It was just a few days ago RIM launched the BlackBerry Torch, the fist BlackBerry to run the new BlackBerry 6 OS. We liked the design of the new OS, and are fans of the social networking integration, but it seems that’s not enough to entice others to buy the Torch. Now, a few days after the launch some unconfirmed numbers from the launch are emerging.
Earlier this week, the Amazon Kindle was unavailable for order. Amazon typically doesn’t have any problem fulfilling orders for the popular eBook reader so many speculated that perhaps we were on the verge of a new Kindle. Now, just a few days later we do indeed have a new Kindle from Amazon. The new version is simply dubbed the Amazon Kindle.
With Barnes & Noble fighting Amazon for eBook dominance, and Apple and Borders/Kobo trying to get in on the action, it makes sense for B&N to follow Amazon to every platform it has a presence on. To bring everything up to Amazon, Barnes & Noble has finally launched nook for Android. The app works as you’d expect, allowing users to read all their nook eBooks on their Android devices.
A few weeks ago we saw the eBook wars begin when Barnes & Noble announced the WiFi Nook and dropped the price of the standard Nook from $259 to $199. Amazon responded by dropping the Kindle 2 from $259 to $189. Obviously there’s a bit of a race to the bottom, at least in terms of pricing. It looks like that race is helping Amazon quite a bit in sales.
Without releasing exact sales numbers, Amazon has announced that since the price drop, Kindle sales have tripled. It looks like all that was holding potential buyers back from buying a Kindle was a price drop of just $70. It dips below the mental barrier of $200, and is almost in impulse buy territory in terms of gadgets. That means there’s a lot of people out there now who are willing to buy eBooks, perhaps above buying physical books. {Engadget}
Competition for e-reading consumers’ affection sizzled on Monday as Barnes and Noble dropped the price of its Nook e-book reader 23 percent to $199 and introduced the Nook WiFi at an even bigger bargain $149, though the latter device can only be used in a WiFi environment. Amazon, whose $259 price tag for its Kindle e-reader previously matched the Nook’s cost exactly, responded by dropping the price of the Kindle to $189.
It’s always the quite ones. Once only a titan among booksellers, Amazon has grown to be a shopping source for, well – everything.
The Seattle online retailer announced plans to relaunch their online clothing and shoe business with a focus on the high end market.
Last week many companies involved in book publishing came together for the annual BookExpo America to discuss the present and future of books. One of the major points to come out of the meeting was that publishers want a single eBook format that can work across all platforms. Perhaps they haven’t yet heard of ePub. {Wired}
As it stands now, eBooks are made available through mostly proprietary book stores like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the iBookstore. Other companies like Kobo, Sony Library and Fictionwise offer eBooks that work on their selected devices or apps, but can also work on other devices. Those stores use the ePub format, which was supposed to be the universal format. EPub is actually used by Barnes & Noble and Apple as well, though some extra Digital Rights Management (DRM) is added on top of the existing ePub DRM in those stores.
With the release of Apple’s new smartphone-laptop crossover, the iPad, electronics technology has leaped into a new realm. The iPad has received mixed reactions from publications and consumers alike.
But Amazon is reaching even further in the competition between the Kindle and the iPad. Besides the Kindle, the iPad’s other major competitor runs in it’s bloodline. That is to say, the iPod and Macbook are competing for money from someone’s wallet for the same capabilities that the iPad offers.
Unless you’ve been spending the past few days under a rock, you’ve heard the news about a little release from Apple called the iPad {previous coverage}. When the $499 entry-level pricing was announced, along with the introduction of an iBooks marketplace, many people wondered what Amazon’s response would be. When Macmillan, a large international publisher […]
Imran Amed's Signature9
The Business of Fashion editor introduces us to his signature style items
Diane Pernet's Signature9
Fashion blogger and film festival creator, Diane Pernet, shares nine of her favorite things
90 Seconds with Carine Roitfeld
In a Signature9 exclusive, we catch up with the Vogue Paris editor-in-chief