Amazon has sued Discovery in a Delaware court, alleging infringement of search engine and recommendation patents, and the etailer has also countersued over Discovery’s claim of infringement on their ebook patent.WSJ Amazon has also released a new version of their Kindle iPhone app, which adds some of the basic functionality suspiciously missing from the first version (leading some to view it is a crippled reader). The new version allows reading in landscape mode, and lets users “pinch to zoom images in books” and “tap on either side of the screen or flick to turn pages.”
eNews
The eBook Pricing Problem
Over the weekend the NYT ran a week in review piece looking at the surface issues and concerns for both readers and publishers as a result of Amazon’s efforts to make $9.99 the standard ceiling for new and popular hardcovers in ebook versions. Author David Baldacci says “unfortunately there won’t be anyone selling it anymore because you just can’t make any money.” Simon & Schuster ceo Carolyn Reidy asserts that “what a consumer is buying is the content, not necessarily the format.” And Harper ceo Brian Murray says “If prices come down but the overall market is bigger, then we […]
Scribd Launches Paid Model
Having built a large audience for free documents, Scribd.com launches their beta Scribd store today with a model for paid written content that gives rightsholders 80 percent of the revenue. Scribd also lets rightsholders set the prices for their content, with current offerings ranging from $1 up to $5,000 (for market research report on China). Among participating publishers noted in the release are Lonely Planet, Berrett-Koehler and O’Reilly. The store is currently available only in the US though the company promises “international launches to follow.” They will add an iPhone app shortly. Since Scribd displays documents of all lengths, the […]
Don't Get Kindled by Someone Else
We’ve been waiting to see if there would be any real news today, but it’s looking like a summer Friday, so there are just a number of short items below. This recent TechCrunch posting should serve as a warning to all, however. Amazon’s new open “Kindle Yourself” invitation to bloggers unfortunately also made it easy for people to register and claim blogs–like Tech Crunch–that do not belong to them. As part of that discovery, author Paul Carr told Tech Crunch he recently uploaded his book BRINGING NOTHING TO THE PARTY onto Kindle (since the print edition is available only in […]
Amazon to Bloggers: Go Kindle Yourself
Amazon has created a self-service platform that lets any blogger to enroll and distribute their blog to Kindle users–after accepting Amazon’s terms of service. Just like the big newspapers, Amazon keeps 70 percent of the proceeds, and they have sole power to set pricing (which for most blogs in either $1.99 or $.99 a month.)Sign in page
Inside the Kindle Sales Explosion
There was one, and only one, surprise for trade publishers at last week’s press conference to introduce the Kindle DX, but its impact is still being examined carefully at multiple publishers. It came when Amazon ceo Jeff Bezos said “Kindle sales are now 35 percent of books where we have Kindle editions” and print editions of the same title. Bezos indicated the increase was “coincident with the launch of Kindle 2.” That jaw-dropping figure, such as it is, was more than three times the ratio that Amazon had reported previously, first in October and then again in February when Kindle […]