At least once daily. Today in Amazon’s world, their latest acquisition is iPhone app maker SnapTell–the bane of physical retailers, whose app takes a picture of physical goods like books and then connects you to the online price and availability. SnapTell says on their blog, “One of the most heard requests was how we could integrate better with Amazon’s fabulous shopping experience.” In an e-mail reproduced on TechCrunch, Amazon has warned affiliates in North Carolina under their Associates program that if the state legislature passes a new sales tax law shortly as expected, “that would leave Amazon.com little choice but […]
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Bezos Commits to Losing Money On Kindle Editions On Multiple Devices
The NYT reports more remarks from Jeff Bezos at the Wired conference: “The device team has the job of making the most remarkable purpose-built reading device in the world. We are going to give the device team competition. We will make Kindle books, at the same $9.99 price points, available on the iPhone, and other mobile devices and other computing devices.” In other words, he both perpetuates the $9.99 is our top price fallacy, and commits the company to losing money on Kindle files even when it isn’t making money on the device sales. As for why they don’t sell […]
S&S to Offer Almost 5,000 Titles for Sale on Scribd.com
In a release originally set for announcement today that hit the wires last night after Business Week violated the embargo, Simon & Schuster is offering almost 5,000 of their titles available for sale on Scribd.com through a branded “storefront” on the site, including books from some of their bestselling authors. They books are priced at 20 percent below print retail, and the site provides the publisher with 80 percent of the revenue. S&S is also providing free previews with links to purchase print books from the publisher’s website. Scribd’s files are viewable online but download only as protected PDF files […]
The Daily Amazon Story
Next week’s Time magazine considers Amazon’s expansive publishing ambitions in a long piece. They conclude: “Imagine a world where publishing has two centers rather than one: a conventional literary center, governed by mainstream publishing–with its big names and fancy prizes and high-end art direction–and a new one where books rise to fame and prominence YouTube-style, in the rough and tumble of the great Web 2.0 mosh pit. The two centers will affect each other gravitationally and swap authors back and forth between them, but they’re not likely to eat each other. With any luck, they’ll energize each other. “Which is […]
More Pronouncements, from Ackman and Olson
A NYT blog publishes a performance report from Bill Ackman to investors in Pershing Square. Even with the big run-up in Borders stock recently and the sweetheart deal in which Pershing got to reprice their underwater stock warrants to the bargain level of 65 cents a share in exchange for extending their $42.5 million loan, the hedge fund is still at a loss on their Borders stake. Ackman notes that the average cost of their position after the cheap warrants is still just under $7 a share. He writes, “while the economic environment and digital book readers continue to be […]
ScrollMotion's Reader Featured at Apple Conference
ScrollMotion was among the app makers to be featured at yesterday’s Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, gaining international attention for the new version of their Iceberg Reader, coming this summer when Apple updates the operating system for the iPhone. ScrollMotion will take advantage of Apple’s newly-added “in-app purchasing” capability so that users of its readers can buy books and magazine subscriptions directly from within the app. (Which means they will purchase through their iTunes account, and Apple will get a piece of the business.) ScrollMotion claims that they will build to offering one million books, along with 50 magazines and 170 […]