As we reported in advance of DBW, Verso’s survey indicates a continuing rise in ereading resisters, with over half of respondents “not at all likely” to purchase a dedicated reading device. But part of that may be due to the rising attraction of tablets, which were a separate query item. Over 15 percent of people say they already own a tablet–about the same adoption as for ereaders–but here another 21 percent are somewhat to very likely to buy one in the next year (compared to about 15 percent likely ereader buyers). Verso’s Jack McKeown believes that the “picture of the […]
eReaders
Corporate: Apple Sold 15.4 million iPads in First Quarter; Meredith Buys AllRecipes.com
Apple reported record earnings for the first quarter of its fiscal year, ending December 31, and beat Wall Street expectations so handily the stock was halted after hours Tuesday, rising more than $30 a share. The company sold 15.4 million iPads and 37 million iPhones during the quarter on net income of $13.1 billion, and $43.4 billion in revenue. Profits more than doubled compared to the first quarter of 2011. Apple sold over 40 million iPads in 2011, and has moved more than 55 million units since launching in early 2010. Release Though Random House was among the four reported […]
eNews: Kobo Formally Launches in the Netherlands; Survey Says Tablet Market “Not Set In Stone”; and More
After soft-launch in Holland late last year, Kobo’s will formally roll out their ebookstore there on January 30 with “thousands of Dutch titles,” while Dutch retailer Libris Blz will sell the Kobo Touch for €129. “Through our new partnership with Libris Blz, we’re confident our expansion into the Netherlands will be a huge success,” Kobo ceo Michael Serbinis said in a statement. “Kobo’s focus has always been to bring e-reading and e-books to people everywhere around the world. By launching in the Netherlands, and bringing e-reading to the passionate Dutch reading community — we are one more country closer to […]
eNews: Pew Says Device Ownership Doubled Over Holidays; Kindle Is UK’s Most Unused Present; And More
Two separate surveys of more than 2000 Americans conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in December and January found that the share of adults who owned tablet computers increased to 19 percent from 10 percent, with the same increase for adults who owned e-readers. (Women bought ereaders more than men, with the reverse being true for tablets.) In addition, the number of Americans owning at least one device, either a tablet or an e-reader, rose from 18 percent in December to 29 percent in January. The jump was particularly significant according to Pew because ownership of tablets […]
eNews: Another Textbook Reader (From Chegg); eBooks Are 28% of Sourcebooks’ Sales; Cemetery Dance’s Digital Subscription; and More
Taking advantage of interest around Apple’s press conference tomorrow, textbook rental company Chegg is wading into the morass of too many proprietary ereading platforms for students with yet another product. Their cloud-based eTextbook Reader is HTML5-based, developed by 3D3R, an engineering team recently acquired by Chegg. The app is currently optimized for iPads and computers, though the company says other platforms are on the way. Their product uses publisher-supplied PDFs, and the company says they have about 40,000 textbooks available from all of the major publishers. (The WSJ says Kno claims about 150,000 titles, with options to either purchase or […]
E Ink Sales Drop Far More Than Expected; Kickstarter Funds Over $5 Million of Publishing
E Ink Holdings surprised Asian stock markets Monday with worse-than-expected December sales, with the company’s shares dropping the maximum allowed in a single day. December sales declined 55 percent from the prior month, and were down 57 percent compared to December 2010. November’s sales were 33 percent lower than October, but chairman Scott Liu indicated that all of their holiday orders had been shipped early “in response to customer demands,” with “a portion of November orders [going out] in October, which contributed to the fact that November sales revenues were lower than earlier expectations. But December’s sales were far below […]