Sony Makes E-Readers Touchy, Takes 'Em Where Amazon Fears to Tread

Sony just revamped its entire line of e-readers, slimming them down, snazzing them up and adding better touchscreen powers. They're expensive, but are now the e-readers the Kindle should be. So, is Sony brave or dumb?

All of the players in the e-reader game are suddenly attempting different tactics to win some sales. Sony, sailing supremely along at the top end of nearly every market it operates in, has acted to keep its e-reader offerings fresh and competitive but has chosen to neatly ignore the frenzy to simplify and cheapen e-book readers that many others are taking part in and has instead bumped up the specs on its digital book readers. And kept the price high.

The newly refreshed Reader line-up has improved touchscreens, faster electronics for speedier page-turns and whatnot, and slimmed down the aluminum chassis so they're all lighter to hold. The Daily Edition now has Wi-Fi (the others still only have wired connectivity) and a very basic browser, but none of the devices has 3G connectivity. (Update: Sony notes that the Daily Edition does come with a 3G option)

But, ignoring the fact that Sony's ecosystem to supply content isn't as sophisticated as Amazon's, these gizmos are quality, nicely designed devices. The only thing holding them back is the high price, which is a defining Sony characteristic: The Reader Pocket will cost $179, the larger Touch costs $229, and the mighty Daily will come in at $299. This is way more than Amazon's Kindle Graphite will cost you.

And in fact, the new Readers are what the Kindle should be like. Touchscreen tech is fast taking over the portable gadget world, since the so-called "natural interfaces" that are enabled by touchscreens are by far the easiest way to interact with the hardware. The fact the Kindle doesn't have it is an oddity--and the reason is even odder: Jeff Bezos himself noted that the touchscreen overlay that is typically used adds "too much glare" (a problem that did beset the previous touchscreen Sony Readers). Instead of trying to improve the tech, innovate, and deliver a better product to the consumer (as Sony's done) the new Kindle is pretty unimaginative (our own Dan Nosowitz begs to differ, I know). And more than anything else, this might be the thing that dooms hardware e-readers to a niche-device future.

Original piece by Kit Eaton and can be found here: http://bit.ly/aJfoGt . You cn also follow Kit on Twitter @ twitter.com/kiteaton

Liquid, solid, gas, iPad is kicking ass!

The world of eBooks has taken a different turn not just in terms of book publishing but also in the eBook readers coming to market. One such piece of hardware is Apple’s iPad. The iPad is not an eBook reader but a tablet. However, the iPad has taken a position within the eBook space as it is. This has caused a stir in the industry and the imagination of the public.

Regardless of how we all might look at it, the iPad has set new standards in what the tablets do from now on. In addition to this, the iPad has changed things forever. The changes made that are what make it the kick-ass piece of hardware that it is. Here are just very few characteristics that make my claim so:
 

Ease of Use
I knew that the iPad was a hit the moment I saw my older brother get excited while using it. He (big brother) is a complete technophobe and hates using anything that will make him think too much. He just does not have the patience. The iPad came natural to him. The use of the fingers to carry out operations is simply a masterstroke. Using the fingers is not new, but the way Apple put it together is something else.
 

Expense
Many – I was one of them – have complained at how much it cost to buy any piece of hardware from Apple. What I did not get at the time was that people did not care about the price they wanted the user experience. For those who might sneer at my statement, you should have seen the queue for those waiting to buy the iPad at Apple’s twenty-four hour store on Fifth Avenue in New York. Enough said!
 

Productivity
Now some of you might wonder about this statement but I tell you I have. I receive PDF documents on a regular basis. My biggest problem has been reading the documents. This is something I am sure you have experienced at one time or the other. I wrote a short piece a while ago titled “One reason why the iPad could be the eBook Reader Killer. (http://bit.ly/dl0wgq).” I really did mean what I wrote as my MacBook Pro screen was easier on the eyes. The iPad has made things simpler especially when I decide to read in bed. I know read my documents within hours instead of days, and the MacBook gets to rest.
 

The Reading Myths
The first of these myths I believe I have answered – reading PDFs. One the first things you hear is that you cannot read PDFs on the iPad. I assure you that the iBooks software is more than capable of handling PDFs. Secondly; you cannot read in the sun using an iPad. Let me assure you that that is nonsense. I now live in Pretoria in sunny South Africa. I took the iPad out into the sun on 28C hot and humid day. The auto-brightness feature kicked in and made reading delightful.
Now I have not read using either the Kindle or Nook so I am in no position make a comparison. However, there is nothing wrong with the iPad.

Satisfactory Battery Life
eBook reader purists will always point to the fact the Kindle or Nook have battery lives in the weeks. I must remind people that the iPad is a tablet not an eBook reader, and has a satisfactory battery life 
 

eBook Market Space
I realise that this part of the discussion is two-fold. First, Amazon has access to 450,000 books, Barnes & Noble 700,000 books, while Apple just over 60,000 books. By the sheer size of books, this is a no contest. However, what the non-iPad users do not realise is that both Amazon and Barnes & Noble have both released eBook reader applications for iPad. We must not forget other reader apps from Wattpad, Kobo, and Free Books to mention just a few.

This can only mean that they (Amazon & Co) realise the importance of the iPad in the scheme of things. Moreover, despite the fact that the iPad is a tablet in a different market, it cannot and must not be ignored. Again, I go back to user experience. They (Amazon and others) realise that people might just not be interested in buying a Nook or Kindle if they are happy with an iPad. Because of this, Amazon and others realise that it would stupid not to take the initiative in the iPad market.

Secondly, although some companies have seen their fortunes turn for the worse in the eBook reader market, this does not mean that the shakeout has ended. In addition, there is already a price war brewing between Amazon, Barnes & Noble and of course Sony. Amazon has already fired the first shot with a $139 Kindle. It will be interesting to see what the others do. We can only speculate where all this will lead to as time goes on.
 

The Chrome Factor
This I must admit also has commercial considerations but with a difference.  Google has now decided to enter the tablet space with the Chrome OS Tablet. Many others have announced and entered the market without much as a care from the consumers. It (Google) has announced that it will be releasing the table on November 26 (Black Friday to those in the US). Google might take comfort in the fact that its Android phone recently surpassed the iPhone in overall sales. This does not mean the same will happen in the tablet space. We must not forget that Google has made several concerted efforts in the social media space and lost to Facebook. Only time will tell how things work out.
 

Innovation
Developers have taken a leaf out of the iPhone book with a plethora of new applications. Many of the apps are free while some you will have to buy. One of the most interesting apps I bought was the Vook (http://vook.com/). Some of you might remember a blog piece I put out on June 22 titled “Forget eBooks: The Future of the Book is far more interesting”. Adam Penenberg, a journalism professor and contributing writer to FastCompany, wrote this piece.

In the piece, he talked about how the eBook would evolve from just stagnant word on the page to the addition of video throughout the text, photos, hyperlinks, and the engagement of social networks. The same would be true of works of non-fiction. Imagine for a moment you were reading about the Second World War. While reading, you get to hear an mp3 track from that era which you end up liking; why not buy that song there and then within your book. Just imagine the commercial opportunities.

The Vook app is just the beginning of this era as it combines photos, video, hyperlinks and social media connections to its books. I am currently reading, “Unleashing the Superideavirus” by Seth Godin. The book allows you to tweet sections of the book, email your friends or share on Facebook, not to mention the interesting videos at the beginning of each chapter. There are also hyperlinks to the web strewn all through the book. Once again, it will be interesting to see where all this leads us.

Conclusion
Many already have the misconception that the iPad is an eBook reader. People it is not! The iPad is a tablet while the Kindle and Nook are eBook readers. There is a difference between the two. I do not think that the iPad is a direct threat to the eBook readers; however, it is a threat by the fact that consumers want it and it is quite a good piece of hardware.

There is absolutely no question that Amazon and Nook will battle it out with a few other smaller players for the soul of the eBook market. We will all have to wait and see what happens. As Google comes to the party later this year, it remains to be seen what their tablet will do in the market place. At this time, I cannot call it in favour of Google for one simple reason, customer desire. Despite the fact that Apple has always charged a bit more than most, customers have still flocked to the brand. It is obvious to most that the brand has brought something extra to the table, user experience.

Although Google is known for its innovation and its recent triumph over the iPhone with Android, there are no guarantees of the Chrome OS Tablet’s success. As a friend of mine put it recently, except the Chrome OS Tablet is sh$#ting gold nuggets, it can forget about beating the iPad. As a recent convert to the Apple brand, I say long live the iPad and long live interesting times ahead. And regardless of what anyone might say, the iPad is kicking ass.

Let the Comic Book Rise again, All Hail the iPad, Marvel, and DC

I am one of those men who read the Marvel Comics as a kid and had secretly fantasised that the super heroes would make it to the big screen.  Thank God they did, and in spectacular style. The massive improvements in computer technology and special effects have ensured that any super hero can be brought to life.  However, does this mean that the comic book is dead? 

 
Many of the comic book establishments like Marvel found their sales fall with unimpressive figures over a few years. Hollywood might have contributed to this but this is debatable. I am sure that computer games did contribute to an extent in this decline. Suddenly kids were able to interact with their favourite characters. Although I am no fan of computer games (I just could not get into it), I am not against them either. I am fascinated though when I watch my nephews play games on their PlayStation. They seem to be in a world of their own, making the characters do all sorts of manoeuvres.  
 
The last time I read a comic book I was fifteen years old. Some thirty or so years later, I find myself reading them on an iPad. There are still outlets that sell comics but I would not be caught dead going into one. Why you may ask? I felt it was childish. Is it so wrong for a man of almost fifty to go into a comic shop? In some cultures (like mine), it is considered childish, while in others it is not.  In mine, however, a man my age could come up with the excuse that he is buying them for his kids. While plausible, it is still unacceptable especially if your children are old enough to do that for themselves. 
 
You might ask – and quite rightly, so – what it is the shame in buying comics for your kids. Absolutely nothing is the answer to that. I just found myself conforming to the norm (shame on me!). 
 
As time went by, I forgot completely about comics until a piece of hardware showed up. That hardware known as the iPad changed everything. I got one about two weeks ago from the UK and I unashamedly say it has not left my side since then except when having a shower. 
 
I am not going to go into any details; most of you already know how this delightful tablet works. As I studied the use of my iPad, I read an article on the Internet about the ten best iPad apps to have. One of the top ten apps mentioned was the Marvel Comics app. I immediately proceeded to the iTunes Store to download the app more out of curiosity. On installing, I downloaded a few of the free comics. I cannot tell you what a delight it was to read about the super heroes again. 
 
One such download was Civil War (2006) #1. I enjoyed it so much that I went on to download all six other episodes. The six episodes cost $1.99 each but I did not care. I wanted more; I began to think of what else I could read. I recalled battles of the past such as The Defenders versus The Avengers. I remembered characters like the Lizard and the Green Goblin. I remembered how we waited with baited breath on what the new episodes would hold. I found myself feeling the same way. I began to wonder whether men my age across the World felt the same way. I did not have long to wait. My older brother called me to say he had read a few of the comics and wanted more.

I have a new yearning in my soul; I want Marvel Comics to make holiday specials of three or even four hundred page long episodes. I know; Marvel could republish Spider Man versus the Lizard epic battles. Why not create a rift between the Fantastic Four and the Defenders? I am sure Marvel has all sorts of weird and wonderful characters we can enjoy. Eh, maybe I have gone too far in this request. Please tell me. 
 
So what are your conclusions I hear you ask. For one, the iPad has given me a gift I would not have had – reasons for an adult to read a comic again. The iPad has also put paid to the shame of going to a comic store – Marvel App Store. I also realise that I need to read works of fiction once again. I have not read fiction since I was eighteen. I can do nothing but thank the iPad for that. I also found that I have taken life a little too seriously. It is time to loosen up. 
 
As I mentioned earlier, I wonder how many more people feel the way I feel. I am convinced that the iPad could revive comic book reading even to those who never really did so as children. I hope someone from Marvel Comics might read this blog and consider what I have written. I am sure there are more people who would gladly pay for some good old-fashioned super hero entertainment. By the way, the same goes for DC Comics; I downloaded the app and have read a few stories, my experience, one word, awesome.

Comments from all the old men out there who are still in the comic book closet would be most appreciated. 

Why Nobody Will Buy a Color E-Ink E-book Reader

E-ink is one of the more unusual technologies to spring up in recent years. It's both more expensive and less versatile than LCD, a long-established product seen in everything from iPods to TVs. It's incredibly specific, but also incredibly good at its one job: reading text. 

E-ink e-book readers like the Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook offer, in the opinion of myself and many others, the best digital book-reading experience available. The battery life is astounding (the new Kindle gets up to a month of battery life. An entire month!), they can be used outside without glare, and they quite simply look more like printed, physical ink and paper than any other display ever created. You can lose yourself in e-ink, which is about the best compliment I can give to a digital reader.

On the other hand, LCD devices in a similar package, including tablets like Apple's iPad, offer a passable reading experience on top of a whole host of features e-ink will never, ever be able to handle. E-book readers are better for books; tablets are better for everything else. So tablets and e-book readers exist in an odd sort of stalemate right now: neither can quite replace the other.

But I do believe that LCD and other, more modern displays (including Pixel Qi, LED, AMOLED, and countless other acronymic display types) will advance to the point where they offer a reading experience at least comparable to e-ink. Some have already been made--the iPad's IPS LCD display is better than expected in outdoor use, for example--and that's the wave of the future. And at that point, e-ink will die.

E-ink will die mostly because it fundamentally can't compete with tablets. That's why announcements like today's, in which E-Ink (it's a company as well as that company's main--or only?--product) claimed it will release both a color and a touchscreen version by early 2011, is so confusing. But color and interface are hardly the only obstacles e-ink has to overcome to compete with tablets: Its refresh rates make video largely impossible, it can't cram in enough pixels to make still photos look any more crisp than a day-old McDonald's french fry, and, most damnably, it's still extremely expensive.

I've used both color and touchscreen e-ink displays before. Before its untimely demise, I saw a prototype version of the Skiff newspaper reader with color, and I've used Sony's Reader Touch Edition as well. The Skiff's color was faded, like a photocopy of a photocopy, an extremely unimpressive display closer to old four-color comics than crisp digital imagery. Sony's Touch Edition suffers from enjoyment-killing glare and a slow response rate. While I'm sure the technology for both color and touch can be advanced, I'm not the least bit convinced that it'll ever get to the point where those features are competitive. By the time e-ink catches up to modern-day LCD (and that's assuming it ever does, which is a hefty assumption), LCD will have advanced as well.

Amazon showed that the way to make e-book readers sell like blazes is to lower the price to near-impulse-item territory. Its new $140 Kindle sold out of pre-orders almost immediately, and there's been more buzz around the next version than can be explained through hardware upgrades alone. It's a great reader, don't get me wrong, but its incredible sales numbers are due in large part to the price cut.

Color and touchscreen e-book readers would require a substantial increase in price, to accommodate the new technology. But that's exactly the wrong way to advance e-ink--the price needs to remain as low as possible. 

Why is E-Ink pretending that features like color and touch interfaces are important, necessary, or even desirable for its product? E-ink readers like the Kindle offer the best digital reading experience on the market--why muck it up with expensive and useless features?

E-ink may not have a long future, but until LCD can learn some very difficult new tricks, it'll survive. Diluting that purpose for half-baked progress to compete with tablets is the wrong direction for e-ink.

Original post by Dan Nosowitz and can be found here: http://bit.ly/cs8u3v

Mass Romance Novel Publisher Going All In On E-Books

With a dramatic fall in sales of its range of books, one publisher has decided to take the eBooks route. Here is the story in full:

E-books are becoming more popular by the minute thanks to devices like the Kindle, Nook, and iPad, but major dead tree publishers have been hesitant to go all in—until now. Dorchester Publishing, which describes itself as the “oldest independent mass market publisher in America,” has decided to ditch its mass printing business to go digital- and print-on-demand only.

Unsurprisingly, Dorchester had a little nudge in that direction: the publisher said that sales of its books had declined a whopping 25 percent in just the last year, while its e-book sales are expected to double in 2011. The company specializes in romance, thriller, sci-fi, and fantasy novels and sells directly to major retailers like Wal-Mart.

“It wasn’t a long, drawn out decision, because we’ve been putting in the effort but not getting the results,” Dorchester CEO John Prebich told the Wall Street Journal.

Amazon recently said that Kindle book sales had surpassed the company’s sales of hardcover books in the last three months—a trend that many expect to continue now that the Kindle is even cheaper than before. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos even made the bold prediction that Kindle book sales might eclipse paperbacks within the next year.

Though some consider that prediction to be just short of delusion, it’s clear that e-books are (at least) on a positive trajectory. Whether that trajectory will enough to overcome the apparent drop in traditional media sales for Dorchester is another story, but the company says it expects to make big savings from cutting out printed books.

It’s unclear, however, whether that expectation includes some of its partners walking away: “It’s been a good run, but if they aren’t publishing mass-market paperbacks, we’ll have to decide what to do,” said Charles Ardai, owner of Hard Case Crime, which distributes its books through Dorchester.

This story was from Wired Magazine and written by Jacqui Cheng and can be found here: http://bit.ly/bdMXXG

Barnes & Noble Unveils Kindle-Killing, Dual-Screen ‘Nook’ E-Reader (Updated)

If you just ordered a Kindle, stop reading now or you’re in for a giant dose of buyer’s remorse. Barnes and Noble unveiled a new e-book reader called ‘Nook’, and it is hot, both inside and out. 

Nook looks a lot like Amazon’s white plastic e-book reader, only instead of the chiclet-keyboard there is a color multitouch screen, to be used as a keyboard or to browse books, cover-flow style. The machine runs Google’s Android OS and it will have wireless capability from AT&T.

The $260 Nook–same price as the Kindle 2–is expected to be on sale at the end of November.

The Nook has the regular black-and-white E Ink display and a 3.5-inch color touchscreen. The latter allows users to browse books. The Nook also comes with built-in WiFi, 2GB of internal storage, MP3 player and supports open formats such as EPUB. Nook users have features such as bookmarks, and the ability to share books with friends for up to a fortnight through other e-readers, smartphones or computers.

Barnes and Noble has said Nook customers will have access to its online bookstore that includes books, newspapers and magazines. The Nook itself can hold up to 1,500 e-books.

Gizmodo, first showed leaked images of the Nook last week. The blog said that B&N will be discounting titles heavily in their electronic format, which is as is should be (no paper, printing or shipping costs). The Nook will also be able to get books from the Google Books Project.

Earlier Tuesday, Wall Street Journal, had a peek at an at ad set to run in The New York Times this coming Sunday. The ad features the line “Lend eBooks to friends,” and this has the potential to destroy the Kindle model. One of the biggest problems with e-books is that you can’t lend or re-sell them. If B&N is selling e-books cheaper than the paper versions, then the resale issue is moot. And lending, even if your friends need a Nook, too, takes away the other big advantage of paper.

In fact, this loaning function could be the viral feature that makes the device spread. Who would buy a walled-garden machine like the Kindle when the Nook has the same titles, cheaper, and you can borrow? The Nook is already starting to look like the real internet to the Kindle’s AOL.

Original blog by Charlie Sorrel and can be found here: http://bit.ly/30kb4g

Upstart E-readers Fade to Black as Tablets Gain Momentum

E-readers are far from dead but many are certainly gasping for breath. A shake-out in the e-reader market has put some smaller companies out of business, leaving the playing field clear for giants like Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Sony.

The list of e-reader makers running into trouble has grown in the past few weeks:

• Audiovox has canceled plans to introduce the RCA Lexi e-reader that it demonstrated at the Consumer Electronics Show this year.
• Last month, e-reader maker iRex filed for bankruptcy, citing disappointing sales of its product in the United States.
• Plastic Logic, which also debuted its large screen reader at CES in January, has canceled all pre-orders for its device and scrapped plans to ship the product.
• Cool-er, one of the earliest startups to launch a Sony look-alike e-reader, has listed all its products as “out of the stock” in the United States with no mention of when new devices will be available.

“Companies that had neither brand nor distribution have failed,” says Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst for Forrester Research.

Price cuts by Amazon and Barnes & Noble, coupled with the shift in consumer interest toward more multi-purpose tablets, have also taken their toll on e-readers.

“You are seeing the same kind of proliferation and excitement in tablets now that you saw two years ago for e-readers,” says Epps.

After Amazon introduced the Kindle in 2007, e-readers became one of the hottest consumer products. The category attracted large companies such as Samsung and Barnes & Noble, even as lesser-known players such as Plastic Logic, Aluratek and iRiver jumped in.

Mostly Kindle clones, many of these e-readers were near-identical in how they looked and the features they offered. Almost all sourced their black-and-white screen from a single company: E Ink.

Meanwhile, Apple launched its iPad this year. At $500, it’s pricier than most e-readers, but offers relatively long battery life, a color screen and iBooks, an iTunes-like store for digital books. It may not be as ideally suited to reading as a dedicated e-reader, but many iPad customers are finding that it works well enough as a book reader, in addition to its many other functions.

Apple’s move sparked a price war in the e-reader market. Amazon dropped the price of its Kindle 2 to $190 from $260. Barnes & Noble released a Wi-Fi-only version of the Nook for $150, while a Nook with Wi-Fi and 3G capability now costs $200.

The price war put a squeeze on smaller e-reader manufacturers.

“As a result of the recent price drops in the market, our primary focus has shifted to international opportunities,” Audiovox told the Digital Reader website.

All this doesn’t mean consumers have completely fallen out of love with e-readers, says Epps. Tablets will outpace e-readers in overall sales, she says, but the shift toward digital books is here to stay. Forrester estimates 6.6 million e-readers will be sold in the United States this year. Approximately 29.4 million e-readers may be sold in the United States by 2016, compared to 59 million tablets.

Earlier this week, Amazon said for the first time sales of e-books are outstripping hardcovers. In June, Amazon sold 180 e-books for every 100 hardcovers. In the first six months of the year, the company sold three times as many e-books as it did in the first half of 2009.

“In the e-reader market, price is coming way down and that’s the major consideration for purchase,” says Epps. “If a company can do cheaper and better devices than Amazon, Sony or Barnes & Noble, they still have a chance — but no one’s been able to do that yet.”

Originally by Priya Ganapati and can be found here: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/07/ereaders-consolidation/

$99 Color E-Reader and Social Platform to Challenge Amazon, B&N This Fall

Following recent price cuts on Amazon’s Kindle 2 and Barnes & Noble’s Nook, a new manufacturer is set to stir up even more competition in the e-reader pricing wars with the debut of a $99 color device this fall.

The device, which weighs in at .42 lbs and features a 5-inch, 800×480-pixel, color LCD display, 2GB of storage, 64MB of RAM, 2G of Flash Memory and up to four hours of battery life, is just one in a line of devices Copia, a subsidiary of DMC Worldwide, plans to introduce.

Other devices include a 7-inch color e-reader for $129.99, two 6-inch black-and-white e-readers that closely resemble the Kindle 2 for $149.99 without Wi-Fi and $159.99 with Wi-Fi, and a $299.99 10.1-inch Wi-Fi-enabled color tablet.

“We want to make e-reading more accessible to a mass audience,” said Tony Antolino, senior VP of DMC Worldwide and Copia. “Not everyone can afford all of the higher end devices.”

 CAN COPIA REALLY TAKE ON AMAZON?

The question is whether Copia can compete with the established players in the space, several of whom have already captured large shares of the e-book market, established partnerships with major authors and literary agencies, and launched devices that have become household names.

If anyone can do it, I believe Copia can. It’s not just another big brand arriving late to the market; rather, it’s creating a new reading, discussion and shopping experience that’s radically different than what’s being offered by current e-book retailers.

While I don’t think its line of e-ink readers stand a chance against the cheaper, better Kindle 3, the social platform could be a major success. Readers who like to share and discuss what they are reading will discover an integrated experience that will lead them to purchase books from Copia’s store over one of its competitors — if Copia can offer enough incentives to get them to explore the platform in the first place.

What do you think of Copia’s forthcoming line of devices and social reading platform? Can a small manufacturer compete against the likes of Amazon, Apple and Barnes & Noble?

Original story by Lauren Indvik. The full story can be read here: http://mashable.com/2010/08/03/copia/

Soaring e-book sales speak volumes

HONG KONG — After years of lurking in the literary wilderness, the e-book market has exploded with online retailer Amazon.com's digital volumes recently overtaking sales of their hardcover counterparts.

The increase in sales has come as Amazon slashes the price on its Kindle device amid heavy competition from Apple's multi-purpose iPad and e-readers from Sony and bookstore giant Barnes & Noble.

Underscoring the growth, Hong Kong's massive book fair, an annual event attended by almost one million people, wrapped up last week with visitors exposed to a brand-new section: digital reading.

Beijing-based Hanvon Technology unveiled a black-and-white tablet reader that comes with 5,000 Chinese and English book titles pre-installed for about 3,400 Hong Kong dollars (440 US).

Readers can download thousands more titles for as little as 20 Hong Kong dollars each on the device, which also lets users enlarge the typeface, take notes and look up words in the dictionary.

"One (print) book might cost you 100 Hong Kong dollars or more, and then you have to find a place to store it," Hanvon employee Bo Bo Wong told AFP. "With this, you can have thousands and thousands of books in one place," she said.

Mainland companies such as Hanvon, Acuce and Tianjin are taking on the likes of Apple and Amazon by pushing content tailor-made for the vast and rapidly growing Chinese digital market.

The total value of digital publications across all platforms overtook that of traditional print publications in mainland China for the first time last year, the General Administration of Press and Publication said last week.

According to the South China Morning Post, a recent survey by the Chinese Institute of Publishing Science found that nearly a quarter of the 20,000-plus people it surveyed now do most of their reading digitally.

The newspaper quoted Chen Fuming, a manager of a major bookstore chain in Guangzhou across the border from Hong Kong, as saying Chinese book shops were in crisis.

"Even I myself now prefer to read fiction with my mobile phone," Chen said. "It's cheap and convenient."

New Zealand's Kiwa International, another company showing off its wares at the Hong Kong book fair, is using Apple's iPad as a platform for its child-targeted software.

The Auckland firm's technology lets children interact with books downloaded onto the iPad by colouring in story characters and swiping words that are then repeated aloud -- in nine languages.

"They can totally personalise the book," Kiwa's creative director Derek Judge told AFP. "And we provide a service to (traditional) publishers who want to enter into the digital arena."

Amazon temporarily sold out of its 189-dollar Kindle e-reader last week and on Thursday unveiled a new 139-dollar model that connects online by WiFi instead of via 3G networks.

"Amazon.com customers now purchase more Kindle books than hardcover books -- astonishing when you consider that we've been selling hardcover books for 15 years, and Kindle books for 33 months," Amazon boss Jeff Bezos said last month.

US bookstore chain Borders has also launched an electronic book store to tap into the market, which has seen late Swedish crime writer Stieg Larsson become the first novelist to sell more than one million e-books on Amazon.com.

But while British author and actor Stephen Fry is an avowed technophile, he doesn't think printed books should be written off quite yet.

"Printed books certainly will continue to exist," he said at the Hong Kong fair.

"I love them and will continue to collect them... (with) some books I just want to turn the pages myself."

Originally from Google News - http://tinyurl.com/32ta2tv

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

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/