Barnes & Noble is playing catch-up with Amazon’s stream of releases about how Kindle is bestest, fastest, biggest-selling item. BN says they have sold “millions” of Nook devices, declaring “the line has become the company’s biggest bestseller ever in its nearly 40-year history.” More interesting is that they “now sell more digital books” (presumably calculated in units rather than dollars) than printed books via BN.com. Despite technical problems (which are not mentioned in the press release), BN says they sold “nearly one million” ebooks on Christmas Day–giving you some idea of how many Nook readers were under the tree. Release […]
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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 […]
Larsson Sells 115,000 eBooks On Christmas and Day After
After Amazon reported that THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO was their biggest-selling ebook on December 25 and most-gifted holiday ebook, Random House has said that on December 25 and 26, they sold 115,000 units of Stieg Larsson ebooks across the entire Millennium Trilogy. The company indicated their total ebook sales for that two-day holiday period “rose more than 300% over last year’s sales” (measured in units) setting a new two-day record. (Some executives expressed disappointment to us that early statistics for Christmas Day ebook sales weren’t higher still, since ebook sales have been running about three times last year’s sales throughout […]
Amazon’s New Kindle/Holiday Press Release
The etailer released their traditional post-Christmas non-statistics. Reaching for new non-specific superlatives about Kindle sales, they say the new model is “the bestselling product in Amazon’s history, eclipsing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7).” We don’t know final sales for the book by the company, but on October 24, 2007 they reported sales of 2.5 million copies worldwide, calling it their “largest new product release.” In today’s release ceo Jeff Bezos acknowledges the even bigger sales of tablets, insisting in a defensive way that “sustomers report using their LCD tablets for games, movies, and web browsing and their […]
eNews Shorts: Amazon Starts New Periodicals On Android; Sourcebooks Learns from Giveaway Problems; Diesel Adds Customer Bundles; HBG UK Already at 5 Percent
Amazon has updated their Kindle for Android app first with the capability to buy optimized full-color versions of magazines and newspapers on a single-copy and subscription basis. (Like others in the field, they offer a 14-day free trial on all publications.) They launch with over 100 publications.Release Giving away ebooks is harder than you might think–particularly if you are trying a one-day-only promotion, as Sourcebooks did yesterday to celebrate Jane Austen’s birthday. CEO Dominique Raccah refreshingly turns it into a important community teaching moment, candidly sharing the mistakes they made, the things they learned, the help etailers provided, and even […]
Apple Gains Approval for iBookstore In Canada–In Exchange for Multiple “Commitments”
Canada’s Heritage Minister announced approval for Apple to launch a Canadian iBookstore, which “represents new opportunities for Canadian authors and publishers.” To win that consent, Apple has promised to promote Canadian-authored books; to increase “opportunities for Canadian publishers and authors” and access to titles from Aboriginal authors and publishers; and to provide “assistance to Canadian publishers in streamlining processes of e-book creation and enhancement.”Release