ENTRIES TAGGED "Kindle"
Publishing News: Are free Kindles on deck?
Rumors abound ahead of Amazon's press conference, publishers settle with states, and a strategy to survive the "End of Print."
Here are a few stories that caught my attention in the publishing space this week.
Is Amazon ready to give away the Kindle?
Amazon is scheduled to hold a press conference next week, and though, as Reuters reports, Amazon officials have not revealed what will be announced, there are no shortage of Kindle rumors flying about. Adding fuel to the rumor fire, Amazon announced this week that its supply of Kindle Fire devices has run dry.
Leslie Horn at Gizmodo pulled together a rumor roundup, including intel from a Staples executive that “Amazon was prepping ‘five or six’ new tablets,” that 4G might be in the picture, and that the new Fire devices might include a front-facing camera for video chats.
The Verge got its hands on a photo from an anonymous sender who claimed it to be a shot of the next Kindle Fire. The exact model isn’t clear, and one commenter claimed he’d held the new Fire and this was not it. Verge writer Chris Ziegler reports that the photo was confirmed as authentic “and is part of a larger set of images depicting a new Kindle device.”
One of the more interesting speculations has to do with device price. Most analysts and industry writers are conservatively speculating that the price points will remain close to the same as the previous Kindle line, with the (predicted) larger tablet costing a bit more. Farhad Manjoo at Slate has a more bold, insightful prediction on this point (one that I happen to lean toward):
Streaming content: Why buy when you can borrow so much more?
Why ownership of streaming content is overrated
I remember when the early music streaming services were being launched and how I knew I’d never join one. I want to own my content, darn it! Now I rarely buy songs but I love listening to Spotify. I’ve evolved. I’m not alone though and I’m convinced the streaming content model will be very successful with ebooks.
I was speaking recently with an industry colleague and he mentioned how DVDs are now more of a hassle than an asset. Think about it. We used to pride ourselves on that shelf full of jewel cases but I think he’s right. How many times do I watch a video/episode/movie again? Almost never. A scene or storyline might come up in conversation where I’d like to show someone a clip on my phone/tablet/computer though. In other words, cloud access to that content (via YouTube, Hulu, a digital locker, etc.) is more useful and valuable to me than the DVD collecting dust in my living room.
Graceful eBook Degradation
New approaches and tools are required to develop and present the highest fidelity content across devices
Remember the old days when print was the only format a publisher had to worry about? Now the minimum output requirements include PDF, mobi and EPUB. But what about the devices used to read those formats? You’ve got to consider eInk displays, mobile phones, tablets and computers.
We’re in the very early innings of the ebook game and our focus is mostly still on quick-and-dirty print-to-e conversions. That means the ebook pretty much renders the same way as the print book. Reading devices offer so much horsepower and presentation capabilities yet the vast majority of our content is nothing more than the printed page on a screen. Why?
B&N’s Results Point to Larger Industry Concerns
What's next if device sales from the two market leaders have plateaued?
I was disappointed to read that B&N’s Nook business was basically flat year-over-year. How could that be in such a red hot market? Ebook sales are skyrocketing and everyone seems to be buying new devices.
The more I think about it though the more I realize that B&N’s results are consistent with other data points we’ve seen this year and part of a broader industry trend.
Amazon Prime Time
What's the next step for the Kindle Fire tablet?
Like most technology products, each new version of Amazon’s Kindle eInk reader is lower-priced than the last one. There’s been speculation that the price will eventually go to zero, perhaps taking a page out of the cell phone model where the consumer commits to a long-term plan. There’s no monthly service plan for a Kindle so I always figured Amazon would require consumers to purchase a minimum number of ebooks over a 1- or 2-year period instead.
That makes sense, but there’s a bigger play Amazon probably has in mind and I’ll bet it will eventually feature their tablet, the Kindle Fire.
Amazon, ebooks and advertising
Amazon's adoption of ad-supported ebooks is shifting from possible to likely.
Amazon already sells ads on the Kindle. Joe Wikert explains why ad-supported ebooks are a logical next step for the company.
Why I haven't caught ereader fever
Platform lock-in and questionable longevity make the iPad a better investment than an ereader.
Ereaders may have their place now, but shifts toward the web and HTML5 make the iPad a wiser and more enduring choice for digital reading.
Kindle Fire: Three pros, five cons
The good: Form factor and content. The bad: Lock in, auto updates and the Silk browser.
Joe Wikert says the Kindle Fire gets good marks for form factor and meeting basic consumer needs, but its lock in, auto updates and lack of a killer app are detriments.
Five things we learned about publishing in 2011
Lessons from Amazon, self-publishing, ereading studies, HTML5 and DRM.
It was a busy and sometimes bruising year for publishing as the industry continued its digital transformation. Here, we take a look at five of the biggest lessons from 2011.
Tools of Change for Publishing Newsletter: December 7, 2011
Publishing startups, the paperless book, analyzing Amazon's many moves.
Highlights from the 12/7/11 edition of the TOC newsletter include: Todd Sattersten argues for a "paperless book," a look at Amazon's many products and initiatives, and the folly of Kindle device limits.