices on the fledging e-book market still being battled over among larger publishers and makers of electronic readers, publishers still have yet to profit much from e-books, with the lower priced e-books eating into profit margins.

The e-book market has grown rapidly with wholesale revenue from e-book sales in the United States increasing to $91 million in the first quarter of 2010 from $55.9 million from the last quarter of 2009, according to International Digital Publishing Forum. But e-book sales still only account for 5-6 percent of overall U.S. book sales and less than 1 percent in Britain, The Financial Times reported this week.

Contrary to popular opinion, most of publishers' costs are developing and marketing authors, not the cost of printing and shipping books. Such costs don't lessen with e-books even though they sell for less than paper books, Gittins said.
That heightens pressure "to need to do blockbuster big titles because now there is even more pressure on them," said Gittins. "They are not really saving money with the e-book, all those costs are still there."

SAFE-BETS
Book experts predict in the e-book market, bestselling authors will remain popular in the short term. According to Amazon, all three of Stieg Larsson's books, which include sensation "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," sit in the top five best-selling books on Amazon's Kindle reader.
Customer favorites for e-books include "great Summer reads" such as Stephenie Meyer's new novella.

Daily Beast book editor Lucas Wittmann said in five years e-book sales could reach levels to make up for lost paper book sales, but for now publishers are feeling the pinch.
"There is a big squeeze right now," said Wittmann. "All the great predictions for e-books haven't quite been realized yet. E-books are growing at an astounding rate but they are not yet making up for the lost (book) sales."
When e-books first hit the market, some nonfiction economic and political books fared well, but now as the e-book audience had widened, more fiction is selling, he said.
"Publishers are still experimenting," Wittmann added.

Publishers Weekly Editorial Director Jim Milliot said online sites such as Amazon.com encourage readers to buy the same author, while smaller publishers were slow on e-books.
"A lot of the independent publishers have been slower to move to put their titles on, mainly because they don't have the resources to do it," he said. "Fiction seems to be winning out, at least in the early going."

As electronic readers improve, the type of e-books that sell well could change. Improving graphics could help genres like nonfiction and children's books become more popular.
"The possibilities seem to be opening up for more graphic work, incorporating multimedia and embedding links to audio when you are reading a biography of Bach or something," Wittmann said, predicting such advances in a year or two.

Wittmann said there will still be some "pain in the industry" but diversity and change was coming.
"Most publishers...are warming to e-books and thinking creatively about them," he said. "The only question is the time frame ... when we see a truly dramatic shift."

Original posted by Stieg Larsson and can be found here: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65O4XG20100625 

Why eBooks are better than Whitepapers

eBooks and whitepapers are two formats for sharing longer written documents on the web. While both of these terms are often used interchangeably, they are actually two different types of documents. 

eBooks tend to be shorter and more interactive than whitepapers. eBooks often include links to additional multimedia information and focus on the how-to aspect of a subject. Whitepapers are more static and less interactive than eBooks and focus more on thought-leadership content.

What Makes eBooks So Good?

• They’re simple to create and inexpensive to produce – You don’t need a publisher or a printer! You just need some basic software and the time to write about your idea or innovative technique.

• They’re engaging – Because they aren’t just PDFs or Word docs, you can actually get your reader to interact and take some type of action. Encourage them to click on links, fill out a survey, subscribe to your blog, watch a video or even buy something from you online.

• They’re easy to distribute and spread like wildfire – Make the ebook free (don’t collect money, don’t collect email addresses) and add a Creative Commons license to the content so people can share the e-book easily. Create a landing page, add a call-to-action on your website, blog about it, put a link your email signature, email it to your friends/partners/vendors, post a video on YouTube, tell your fans and followers. 

• They’re easy to read and more eco-friendly – Although whitepapers can be read online, the vertical formatting makes them difficult to read. eBooks are easily to read digitally on-demand while whitepapers often need to be printed to be read easily.

What Makes Whitepapers So Bad?

• They’re boring - Wikipedia defines a whitepaper as “an authoritative report or guide that often addresses issues and how to solve them. White papers are used to educate readers and help people make decisions.” Even the definition puts me to sleep.

• They’re old school - They date back to the early 1900s. You might remember The Churchill White Paper of 1922 from your high school history class, you might not. Either way, we haven’t really changed the way we use them since then. They’re still a form of semi self-promotion and propaganda. It’s just that now they are found on the web and are used by businesses as a marketing or sales tool rather than promoting government policy.

• They’re forced upon us – Most people don’t want to read whitepapers, they just feel like they have to read them because they’re “authoritative” and written by “industry leaders”. Or because their boss said so.

• They’re not good link bait – Because you typically have to register (give your email address) to download the whitepaper, most people don’t promote or share whitepapers because they don’t want to force their fans and followers and friends to give their email address away and get hounded by sales reps.

I don’t hate whitepapers. I mean, whitepapers are still useful. But, eBooks are a better way to share on-depth content online. So start writing and sharing your eBook. You’ll be surprised at how fast your ideas will spread and your business will grow.

The most important concepts to remember, whether you choose to create an eBook or a whitepaper, are to have fun with it, write for your audience and be sure you’re actually providing valuable information and awesome ideas.

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/6145/Why-eBooks-Are-Better-Than-Whitepapers.aspx#ixzz0sBdC96WP

By Emily Haahr

Why e-Book Reader Sales are Seen Heading South

Is the window of opportunity for e-book readers with embedded broadband going to close not long after it just opened? That’s the forecast being made by UK research firm Informa Telecoms & Media — it believes device sales will peak in 2013 and then decline by 7 percent the following year because instead of purchasing dedicated e-book readers, consumers will shift towards other multifunction devices with mobile broadband, such as Apple’s iPad or an anticipated Android tablet, to read e-book content.


Indeed, one of the key reasons for the recent success of readers like Amazon’s Kindle or the Barnes & Noble Nook is also a limiting factor in terms of multipurpose functionality — today’s  E Ink displays that make such devices attractive aren’t as effective for activities like browsing the web or viewing video. New display technologies are needed to support those use cases. Two that come to mind: Qualcomm’s Mirasol low-powered color panel and Pixel Qi’s innovative dual-mode screen, which can use ambient light instead of a power-hungry backlight as needed. With its next-generation “E Ink mode” you can watch a fast-frame movie on the Pixel Qi screen — skip to the 9:30 mark of my CES video to see how well this display works.


As a voracious reader and former Amazon Kindle 2 owner, I see both sides of the page when it comes to dedicated e-book readers. On the one hand, I love the paper-like reading experience a dedicated E Ink reader provides. Combine that with a light device that doesn’t require a battery recharge for weeks and it’s no wonder I took my Kindle everywhere I went. But after just one day with my iPad, I sold my Kindle, mainly because I didn’t want to tote both devices and the Kindle for iPad application provides the same experience as the original. Plus, although everyone’s eyes are different, I don’t buy into the eye-strain argument in favor of E Ink. I’m already looking at an LCD display for 10-12 hours a day on my computers — what’s another hour or two?


In other words, I didn’t wait until 2013 to switch from a dedicated reader to a multifunction device. And with the expected onslaught of slates and tablets this year — by and large, e-book devices use a slate form factor — I imagine I won’t be the only one. One portable device with embedded broadband for web, social networks and other online activities appears to be the future. There’s still a market for standalone e-book devices — folks that prefer E Ink over LCD or people who would rather check email or visit the web on a traditional computer will opt for an e-book — but these consumers will be in the minority as people will opt for converged connected devices. For continued growth and success, e-book readers have to add new functionality in order to compete for consumer dollars.


This market isn’t really about hardware, anyway; it’s about the sale of content — and Amazon is still expected to earn a billion dollars on digital books, even if its Kindle hardware doesn’t continue to sell well. That explains why Amazon created a Kindle for iPad application and why Barnes & Noble today outed its reader software for Apple’s slate: More content on more devices equals more money.


Original post by Kevin C Tofel.
You can read it here: http://gigaom.com/2010/05/27/why-e-book-reader-sales-are-seen-heading-south/