We kept refreshing and updating our Amazon story yesterday, so a couple of details were missing from certain editions. A UK version of the least expensive regular Kindle–the non-touchscreen model–is available for pre-order, for release on October 12, at £89 (or roughly $140). A German version is priced at 99 euros. Both are ad-free models. Most press still missed out on the real prices of ad-free touchscreen Kindles: $139 for Touch and $189 for Touch Global 3G. The former is the same as the Nook Touch launched earlier this year. Kobo’s touchscreen device is $129, and their non-touchscreen reader is […]
eReaders
Tablet Rumors: Wednesday Announcement Scheduled From Amazon; Internal Slide Points to Higher-Priced BN Device
Amazon sent out invitations on Friday for an event taking place in New York on Wednesday, September 28 at 10 AM, at which time it’s widely expected the company will announce its new tablet. NYT An internal slide reportedly obtained by The Digital Reader indicates that Barnes & Noble will launch a tablet priced at $349 (code-named Acclaim) in addition to a new version of the 7″ Nook Color, code-named Encore and still priced at $249. The slide comes with initialed approval by WL/JI, which correspond to the initials of ceo William Lynch and head of digital products Jamie Iannone.
eNews: Amazon Spain, Local Kindle Ads, Estimates of 5.4 Million eReaders in Q2, and More
As expected, Amazon.es launched yesterday with a press conference in Madrid featuring vp for Europe Greg Greely (in English). Greely announced the company offers 2.5 million print books in Spanish and 80,000 in Catalan, which because of the fixed price laws they can sell at a maximum discount of 5 percent. Orders from Spain will be served from a warehouse in a secret location outside Spain–just as Amazon.es’s 100 employees (many of whom joined Amazon as part of the BuyVIP acquisition last year) are not in Spain either, working out of the company’s European headquarters in Luxembourg. Regarding the reported […]
Bookselling: Waterstone Plans New Dedicated eReader, Moves to Flat-Rate Discounts; and More
Waterstone’s managing director James Daunt confirmed for BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours that the company will launch a dedicated e-reader in spring 2012 in a strategy “inspired” by BN’s Nook, though he offered no additional details beyond that. “We in Waterstone’s need to offer you a digital reader which is at least as good, and preferably substantially better, than that of our internet rival, and you will have a much better buying experience purchasing your books through us,” Daunt said. He added he would be “disappointed” if Waterstone’s couldn’t come up with a digital offer that would at least […]
Briefs: JK Rowling Anthology Intro; USA Today Fall Books Preview; and More
JK Rowling will write the foreword to Dear Me: A Letter to My Sixteen-Year-Old Self, edited by Joseph Galliano (Atria) which will be released on October 25. In the foreword Rowling writes that she was touched by the letters’ “commonality … Nearly everyone who wrote, whether their letter is jolly or poignant, seems to have looked back on their younger selves with compassion.” A portion of the book’s proceeds will be donated to Doctors Without Borders. USA Today Speaking of USA Today, their Fall Books Preview highlights 31 titles, with special emphasis on upcoming, much-covered titles by Susan Orlean, Colson […]
Sony’s First Potter Offer Is Mild; Reader Store Will Expand Internationally
Sony has finally announced the newest iteration in their never-in-the-lead ereader line. Of more interest is the “first offer” in their collaboration with JK Rowling’s Pottermore. It’s not the blockbuster exclusive that has been rumored, but rather a voucher that lets Sony Reader purchasers get a free download of the first Harry Potter book from Pottermore. In the announcement, Sony indicates that their Reader estore will finally expand, “coming first to the UK, Germany and Australia in 2011.” The biggest claim for the new model of their ereader, finally a mainstream wi-fi model coming in October, is that it will […]