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Author: blueZhift (Page 6 of 10)

Amazon May Kindle Tablet War

May 4, 2011 /

One of this week’s big stories is that Amazon may be getting into the tablet war with its own Android OS powered offering. A large order placed with Taiwan-based notebook maker Quanta may signal Amazon’s plans to enter the tablet market.

If true, I think this says a few things about the tablet market. First at the high end where Apple has successfully fended off any and all competitors for the iPad’s crown, perhaps Amazon sees a threat to its Kindle platform. Kindle books can be read on the iPad, and so far Amazon has been able to avoid giving Apple a cut of the sales because purchases in the Kindle app call Safari to load Amazon’s mobile site. But there’s no telling how long this will remain the case. And as Apple’s own iBookstore develops and matures, Amazon’s share can only decline.

At the lower end, Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color, according to B&N at least, has been very successful. While the Nook Color isn’t going to put the Kindle out to pasture anytime soon, it has proven that there is a market for an eBook optimized, backlit, touchscreen, LCD tablet half the price of an iPad.

So it’s not really any surprise that Amazon is trying to close a hole in its eReader offerings now. Besides great reading, the Kindle has always been about tying the reader to Amazon’s bookstore. No 3rd party device will ever do this as well as a Kindle does.

Reports expect the device to be release in the second half of 2011. I would guess it will be ready in time for the Christmas holiday sales season along with a lot of special publisher partner deals to show off the tablet’s new features. It’ll probably be very similar to the Nook Color, also powered by Android OS, and priced the same or less with promotional offers, or putting up with ads.

It’s unlikely that the battle of $250 eReader tablets is going to dethrone the iPad. The main casualties of the coming war are likely going to be those other tablets that so far have failed to gain much traction. It may get a lot harder to sell Xooms and Playbooks once Amazon starts marketing their new color Kindle that reads books and plays Angry Birds for only $250.

Update: Barnes & Noble is preparing to announce a new eReader on May 24. Begun this tablet war has.

Kindle eBooks Coming To Your Library: Cha Ching!

April 24, 2011 /

Soon it will be possible for Kindle readers to check out Amazon Kindle eBooks from their local libraries. eBook lending from public libraries in the U.S. has been around for a few years now, but not in the Kindle format which effectively left most Kindle readers out in the cold.

This is certainly great news for Kindle eBook readers, but I think the timing of this action is the real story here. Recently, publisher Harper Collins sent chills to libraries everywhere by declaring an absolute limit of 26 loans on any of its eBooks in a library’s collection. And much has been made of the maintenance of artificial scarcity of digital goods like eBooks. eBooks don’t wear out, and an unlimited number of copies can be made at virtually no additional cost. So why limit the number that a library can loan out, much less impose some limit on the total number of times a copy may be loaned?

Obviously Harper Collins and other publishers don’t want library eBook loans to kill eBook sales, or print book sales for that matter. And I think there is some validity to that. I have no problem with a library having a limited number of licenses for a given title. But this “wear out” factor Harper is trying to introduce is just stupid. Those eBook loans are more likely than not, going to drive sales, not kill them. Libraries are great advertising, and unlike a bookstore, even obscure titles get shelf space, indefinitely! Libraries help sell the back catalog in physical space.

So what does the entry of Amazon into the fray say? It says that Amazon sees a money making opportunity. During my recent visit to the Myopic Bookstore in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood, I saw a puzzling sign in the store. It said that the use of barcode scanners was prohibited. I’d never seen any signs like that before. Later I thought about it and figured that maybe it was to keep competitors from inventorying their stock. But it also occurred to me that perhaps some people were coming into the store using it to browse books that they would later look up and buy on Amazon. There are plenty of smartphone apps to facilitate that kind of activity.

While Kindle readers certainly don’t need to go to libraries to buy or borrow books, it would not surprise me if Amazon’s data shows that a lot of them do. It is also very likely that the libraries that will loan Kindle books, will also have physical copies to browse and loan as well. I suspect that it is much easier to make a sale when a reader has had time to really get to know a book in person. Up until now, Barnes & Noble, and Borders with their free Wi-Fi have probably helped drive Kindle book sales via this access to physical books. If this is true, then Amazon has no doubt seen a slight decline in sales consistent with the declining number of bookstores.

Amazon’s entry into the library then makes good business sense. It’s entry may also send a pause to Harper Collins and other publishers. The Kindle has lost some market share to Barnes & Noble’s Nook, and the Apple iPad, but Amazon still maintains a lot of leverage on publishers. Publishers that won’t play ball with library loans, may find it a lot harder to sell titles to Kindle readers. The large bookstore chains are not coming back. Publisher fortunes will soon rest largely on digital sales. Right now Amazon is to eBook sales what Apple has been to digital music. Until publishers come up with similarly popular distribution channels, the road to eBook sales will continue to pass through Amazon.

That said, Amazon’s endorsement and support of library eBook lending will reap benefits for all readers of eBooks who want to borrow them from public libraries.

Monobookist Bookstore Heralds The Boutique

April 23, 2011 /

As Borders reports that it needs an additional $50 million to reorganize, an interesting new bookstore has popped up in New York City. A so called, monobookist bookstore. This bookstore opened in a modest space, stocked with 3000 copies…of one book!

To celebrate the launch of his new book about the Phoenix Mars mission, author Andrew Kessler constructed a “monobookist bookstore”–a temporary shop stocked with more than 3,000 copies of Martian Summer.

I’d been wondering when we might start to see the rise of boutique bookstores as the eBooks become the preferred way to consume literature. These boutique bookstores would be in small spaces, about the size of a cafe coffee shop, and they would only stock a few copies of the most popular new books. A monobookist bookstore is the extreme example of this, but makes the point well. A boutique bookstore would exist first and foremost to promote the works of the featured authors.

Selling a few copies on site would be nice, but I think the ultimate goal should be to increase sales of the author’s eBook catalog. Physical books can be great marketing tools used this way, but I’d probably plan to support the shop itself more on coffee and muffin sales than on the books themselves. No long term leases here!

A boutique bookstore should be an ephemeral thing, a temporary place to launch some books, sell some coffee, and host author signings. And don’t forget the free Wi-Fi to sell those eBooks too!

We’ll always have printed books, but the new star is the eBook. The bookstore itself is only dust in the wind.

Tokyopop Closing North American Publishing Division

April 15, 2011 /

The Anime News Network has confirmed that Tokyopop will close its publishing operation on May 31. Love them or hate them, this is big blow for American manga fans. Tokyopop was one of the oldest manga publishers in the US and did much to popularize manga here. They will be missed.

The fate of their digital manga publishing project and remaining print titles is yet to be announced. It seems likely that other publishers will pick up the rights to popular titles. I hope that the passing of Tokyopop from the publishing business marks a bottom of sorts for the collapse of the manga market in the US.

Fruits BasketThis latest news is more evidence that the traditional print publishing business model is no longer viable, particularly for niche publications like manga, graphic novels, and comics. The massive rush to digital comics I saw at C2E2 this year was no accident. The industry insiders already know that with fewer physical bookstores, that digital is the only way to cut costs, combat piracy, and reach a consumer base that clearly wants digital product. Going digital will also allow them to monetize extensive back catalogs of books in a way never before possible.

Sadly, it appears Tokyopop won’t be around to take part in the digital transition. RIP Tokyopop, you brought me Fruits Basket for which I will always be grateful.

Blackberry Playbook, Galaxy Tab Wi-Fi Come To Play

April 13, 2011 /

The dust has settled since the launch of Apple’s iPad 2 tablet and it’s pretty clear that no competing tablet computer is going to dethrone the iPad anytime soon. The Motorola Xoom had a lot of promise, but launched at too high a price and missing features like Flash support and comparable apps that could have differentiated it from the iPad. There’s still hope for the Android powered tablets and others in the future, but this round belongs to Apple.

While I don’t really expect Blackberry’s upcoming Playbook or Samsung’s new Wi-Fi only Galaxy Tab to make a dent in the iPad’s dominance, at least they are launching priced to play ball. The 16GB Playbook is priced at $499 which matches the entry level iPad. I saw a Circuit City ad for the 16GB Galaxy Tab 7″ tablet for $349, but it appears that they don’t have any available right now. Those price points suggest that Blackberry and Samsung are serious about competing head to head with Apple in the tablet sector. As the Xoom’s paltry 100K units sold has proven, tablets that cost more than the iPad that are not made by Apple will not sell.

I won’t go into their features here because all of these tablets are well spec’d and I think any of them would be a fine choice. The important thing is that now the consumer will have a choice in the sub-$500 price range, without getting locked into a data contract. The iPad has a lot of other good things going for it, like the Apple Stores, but now we’ll be able to really see if the tablet market is a passing Apple only fad, or something that is here to stay.

Update: Sadly it appears that the Blackberry Playbook is not quite ready to play afterall. This NYT review says that while the Playbook is due for release April 19th, it is shipping with a littany of missing features.

But — are you sitting down? — at the moment, BlackBerry Bridge is the only way to do e-mail, calendar, address book and BlackBerry Messenger on the PlayBook. The PlayBook does not have e-mail, calendar or address book apps of its own. You read that right. R.I.M. has just shipped a BlackBerry product that cannot do e-mail. It must be skating season in hell. (R.I.M. says that those missing apps will come this summer.)

This is absolute madness, just madness…

Parallel Reading With The Kids

April 12, 2011 /

Gothic Charm SchoolMost parents read a lot of books to their kids when they’re young, before they can read for themselves. In due time, children grow and begin reading on their own.  And somewhere along the way, children begin reading books that their parents have not.

Most of us are pretty busy once kids come along regardless of whether we work in or outside of the home. Trying to do all of the things that support a household doesn’t leave a lot of time to vicariously attend school with our kids by reading their books. And the reality of sharing a physical book means that we won’t get a shot at it until they’ve finished it and moved on and perhaps lost interest.

As I’m already under orders not to add any more stuff to our cluttered abode, having multiple copies of physical books isn’t acceptable either, not to mention the expense. Given these challenges, I hadn’t thought much about solutions until I happened upon Gothic Charm School. I found it discounted at my local Borders store closing sale and thought my goth inclined daughter would like it. And flipping through the pages I thought I’d enjoy it as well, so later I bought an eBook version of it to read on my Nook. The eBook wasn’t very expensive and, of course, took up no more space in my house!

The GiverSince that time, I’ve added The Giver and Masters of Doom to my parallel reads. It’s really been quite enjoyable having something common and interesting to share with the kids. Not only that, I feel like new life has been breathed into my own ongoing education.

Even with the added expense, I would encourage all parents to parallel read with their kids. eReaders and a growing library of eBooks have made this easier than ever before. And just imagine the look of shock on your child’s face when you threaten to release them if they don’t clean up their room! (Just kidding of course. Release is not something to joke about!)

New York Times Online Seems Reasonable

April 8, 2011 /

As a long time reader of the New York Times online, I read today’s subscription rate email with some initial trepidation. People have grown used to getting news online for free. Or at least without paying the newspapers and other news organizations directly. So I was a little worried about what the Times was going to be charging.

The good news is that the charge seems to be quite reasonable. Unlimited access to NYTimes.com and a smartphone app for $1.88/week for the first 26 weeks. If you want the tablet app then it goes to $2.50/week. The NYT subscription page says that these rates are 50% off the regular rate and if you subscribe to the print edition you get online access for free.

NYT Online Subcription Rates

New York Times Online Subcription Rates

 

I don’t really know why it makes a difference whether you access via a smartphone or tablet, but on the whole these seem like reasonable rates. But will it be enough against a culture addicted to free news? The short answer is no. There will always be people who simply won’t pay. And it should be noted that a lot of NYT content will continue to be freely accessible via Google News and Facebook to name two. The Times doesn’t want to cut itself off from the millions of readers who use those sites everyday in order to maintain ad revenue. Finally, there are already a growing list of sites with instructions on how to defeat the new paywall, oy.

So if free still wins out, why bother with subscription fees at all? Well news costs money to produce, for lack of a better word. Journalists and editors need to eat too! The New York Times produces a very high quality product worthy of being paid for. I think that with a reasonable subscription rate and easy availability on devices like smartphones, and tablets, the Times stands a good chance of improving their bottom line. I don’t think that digital subscription revenue will rival what they get from print, but it should buy them some time as the market transitions from print to digital.

One thing I’m sure of is that the whole print industry will be watching this bold experiment. If successful, it may be the yellow brick road that leads all newspapers to the Emerald City of a digital future. Otherwise the internet cyclone that’s been sweeping away one newspaper after another will leave few survivors. Either way, we’re definitely not in Kansas anymore.

Is Book Loving A Fetish?

April 8, 2011 /

Bibliophilia, sounds kind of dirty, doesn’t it? Well that’s how I felt, in a good way, after a pleasurable visit to Myopic Books in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood yesterday. I was in the area for a meeting and had some time to kill so I started exploring the neighborhood. I love books and bookstores, so I was really happy to find Myopic Books even if I only had a few minutes to browse.

When I walked in, I was immediately reminded of O’Gara’s Books in Hyde Park, but much bigger. Shelves and shelves of books in wooden bookshelves stacked to the ceiling. Just books everywhere. I was surrounded and infused by the wonderful smells of books! I love eBooks, but nothing can replace the aroma of the printed page.

Experiencing such an emotional response, no doubt heightened by the loss of so many of my beloved Borders bookstores, it occurred to me that perhaps my love of books had become a fetish. There are fetishes for pretty much everything, so this is probably not unique. I just hadn’t noticed it before, taking bookstores for granted. Never thinking that someday they’d begin to disappear.

I was so happy that I just had to buy something! I found a copy of Masters of Doom that I knew would be perfect for my son the hacker genius. And I’ll probably get an eBook copy for myself, which interestingly enough cost about the same as the used hardcover. I’ll definitely have to visit Myopic Books again sometime!

Digital Manga Guild: Part Of The Solution!

April 1, 2011 /

Okay, we’ve all read scanlations at some time in our manga reading lives. And we’ve all felt, or should have felt, guilty that reading illegally scanned and translated manga does nothing to support and thank mangaka for their work. Well now you can do something about that! Join the Digital Manga Guild and become part of the solution! In the latest Akadot newsletter this morning I read:

Did you know that the Digital Manga Guild just got 508 titles from Japanese publishers? I’m pretty excited because it won’t just be yaoi, but shojo, shonen, seinen and josei! I wish I had the time to join, but maybe you could help out at digitalmangaguild.com!

The Digital Manga Guild needs translators, editors, and letterers to succeed. And everyone involved will be paid for their efforts based on title sales. With 508 new titles, I think that’s an opportunity that should not be passed up. So if you have the skills and love manga, give the guild a shot and bring more of the manga you love to the ones you love in a way that supports the artists.

eBook Lending Restrictions Encourage Piracy

March 23, 2011 /

Yesterday Lendle, a Kindle eBook lending network service had its access to the Amazon API blocked. Lendle made use of the Amazon API to facilitate the lending of Kindle eBooks all in accord with the current restrictions. Kindle books may be loaned to another Kindle user for a period of 14 days. During that time, the owner of the book cannot read it until the end of the loan period. And any given book may only be loaned out one time and one time only. Barnes & Noble Nook eBooks suffer the same lending restrictions.

After changes to Lendle’s use of the API, Lendle’s access to Amazon has been restored. But the whole debacle casts light once again on the overly restrictive eBook lending rules. First, 14 days is too short. I’ve read plenty of books that with life’s little interruptions have taken me far longer than 14 days to read. I’m not a library, when I loan a book to a friend, I don’t stamp it with a due date and charge fines if it comes back late! Secondly, many of us have loaned a good book to family and friends more than one time only. It is not uncommon for an entire family to share and read a single copy of a book.

These restrictions, coupled with DRM, are intended to fight piracy. But by making it harder for the consumer to use the product in a way that seems natural and fair to them, they actually encourage the piracy they wish to limit. We’ve already seen this with software, music, and movies. People living in the same household don’t want to buy full priced copies of things they have already paid for once. If it is easier to obtain and use a pirated copy of a book than a legal one, then guess which one wins?

As eBook readers begin to fall below $100, more of them are finding their way into the hands of younger readers. Stripping eBooks of DRM is not all that difficult and a quick web search is likely to find pirate copies of anything even remotely popular. It would be better in the long run if lending restrictions are loosened up to resemble something closer to what book readers expect, than to raise up a new generation of casual eBook pirates.

Rather than continue unrealistic lending policies, eBook sellers and publishers should use the lending data to track reader preferences and trends in order to sell more books. The current policies actively discourage lending, opening it up should result in a larger, more significant data pool for analysis. Just as iTunes did for digital music, the eBook buying and lending experience should be as easy as tapping a touchscreen.

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