Kindle Sony Nook
Kindle Vs Nook Vs Sony Reader

Author and business professor R Stross writes in today’s NYT (“Publishers ve Libraries: an E-Book Tug of War” p B3) that publishers have not yet settled into an industry-wide model re e-book sales to public libraries. Realistically concerned about the e-loan effect on royalties and profits, Hachette, and Simon and Schuster, won’t sell any e-titles to libraries. Others withold their new releases from this commerce, and HarperCollins allows a limited license of 26 loans per purchased e-copy. However, Mr Stross notes that there are “…more than 1,ooo small publishers…[who] happily sell e-books to libraries…”, assuring an ample supply of titles to e-patrons.
(Parenthetically, the article notes that Amazon sold over 3 MILLION Kindles in the month of December alone!)

D Streitfeld reports in today’s NYT that 1st responders to the Kindle Fire are not uniformly raving about it. Among other issues, they complain that the touch screen is difficult to manuever, and that web loading is too slow. An “over-the-air” update to existing units is due out soon, and a new, improved Fire may be available early next year. As previously noted, Amazon’s retail strategy acccepts a net loss per device; e.g. a basic Kindle now selling for $79 costs $84 just to produce. The company anticipates turning profits on media downloads to the machines, and to the tie-in/lock-in to Amazon’s wide range of merchandise.

J Kanter reports in today’s NYT that the European Commision is “investigating possible collusion between Apple and five large publishing houses…” re the pricing of e-books. This follows an American class action suit filed in August. It alleges that (with Apple) some publishers raised the cost of their e-books to stifle consumer interest in Kindles, and the lower price of e-books that open competition might bring about with Amazon’s discount rates.

D Pogue in today’s NYT waxes enthusiastically on the new members of the Kindle family. Perforce, the Fire gets pride of place, overshadowing its siblings (and Amazon’s competitors). It won’t replace the iPad for those who want all the ease and functionality of a regular tablet computer, plus the Apple apps, but at the loss leader price of $200–it’s a BARGAIN! The newest ‘regular’ Kindle is technologically advanced, more handsome-it can fit in a non fatigue pants pocket- and costs a mere $80 (with adverts). The ¿ unmissing link? Kindle Touch sports touch screen control, and can be purchased with 3G for $50 over its base of $100.
His end quote highlights the extraordinary rapidity of e-reader evolution: “If you don’t like the current crop of e-readers, just wait a minute.”

A Ihnatho wrote a magisterial review and comparison of the iPad & the Kindle Fire in today’s Sun Times (Chicago/suburban). Too detailed to summarize here, it can be found at http://newssun.suntimes.com/business/8816567-420/review-kindle-fire-is-no-ipad-killer-but-it-is-a-killer-device.html. Happy reading!

As anticipated, Amazon heated up the tablet world, as well as the e-book world on Wednesday. Jeff Bezos, its CEO and founder, introduced several new products .Pride of place goes to the Kindle Fire, a direct challenge to Apple’s blockbuster iPad. The Kindle Fire is ca 2/3 the size and weight and only 2/5 the price ($199 vs $499) of the iPad, the king of the tablets. An actual multipurpose computer, it offers access to cinema, music, TV videos over Wi-Fi, as well as Amazon-selected Android apps. As an e-reader, it is a super Kindle, with color and touch screen technology, as well as a new “virtual newstand” of magazine & newspapers. Priced inexpensibly at a loss leader level, the Fire will profit Amazon by Amazon lock-in, increased Amazon Prime subscriptions, and a treasureload of retail consumer data with which to tailor sales and marketing.
[FYI, comparative specs of the Fire vs the iPad are shown in a table in the NYT article "Amazon's Tablet Leads to its Store" p B1, 29.09.11].

In addition to the Fire tablet/e-reader, Kindle broke the $100 price barrier with a $79 B and W model, and also rolled out two new touch screen products. íHappy shopping this holiday season!

D Streitfeld reports in today’s NYT that Amazon will launch in time for holiday gift sales its own tablet computer, in direct competition with the Apple iPad. The new, not named (maybe this Wednesday at a news conference it will be) device will be a Kindle on steroids-avec color and touch operation; with e-mail, browsing, and gaming functions, priced at ca $250, roughly 1/2 the i-cost. The article notes opposing business strategies between the two industry Goliaths: While Amazon sells its machines rather cheaply, to get lock-in sales of its downloads and other merchandise, Apple’s primary profit rests with sales of its devices themselves, moreso than the accompanyiing apps.
Also, for those who aren’t first responders and can wait, it is projected that Kindletablet 2, with a larger screen, will debut some time in 2012.

The BIG e-news this week is that, as long awaited, Amazon will now allow its Kindle devices to be compatible with public library loans. J Bosman reported in the 22.09.11 NYT that Kindle joins Sony, Nook, smartphones, et al in having appropriate software for this file sharing. It is anticipated that free library e-useage will increase markedly with this, adding another threat to the publishing industry’s business model. They do have some checks and safeguards in place, however: 1) Digital collections have finite licenses–ebooks can only be checked out at one time for as many copies as the library has purchased; 2) Just as there is a shelf life for codices, harper Collins limits its ebooks sold to 26 checkouts/copy; 3) Some publishers–Macmillan and Simon and Schuster–will not as yet sell e-books to libraries whatsoever.

[Personal Note: I'm signed up for a hands-on in-house tutorial at my local library, and will report on how it went and what I learned,--Bill]

W Gimes reported in yesterday’s NYT of the death of Michael Hart. He was the founder of Project Gutenberg, the origin of the the e-book revolution, and the originator of the “fifth information age”. While a student at the U of I, he was given access to Cham-bana’s mainframe [NB: ¿remember Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey?]. He used it to type in the Declaration of Independence, and posted a notice on the Arpanet (the precursor to the Internet as we know it) that it could be freely downloaded. This began his life’s work and passion, the Gutenberg Project, to “…encourage the creation and distribution of e-books…to help break down the bars of ignorance and illiteracy.”
May his memoty be for a blessing.