Today a number of deals-in-progress mentioned previously have been confirmed. Amazon makes its accquisition of all remaining shares of LoveFilm, the “Netflix of Europe,” in which it already held a significant minority stake, official.Release Samsung has confirmed its acquisition of display technology firm Liquavista.Release Flat World Knowledge has received a big endorsement for their open-source textbook model, garnering more than $15 million in Series B Funding led by Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments and Bessemer Venture Partners. Also joining the round are returning investors Valhalla Partners, GSA Venture Partners (formerly Greenhill SAVP), High Peaks Venture Partners, and several angel investors. FT […]
eReaders
Apple Sells Another 7.3 Million iPads; Analysts Ups Guess on Kindles Sold; VC Funding News; and More
Apple reported on Tuesday that the company sold 7.33 million iPads in the quarter ending December 25, 2010. Separately, Barclays analyst Doug Anmuth has somehow conjured an estimate that Amazon sold 7.1 million Kindle devices in 2010 and will sell 12.3 million devices in 2011, “though our numbers may still be conservative.” Or they could be wrong. Going by the services that monitor the actual manufacturing and shipment of ereader components and devices (including one that we cited yesterday), those numbers are high and do not square with the manufacturer data. Anmuth estimates that Kindle revenues from devices and electronic content […]
Third Quarter US eReader Shipments Estimated At 2 Million Units
IDC released their quarterly Media Tablet and eReader Tracker, estimating device shipments around the world, for the third quarter of 2010. They tabulate 2.7 million ereaders shipped to vendors in period, with the US comprising three-quarters of the market, or 2.025 million units. Their tablet count remains even higher, at 4.8 million units, up from 3.3 million units in the second quarter, with Apple still holding about 90 percent of that market. IDC says that Amazon comprised 1.1 million of those ereader units (a 41.5 percent market share worldwide), with Pandigital just barely taking second place with its line (which […]
More on Google’s eBook Acquisition
There are a lot of stories out there with wild speculation about how Google might use the newly-acquired eBook Technologies to expand their ebook program. This piece at Kindle Review provides some good factual detail on ETI’s assets, including their existing ereader devices, and their patents (for such systems as advertisements in ebooks). Separately, a Google spokesperson provided us with a slightly expanded explanatory statement: “We believe that ETI can help us provide users with a richer digital reading experience on tablets and other emerging hand-held devices. For example, ETI’s Pub renderer supports pagination of complex layouts. We are excited […]
More eNews: Sony Claims Big Plans; Grandinetti In LAT; Spring Design Suit Against BN Moves Forward
Sony‘s deputy president for the Digital Reading Business Division Fujio Noguchi pretends that the company remains serious about the ebook business, telling an Asian tech web site, “We are aiming to acquire a share of 40% in the global electronic book market in fiscal 2012.” (The site mistakenly believes that Sony has been “leading” the US ebook market along with Amazon….) The company is looking to develop reading-focused color epaper screens: “I believe that color e-paper should be employed for e-book readers with a focus on displaying texts. So, we are sending such requests to e-paper device makers.” The LAT […]
Now Kindle Editions, Of Course
Amazon waved their pr hands furiously during Barnes & Noble’s introduction of Nook Color, and today they make news for the possibility the company is developing their own browser-based equivalent to Google eBooks. To be fair, and clear, the company did not make any announcement: a short piece in Computerworld with just a glimmer of information has spread far and wide. Amazon told Computerworld they will offer some kind of unspecified “demonstration” today of a revised, expanded vision of their Kindle for Web app, which currently only shows and shares book samples. Just like Google eBooks, it will “enable users […]