Apple announced yesterday that, following the first stage of their international iPad rollout, they have sold over two millions units, in less than 60 days.Release Borders is betting on the cheap end of ereaders. As promised in last week’s conference call with investors, today they announced that as of July 2 they’ll sell a $119 ereader from Aluratek. (That undercuts the $150 Kobo reader they are helping to launch this month.)Borders pre-order page What does Amazon plan next? Bloomberg reported Friday that the next version of Kindle, due in August, will be “thinner and have a more responsive screen with […]
eNews
iPad Takes the World
Apple’s iPad released today in major book markets included UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Germany–plus France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland. Though the UK iBookstore launch was preceded by worried speculation that UK publishers were concerned aspects of Apple’s contract might run afoul of local pricing laws, lo and behold, Ye Agency Foure (Hachette UK, Penguin, Pan Macmillan and Harper UK) are all participating. (The smallest of the group, Simon & Schuster UK, is not currently participating and has yet to comment.) But no other UK publishers are known to have a direct relationship with Apple yet, and again Random UK […]
Faber's Page on Publishers' Priorities in the Digital Age, And Corollaries from BEA
In concert with iPad launch, Faber and Faber ceo Stephen Page has an essay in the Guardian on what it means for publishers: “It’s clear that publishers must move faster to establish our compelling and useful role in the modern life of reading. While acquiring new expertise, we must assert the best of our traditional strengths; providing capital (in the form of advance payments), offering editorial expertise, and creating a readership by designing, creating, storing, promoting and selling the works of writers. But that’s not enough. Publishers also have to explain what value they are bringing to the relationship between […]
More eNews: B&T Gets iPad Partner, BN Finally Releases iPad App
Originally outflanked by Ingram Digital, which is an aggregator partner with Apple for getting books into the iBookstore, Baker & Taylor announced today an agreement with another aggregator, LibreDigital. B&T will offer their publishing partners “a full range of digital services from LibreDigital” as part of the agreement, including access to the iBookstore. Separately, Barnes & Noble said this morning that their BN eReader app is finally ready for the iPad. They say that you can shop directly from within the app, though we have not had time to try it out yet. Through the library function, app users can […]
Survey Says A Quarter of Customers Likely to Buy An eReader in Next Year
At Verso Digital’s survey presentation earlier this week, they also shared new results on ebook use. They found that 6.8 percent of respondents (bearing in mind this that is an online-only survey, so may not reach the less technically-inclined) already own an ereading device, and a significant 24 percent are somewhat likely or very likely to buy one in the next six to twelve months. In terms of who already owns devices, they say that ebook buyers fit their profile of “avid readers,” with 25 percent expecting to buy 10 or more ebooks in the next year, and another 14 […]
Penguin Peace with Amazon; iBooks Allows Publisher Submission
Penguin executives David Shanks and Susan Petersen Kennedy report that the company has reached an agreement with Amazon.com, almost two months after the launch of the agency model and introduction of Apple’s iBookstore. Ebooks for the company’s titles released since April 1, which Amazon has declined to sell up until now, are in the process of being restored to Amazon’s site, though it will likely be a matter of days before all of those titles are available. Presumably all of Penguin’s ebooks sold by Amazon will also be repriced to reflect agency pricing. Abroad, Apple has begun launching versions of […]