As previewed earlier, Nook has updated their operating software, adding a “basic web browser,” a few games, and enhanced wi-fi connectivity. The update promises “improved page turn speed,” though we’ll have to wait for the reviews to see if they have successfully overcome the deficiencies that have made Nook slower than similar ereaders. As for their delayed/awaited iPad app, CNET reports company officials said “the answer is May, though no specific date was given.” They have also expanded the incentives to use your Nook within Barnes & Noble physical stores with their “read in store” feature. Customers can read any […]
eNews
Today's Amazon and Barnes & Noble News
Following Engadget’s report in early April, yesterday Target confirmed that they will start selling Kindle as of April 25. But they’ll start with just their downtown Minneapolis store and south Florida (which apparently holds 102 Targets), “rolling out to more Target stores later this year.” (Does that confirm that the target Kindle demographic is retirees?) Target has a total of 1,740 stores.Release As for Nook, Barnes & Noble will start airing television commercials for their ereader this week. The WSJ says it’s BN’s first television campaign in over a decade. Unlike Amazon’s whimsical/abstract Kindle ads, the nook spot actually talks […]
A New Source for eReader Data Says 5 Million eReaders Shipped in 2009
NPD’s DisplaySearch analysis subsidiary, which covers the entire display screen market, has begun tracking electronic paper display (EPD) shipments as a component of their quarterly reports on small and medium screens. In the recently-released report, they say EPD shipments worldwide in 2009 hit 5 million units, up from 950,000 units in 2008. By their count, Kindle comprised 66 percent of screen shipments last year, or 3.3 million units. That leaves about 1 million units for Sony, and 700,000 units for the other players. (Note that they are tracking shipments to the ereader vendors, not sales to consumers, which are presumably […]
Oxford Launches Vertical Web Guides
Oxford University Press has launched an ambitious set of “ultimate online reading lists” under the banner of Oxford Bibliographies Online. With 50 to 100 entries per subject area–launching with sections on Classics, Islamic Studies, Criminology and Social Work, and adding ten to 12 new areas over the next year–the effort exerts the power of vetted curation over the confusion of the ever-exploding web. It’s a paid service, available for $29.95 a month. Oxford has drawn on hundreds of scholars to create an editorial board and editor-in-chief for each subject area. Each entry “provides expert recommendations through key literature on a […]
Some iBookstore Pricing Data
The folks at O’Reilly Media have ingested and arranged pricing data from the iBookstore for the top 50 sellers across the 21 subject categories. Lo and behold, the mean price the for top 10 bestsellers is a $10.66. In the highest-priced bracked, for titles ranked 21 through 30, the median price moves up to $11.81. In the fiction categories, which typically lead ebook bestseller lists, average prices for the top 10 titles in the categories look like this:Fiction & Literature: $11.84Mysteries & Thrillers: $11.02Romance: $8.64Sci-Fi & Fantasy: $9.16 The highest mean prices are found consistently in “cookbooks, food & wine,” […]
Now Joining the Publishing Math-Challenged: Yes, the New Yorker
Ken Auletta dramatically “reports” a portion of that which already happened–the emergence of Apple as a seller of ebooks and the introduction of the agency model–and he and the magazine’s vaunted fact-checking department join the ranks of those who misconstrue the economics of publishing. This one is a whopper, erasing all the margin in hardcover publishing by misunderstanding how returns work: “Traditionally, publishers have sold books to stores, with the wholesale price for hardcovers set at fifty per cent of the cover price. Authors are paid royalties at a rate of about fifteen per cent of the cover price. On […]