As Borders ceo Mike Edwards recently leaked in part, Monday morning at BEA the Kobo executive team announced their new ereader — a $129.99 model with an eInk Pearl screen—which raises the bar for tomorrow’s announced features and price point for Barnes & Noble’s expected touchscreen ereader. Kobo will have the new model on display starting tomorrow at their BEA booth, and visitors to Borders’ Columbus Square location can test it out between noon and 2 PM Tuesday. Kobo says the new model will ship in early June, though Borders’ release says it won’t ship until July. Kobo’s wi-fi model will […]
eReaders
eNews: BN Seeks Trademark for A “Simple Touch Reader” (And 1 Million Nook Apps); NYPL iPad Apps; and More
With Barnes & Noble‘s new ereader announcement set for 10:00 on Tuesday, May 24, CNet has researched some of the company’s recent trademark filings (which are made through Fission LLC) for clues. They filed to protect the phrase “the simple touch reader” at the end of March in the category of “portable electronic apparatus for reading”–which CNet logically says “we take as a strong indication that the upcoming Nook will be an affordable monochrome e-ink touch-screen model that operates similarly” to the Sony Reader. A more recent filing also seeks to protect MyNook, a web portal service “to remotely manage, […]
eNews: iFlow Reader Shuts Down, Blaming Apple’s New Policy; Kobo eReader Price Drop; and More
In advance of any official reckoning between Apple’s reinterpreted rule requiring “that if an app offers customers the ability to purchase books outside of the app, that the same option is also available to customers from within the app with in-app purchase,” the makers of the iFlow Reader app are angrily throwing in the towel. BeamItDown Software publisher Philip Huber announced that the company and its ereading app will cease operations on May 31. They launched their ebookstore in December 2010 and say in a posted letter to customers that “two months later, Apple changed the rules and put us […]
Barnes & Noble Stock Pops As Company Signals New eReader
Barnes & Noble’s shares rose $1.50 in Wednesday trading, gaining over 14 percent. In an SEC filing, the company said “it expects to make an announcement on May 24 regarding the launch of a new eReader device.” The company reportedly shared the same news during the day in a meeting with analysts, which is likely to have driven the stock’s gains. BN’s choice of date is no accident: the 24th is also BEA’s opening floor day, which means BN clearly intends its e-reader announcement to be the news of the fair.
Amazon Accelerates Ad-Supported Kindles, But Publishers Are Unlikely Advertisers
Amazon has excitedly started shipping their ad-support Kindles a week early–which raises the question of who is going to advertise on the device. Given what we’ve been told about the pitch, it probably won’t be publishers, even though Amazon doesn’t include “literary references” among the categories of ads that users can designate as preferred, and you can see how a Kindle would be a good place to advertise books. But not at the premium prices Amazon is looking for. According to the company’s rate sheet, they are charging $45,000 a day for ads that share the screen savers with up […]
eNews: e-Royalty Escalators; Sony Tablets On the Way; Product Placement; and More
Some UK agents claim to the Bookseller that they have negotiated e-royalty escalators and expect this move “will be the norm, not the exception” in the future, but it sounds more like an aspiration than a well-documented accomplishment. Blake Friedmann agent Oliver Munson is the only one saying on the record they’ve already done this: “We’ve certainly had e-book escalators in a number of contracts….. I can’t realistically envisage the much-trumpeted 25% net receipts remaining the benchmark for much longer either.” Piers Blofeld at Sheil Land also says “I have negotiated an escalator, but not with one of the big four. That would be […]