IDC is one of the monitoring companies that publishes quarterly estimates of shipments of tablets and ereaders from Asian manufacturers. Usually their updates don’t cause a big stir, but this time around their estimates for the first quarter of 2012 fit the narrative of the moment: supply of Amazon’s Kindle Fire dwindled sharply. After shipping an estimated 4.8 million units in the holiday quarter, IDC puts the first quarter Fire number at 700,000 units. To be fair, it was a light quarter for Barnes & Noble‘s tablets as well, reflecting a dropoff in the reader’s tablet market (and a corresponding […]
eReaders
eNews: More from Lynch on Microsoft’s Nook Investment; Target Will Stop Stocking Kindle Devices On Apparent “Conflict of Interest”
The Kindle Fire may have been Target‘s top-selling tablet device last Thanksgiving, but as of this month it appears the retail chain will no longer stock it, or any Amazon e-reading product, due to an apparent and unspecified “conflict of interest.” According to an internal memo obtained by The Verge, Target “will be removing Amazon hardware from its locations starting this month” and “shipments of Kindles themselves will cease as of May 13.” (In fact, if you search for “kindle” on Target’s website, no results show up at all.) It’s not clear as to what the perceived conflict of interest […]
Devices: Another 11.8 Million iPads; Glowing Review for New Nook; and More
Apple reported second quarter earnings after the close of the market on Tuesday, reporting sales of 11.8 million iPads for the period (compared to 4.7 million iPads in the same quarter a year ago). As ceo Tim Cook noted, in two years they have sold 67 million iPads worldwide (“and to put that in some context, it took us 24 years to sell that many Macs and 5 years for that many iPods and over 3 years for that many iPhones.”) The company says they saw “very strong growth in iPad sales around the world with sales more than doubling […]
BN’s Newest Simple Touch Reader Has a Front-Lit Screen
Thursday afternoon Barnes & Noble announced the newest version of its standalone e-reading device would come with a front-lit glowing screen that solves what the company believes is the “number-one problem couples have in bed — having their sleep interrupted, or being prevented from falling asleep, when their partner reads with the light on.” Now called Nook Simple Touch Reader with Glowlight, it retails at $139 and is available for pre-order immediately, shipping in early May. The new model, whose specs were leaked Wednesday by The Digital Reader, is $40 more expensive than the non-glowing version, and has about half […]
Corporate: Indigo Raises Co-Op Again; Dutch Investor Buys Selexyz; and More
When Canada’s dominant book chain Indigo made comprehensive changes to its co-op program last year, local publishers were not exactly happy. Now they are upset again over further co-op increases that went into effect on April 1, but are only beginning to register with some publishers. Quill & Quire reports that Indigo “raised co-op fees from 4 to 5 per cent for books sold online or in its brick-and-mortar stores – an increase of 25 per cent.” In an email to publishers and distributors obtained by Q&Q, Indigo vice-president for adult trade Bahram Olfati said the co-op fee increase was […]
Nook Tablet 8GB Announced for $199
Alongside their third quarter earnings, Barnes & Noble announced the release of a new Nook Tablet priced at $199–the same as the Kindle Fire–with 8GB of memory. (The original Nook Tablet, still available at $249, has 16GB of memory.) Along with the new model, they have reduced the price on the existing Nook Color to $169. Release