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Apple’s new App Store rules affect Amazon’s Kindle

admin — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 19:51:25 +0000

Apple today unveiled the details of its App Store subscription plan, and confirmed that it will demand its usual 30% from publishers who sell content within their apps. To meet Apple’s guidelines, Amazon must remove its “Shop in Kindle Store” link from its Kindle application. That link, which opens the iOS browser and displays Amazon’s Web-based e-bookstore, is currently the easiest way for Kindle app users to purchase new books.

Source: ComputerWorld

Apple’s New Subscription Model & What it Means for Publishers (mashable.com)

Should Amazon change how Kindle pages are numbered?

admin — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 02:03:31 +0000

People are passionate about page numbers.
Just ask the hundreds of posters in Amazon’s Kindle forums who’ve debated the issue of how Amazon numbers its pages with “locations” on the Kindle and in its Kindle e-book-reading apps. And just ask the readers who’ve e-mailed me over the years complaining about Amazon’s numbering scheme.
“I got a Kindle for Christmas and I like it a lot but I still don’t understand what those numbers are at the bottom of the screen,” one reader e-mailed me recently. “Someone explained it to me and I still don’t understand it. They have page numbers on the Nook, why can’t they just do it for the Kindle?”

Kindle Books Now Outselling Paperbacks at Amazon

admin — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 22:06:17 +0000

: Image via Wikipedia

It’s official: electronic Kindle books are now outselling paperbacks on Amazon, marking a historically significant milestone in the publishing industry.

Read the full story on Mashable.

Analyst: Amazon to sell 5 million Kindles, fend off iPad

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 16:25:41 +0000

Barclays Capital analyst Douglas Anmuth today estimated that Amazon would sell about five million Kindle readers this year. The company should thrive on the combination of the redesign and the lower $139 price. The numbers would more than double over the course of the next two years to reach 11.5 million in 2012.

Anmuth expected the price gap to keep Amazon safe from the effect of the iPad.

Amazon unveils new Kindle, starting at $139

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:54:10 +0000

Just weeks after lowering the price of the Kindle e-book reader from $259 to $189, Amazon unveiled a fully revamped Kindle on Wednesday. It’s sleeker, better looking, easier on the eyes — and starts at $139.

This new Kindle, Amazon’s third generation, is smaller by 21 percent, and 15 percent lighter too. It has much improved contrast, 50 percent better than before, answering a significant complaint among dead-tree purists who compared the device’s e-ink screen unfavorably to real paper. It’s available in two colors: graphite and white.

Read the full story on MSNBC

Amazon unveils sleek third-generation Kindle (macworld.com)
Amazon launches a new Kindle, with modest improvements (blogs.consumerreports.org)

Amazon Kindle New Ads

admin — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:26:38 +0000

The ads were directed by Angela Kohler, the winner of a contest run by Amazon last year. And the fact that they are running in very expensive time slots suggests that Amazon is trying as best it can to drown the loud, insistent and, who knows, magical footsteps of the iPad.

Source: Cnet

Kindle, Now on your BlackBerry for Free

admin — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:39:07 +0000

Amazon.com has announced “Kindle for BlackBerry”, an app for select BlackBerrys. The app will enable users to access over 400,000 Kindle books on their phones. This app can be downloaded for free from Amazon.

Just like its online version, this mobile app automatically synchronizes your last page read and annotations between devices with Whispersync. You can also create bookmarks and view the annotations you created on your Kindle, computer, or other Kindle-compatible mobile device.

The BlackBerry models that support this app include Bold 9000, Bold 9700, Curve 8520, Curve 8900, Storm 9530, Storm 9550 and Tour 9630.

However Kindle for BlackBerry is available to U.S. customers only, at least for now.

Source: TechTree

Kindle for BlackBerry becomes available, now with more squinting (mobilecrunch.com)

Kindle vs. iPad: Far from over

admin — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:51:42 +0000

In the matchup between the iPad and the Kindle, some say it’s game over for Amazon’s e-Reader. But according to industry watchers, it’s still only the first quarter.

In Amazon’s earnings release, Bezos threw a spotlight on the “millions of people” who own the e-Reader, adding, “When we have both editions, we sell 6 Kindle books for every 10 physical books.”

But when asked about competition from new devices during Amazon’s earnings call, CFO Tom Szkutak would only say, “We believe that readers deserve to have a dedicated device.”

Meanwhile Amazon is not lying idle with its technology. The company is in the process of buying touch-screen technology startup, Touchco, according to reports from The New York Times. The acquisition could mean touch capability in a future generation of the Kindle.

Job openings at Amazon’s hardware division, Lab126, offer further evidence of plans to upgrade the device. More than half of the 50 positions were posted within the past month, while a listing for a “Hardware display manager” reads, “You will know the LCD business and key players in the market.”

Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney also sees improvements like color and touch functionality in Kindle’s future, as well as a drop in price. “The price of e-Readers has to come down over time and so far they have,” he says. And despite pressures from the publishing community, Mahaney still sees flexibility in e-Book pricing, wherein Amazon could use profits on bestsellers to slash prices on other books.

Read the full story on CNN Money

Touch-Screen for Kindle?

admin — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 15:47:41 +0000

In a move to possibly trump a major feature of the new Apple iPad, Amazon recently acquired Touchco, which focuses on developing touch-screen technology. This may lead Kindle into an entirely new display system, user friendly for, among other things, reference materials, entertainment functions, and color displays. (NYT 4 Feb 2010).

E-Books Lite

admin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:58:45 +0000

While most of the e-reader buzz of late revolves around Apple’s iPad device entry into the competition (see, e.g., iPad Could Threaten Sales of Other Devices in TechNewsdaily 29 Jan 2010), the publishing part of the equation is also in play.

Several days ago Amazon blinked & accepted terms dictated by Macmillan re raising the price on its books (At Amazon, Giving in to Demands NYT 1 Feb 2010).
Today Kindle announced the offering of “Elements” and “Shorts”, severely abridged 1,000-2,000 word books and 5,000 word original texts for $1.99 and $2.99, aiming these writings at a professional audience averse to reading full length works. Barnes & Noble also offers this new format for the busy business person.