Apple reported another strong quarter of sales overall, including moving 9.25 million iPads in their third quarter. That’s the best quarter ever for iPad sales, well ahead of the previous high set in the period ending last Christmas, when they sold 7.33 million tablets. And it’s nearly double the second quarter iPad sales of 4.7 million units. In a separate release touting the downloading of 15 billion apps, Apple gives some special attention to Callaway Digital Arts, with ceo Nicholas Callawy exclaiming, “We knew the iPad was going to be a revolutionary storytelling device, but never could have anticipated it […]
ebookstores
eDeals: Google + Pottermore; Cookstr eBooks; Princeton Review Adds eBooks; Lee Child’s eStory; Gollancz to Bring Thousands of Sci-Fi/Fantasy Titles Back as eBooks
Google announced that their Google Checkout will be the “preferred third-party payment platform” for Pottermore.com (which will also accept debit and credit cards). The site will use YouTube for global video broadcasts and the Harry Potter ebooks will work just fine via Google eBooks in the US. Google blog Cookstr is looking to monetize digital recipe collections with the launch via the iBookstore of recipe sets of varying sizes–offering 10 recipes for $.99; 50 recipes for $3.99; and 250 recipes for $9.99. Starting with Rozanne Gold’s 1-2-3 Collection, they have 31 different options on sale at once. The company says […]
More eNews, Off the Beaten Path: Muhammed Ali Sues Kobo; An Author’s eFirst Serial; Chinese Authors Complain to Apple; and More
Muhammad Ali Enterprises has sued Kobo in a New York Federal Court, saying the company used the apparently-trademarked “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” phrase in an ereader ad without permission. Bloomberg Author Keith Devlin has self-published electronically a section that had been cut from his just-released book THE MAN OF NUMBERS, under the title Leonardo & Steve: The Young Genius Who Beat Apple to Market by 800 Years. Priced at $2.99, the self-published ebook was issued more or less simultaneously with the full title from Bloomsbury, packaged with the first chapter from the book itself. Agent Ted […]
Kobo Launches In Germany
After a planned debut in May (announced at the London Book Fair), Kobo has now gone live with their German ebookstore. The company says their collection features 80,000 German-language titles, which is more than Germany’s own collective effort Libreka (which lists about 73,000 titles), as well as Amazon’s recently-launched store, which announced 25,000 German titles at launch but seems to have grown to about 48,000 German books according to sub-category counts listed on the site. German-language apps are available for iOS, Android and BlackBerry, and German edition of the newest version of Kobo’s own ereader will follow in August, priced […]
eNews: Android Market Update Features eBooks; AT&T Sponsors Kindle 3G With Special Offers; And More
Google continues to assemble more of an end-to-end ebook strategy. Earlier this week they announced the first ereader integrated with Google eBooks, the iriver Story HD. Not indicated in Google’s own release on Monday, Target has a six-month exclusive on selling the $139.95 device–meaning independent bookstores carrying Google eBooks won’t be able to sell this companion device until after Christmas. It’s led to speculation that Target may carry Google eBooks as well. In the meantime, Google has announced separately an update to its Android Market “over the coming weeks” for mobile devices that provides more an iTunes store experience. Customers […]
Pearson Buys Borders Australia and Angus & Robertson Web Businesses
In a different type of strategic acquisition, Pearson Australia has acquired the online bookselling and ebook businesses of the bankrupt REDGroup retail, which includes the online stores for Borders Australia and Angus & Robertson. (The sites are http://www.borders.com.au/ and http://www.angusrobertson.com.au/.) They intend to retain 16 staff members associated with the businesses, and will run the two sites separately for now. Pearson also has an agreement with REDGroup’s ebook partner Kobo. While it’s not entirely clear if they will continue to use Kobo as their vendor (REDGroup was an investor in Kobo as well), it will at a minimum give “customers continued […]