.png)
Archive for Amazon
Kindle Touch Lands in UK a Week Early
Posted by: | Comments
eBook lovers and Kindle fans in the UK are in for a pleasant surprise from Amazon—its Kindle Touch e-book reader is now available in the country a week ahead of schedule. Amazon had earlier set April 27 as the day to mark its entry into the UK with its Kindle 4G, but isn’t citing any reason why it chose to do it a week early. The online retailer has said it is overwhelmed at the consumer response it received for the latest generation of touchscreen based e-readers, which might have prompted it to come in early.
“Orders from customers worldwide for our new line of electronic ink Kindles have exceeded our expectations,” said Kindle EU’s vice president, Jorrit Van der Meulen.
“We know that UK customers are eager to get their hands on these new Kindles, which is why we’re delighted to be able to ship several days earlier than we planned.”
On offer are both the Wi-Fi and 3G version of Kindle Touch, priced at £109 and £169 respectively. The Kindle Touch meant for UK can be considered an enhanced version of the one on sale in the US and which costs $89. The UK’s Kindle Touch e-readers has a text-to-speech feature along with the ability to play back MP3 files. Further, the Kindles will enjoy a backup time of around 2 months.
Fresh orders for the Kindle Touch are being accepted at Amazon.co.uk, while the e-reader can also be picked up from retailers such as John Lewis, Dixons, Argos, Carphone Warehouse, Currys, PC World, Staples, Tesco, and others.
via computeractive
Apple Wants Its Day in Court
Posted by: | Comments
Despite having three of its co-defendants in the price fixing lawsuit raised by the Department of Justice take the deal and run, Apple wants to have a court decide the outcome of the allegations against it for price fixing. In the words of one lawyer for the computer giant, it wants to see the decision made on the merits of the case.
“Our basic view is that we would like the case to be decided on the merits,” Apple lawyer, Daniel Floyd, told U.S. District Judge Denise Cote. “We believe that this is not an appropriate case against us and we would like to validate that.”
The settlement for three of the Big Six publishers involved in the investigation involves allowing Amazon to go back to discounting its ebooks under the original wholesale model and stripping away Apple’s “most favored nation” status. The lawsuit alleges that Apple and five of the publishers colluded to artificially raise the price of ebooks in 2010 when the iPad was introduced in order to force Amazon to stop selling ebooks at or below cost. Amazon’s strategy at the time was to convince consumers to buy Kindle e-readers to take advantage of the supreme savings on ebooks.
The three publishers who took the settlement terms are now working with the states to reach a final decision on punitive damages that will be paid to the consumers. Hachette and HarperCollins have both agreed to the terms and will pay around $51 million in restitution. The third publisher, Simon&Schuster, is still in negotiations over its settlement terms.
While Apple wants to take this to court in the US, it was Apple and four of the five publishers who offered settlement terms to the European Commission for the EU’s own investigation. A similar investigation is underway in Australian for the same alleged price fixing.
Asus Transformer Pad 300 Shows Up at Amazon
Posted by: | Comments
The Asus Transformer Pad can be a nice device for those who’d like to have the basic goodness of the Transformer Prime package, but with slightly reduced features as well as a smaller price tag. The tablet has already started to make its appearance in various online stores. Amazon is one popular site that has already featured the device, with a delivery time of around 10 to 12 days since the device is not yet available on the shelves. Users with an Amazon Prime account have also been given a specific heads up on this tablet.
Mobile Advance, an online retailer from California, is claiming to be able to deliver immediately but their cost is $50 over the $499.99 which Amazon is charging for the device. If you would like to be in immediate possession of the Tegra 3 based tablet running Android 4.0 ICS (remember it can also double up as a laptop with 15+ hours of battery life), there be a small cost to pay for instant gratification.
via cnet
Amazon Publishing Gains Rights to James Bond eBooks
Posted by: | Comments
Amazon Publishing has just struck a deal with Ian Fleming Publications for a ten year license to the print and eBooks.
The agreement for the 14 classic James Bond titles includes the first James Bond book in the series, Casino Royale (1953), which will celebrate 60 years of publication in 2013, as well as Live and Let Die (1954), Moonraker (1955), Diamonds Are Forever (1956), From Russia with Love (1957), Dr. No (1958), Goldfinger (1959), For your Eyes Only (1960), Thunderball (1961), The Spy Who Loved Me (1962), On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1963), You Only Live Twice (1964), The Man With The Golden Gun (1965), and Octopussy and the Living Daylights (1966). The first publication the books has sold over 100 million copies worldwide and they have been the inspiration behind the world’s longest-running film franchise. Following Fleming’s death in 1964, Kingsley Amis wrote the next book in the Bond series, Colonel Sun, under the name of Robert Markham. Bond novels have since been written by John Gardner, Raymond Benson, Sebastian Faulks, and Jeffery Deaver.
Amazon intends on publishing both printed books under its new publishing venture and will have bookstores carrying them by the end of the year. They will stock the ebooks in their own Amazon store and you can be sure there will be deals to be had.
Sources claimed that rights simply cost too much money, which is why no one in the last few years has picked up the publishing contract. Amazon is in a prime position to market the books more effectively in today’s digital climate than anyone else.
Audible Announces Its Own Author Incentive Program
Posted by: | Comments
Just like Amazon’s KDP Select program, which offers authors the opportunity to make their ebooks available for lending in the Kindle Owners Lending Library for far more profit than they would earn in sales alone, Amazon’s spoken entertainment division, Audible, announced its own incentive program. In addition to a full suite of tools for authors to use, Audible will pay enrolled authors one dollar over and above the royalty they would have already earned through Audible.com, Audible.co.uk, or iTunes.
“Before I founded Audible.com, I made a living as an author and journalist for 20 years. But the economics of being a professional writer have profoundly changed. For new authors and for the majority of experienced authors as well, the days of sustaining the writing life by ‘just writing’ are over,” said Audible.com founder and CEO Donald Katz in a press release, referring to statements he made while speaking during a keynote speech at the London Book Fair’s Digital Minds Conference. “The good news is that in the digital era, authors have numerous ways to reach audiences and communicate more directly with them. We want to reward authors who are or want to become personally involved in growing their audience. At Audible.com, we have had great success working directly with authors to increase awareness of their audiobooks, and Audible Author Services will help us build on these accomplishments. Audible has achieved global growth by turning literate listening into a mainstream media format. This means that today, any book worth writing or reading ought to be available in audio. We hope this new program also helps us achieve this mission.”
The aforementioned tools are designed to help authors promote their works through various social media platforms. The program only applies to authors who already have titles available as audiobooks through Audible or its channels, but authors who do not already have an audiobook for sale can work through Audible’s Author Services division to develop an audiobook.
Don Katz from Audible Talks about New Content Models
Posted by: | Comments
Dan Katz, the CEO of Audible, was one of the last speakers to take to the stage at the Digital Minds Conference today at the London Book Fair. “One of the biggest challenges facing the company is the is that there is simply not enough audio. Every book worth reading should be available as an audiobook – but 80-90% of frontlist books don’t go to audio. E.g. if a member of Audible runs out of Science Fiction audio, we lose a member. So we became producers, and we’re now one of the biggest producers of audiobooks, with recording studios running back to back.”
One of the elements facing audiobooks is who owns the rights. Many books and ebooks often become free after a certain number of years. Publishers often sell the rights to books to other companies once they have monetized it to the best of their abilities or if they face bankruptcy. “I thought this was a no-risk business: to use unused audio rights that were just sitting in filing cabinets. When you have content rights they should be used.”
Don mentioned that the success of Audible was fully reliant on piracy. He mentioned that “Piracy helped Audible take off because it taught everyone how to download!”
Currently, Audible rolled out new marketing tools and author services, allowing authors to embed samples of their works on their websites and blogs. They also added social media functionality to promote your works on Facebook. The company is giving $1 for every book sold, in addition to their normal service of helping to encourage indie authors to convert their books to an audio format.
Penguin Refuses to Settle in Dept of Justice Lawsuit
Posted by: | Comments
In the investigation launched by the Department of Justice against Apple, Inc and five large publishing houses for alleged price-fixing in order to severely wound Amazon.com, the publishers have successfully been divided as to the outcome. The lawsuit, officially filed yesterday by the DoJ, only names Apple and two of the accused publishers, as the remaining three took the settlement offered to them in order to avoid trial.
One of the major holdouts in the settlement offers was Penguin Group, which also happens to be the publisher named more often than any of the other publishers involved in the investigation and resulting lawsuit. Penguin Group’s CEO John Makinson issued a statement yesterday that basically outlines the company’s reasons for going to court over the issue, rather than accept the punitive settlement offered to the publishers. The other holdout in the investigation is Macmillan, who will also now be going to trial.
Among the accusations the DoJ will now bring up in court is that Penguin was actually very instrumental in arranging the “agency model” with Apple in an attempt to force the price of ebooks higher than they were currently being sold for, namely, that Amazon was purchasing the ebooks at the original wholesale price and selling them for a marginal profit—or in some cases, an actual loss, which it is allowed to do as long as it can afford to—in order to sell Kindle e-reader devices. Apparently, the DoJ feels that Penguin and Apple worked together to muscle-out Amazon by getting the major publishers to refuse to let it sell ebooks that way.
Also, and perhaps this will be harder to justify than the agency model that so many bookseller organizations and platforms have actually spoken in favor of, Penguin’s CEO and Penguin USA’s CEO David Shanks are both specifically named in the attempt to arm-twist the lone Big Six publisher who stayed out of the entire collusion, Random House. There are also alleged concerns that Shanks attempted to get other publishers to rally against Random House for its refusal to cooperate with the price-fixing deal.
But Makinson wouldn’t be willing to snub the deal offered and take this to a lengthy and expensive court proceeding, one which could result in even higher penalties than the settlement was offering, if he didn’t feel confident that there is more to these allegations than the Dept. of Justice has found.
“We have had the opportunity to study the complaint released by the DOJ today and nothing in this lengthy document causes us to veer from that position. The document contains a number of material misstatements and omissions, which we look forward to having the opportunity to correct in court…We believed then, as we do now, that the agency model is the one that offers consumers the prospect of an open and competitive market for e-books.”
Amazon Digital Sales Flourish in Q1 2012 Increasing by 29%
Posted by: | Comments
eDataSource is one of the leaders in business intelligence and they have compiled a small report on our favorite online behemoth’s digital sales in first quarter of 2012. According to the eDataSource estimates, Amazon’s digital sales grew 29% for Q1 2012 compared to Q4 2011
Digital sales continue to be very vibrant for Amazon thanks mainly to its Android App Store, eBooks, and streaming videos. Part of the reason why growth is accelerating is due to the rise and success of the Amazon Kindle Fire. Not only does the Fire directly tap into the Amazon ecosystem, but it locks users down into exclusively dealing with Amazon.
One thing Amazon has been doing well is their Android App Store with the daily giveaway of a free app. This encourages many people to download apps to their other Android devices without having to deal with Amazon exclusively. Another reason why digital content is on the rise is due to Amazon Prime and customers being able to download a free eBook every month.
Big Six Publishers Not Renewing Contracts with Amazon?
Posted by: | Comments
Paul Biba at Teleread wrote a fairly concise breakdown of an article that appeared in Salon recently which outlined some of Amazon’s current woes. Oddly enough, as Biba points out, two key issues were very nearly buried in among the pages of the article.
The first issue involves the grant money that Amazon is pouring into small independent publishers, apparently to the tune of about $1 million annually. As Amazon’s critics have pointed out time and time again, nothing the retail bookseller and now-publishing giant does is acceptable; criticism abounds in the article that grants are both a way to keep indie publishers wholly reliant-and-compliant on Amazon for revenue and that it is an evil attempt to control the publishing industry.
The second major issue is so unnerving that it’s surprising that this information wasn’t covered in the first paragraph. According to Biba’s explanation, Amazon sent contracts to the Big Six publishers and the industry leaders have decided not to renew. This bold step comes not long after the Independent Publishing Group (IPG) decided not to meet Amazon’s new contract standards and therefore found 4,000 of its ebook titles had their BUY buttons deactivated on Amazon.com. Now, the Big Six have taken issue with Amazon’s new contract guidelines and for now have decided not to sign.
Several articles have appeared on GoodeReader about the current state of investigation of Apple and five of the Big Six publishers over alleged price fixing and anti-trust violations. It’s possible—even hopeful—that this reluctance to sign any contracts with Amazon is nothing more than a cautious move on the parts of the publishers until they see how the Department of Justice investigation ends up unfolding.
Amazon Finally Allows In-App Purchases for Kindle Fire
Posted by: | Comments
Amazon has followed suit from popular ecosystems like Google Play and iOS with the ability to buy things within an app. Starting today, developers will be able to add in-app purchases such as virtual currency, expansion packs, or take out subscriptions. This is not just applicable to the Amazon Kindle Fire but all apps available on the Amazon Android App store.
The ability to purchase content within an application is something that has been strangely absent from Amazon’s Android App Store. This is all changing as the company is rolling out a new API for developers to use to make this happen. Conde Nast, Disney, and other vendors have already augmented their apps for this new feature and other major companies are jumping on-board.
“Amazon Appstore’s In-App Purchasing service enables developers to generate more revenue from their apps,” said Aaron Rubenson, Director of Amazon Appstore. “In-App Purchasing is simple to integrate and gives developers access to millions of Amazon customers who are already familiar with Amazon’s 1-Click payment system. Many of Amazon Appstore’s customers have shopped with Amazon before and they trust Amazon’s easy payment process, which leads to higher conversion of developers’ in-app content and subscriptions.”
Several Key Players Weigh in on Apple, Big Six Investigation
Posted by: | Comments
The only real news in the US Department of Justice’s investigation of the Apple/Publisher price fixing allegations is that there’s no news yet. Apple and five of the Big Six Publishers—HarperCollins Publishers, Hachette Book Group, Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Group and Simon & Schuster—are accused of colluding behind closed doors to set an agency pricing model on ebooks. Some feel that this agreement is a violation of anti-trust laws and that it was intended to bring down Amazon while boosting sales of the then soon-to-be-released iPad. At this time, there hasn’t been any agreement reached by all of the parties involved.
This week, the Consumer Federation of America’s Mark Cooper sent a letter to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee, stating that American consumers lost over $200 million as a result of this illegal agreement between Apple and the publishers.
Any actual agreement to force the agency model and therefore cause Amazon to have to raise prices on its ebooks in order to maintain the ability to sell those ebooks would “constitute anticompetitive, anti-consumer collusive” behavior, Cooper wrote in his seven-page letter. “Collusion between firms to set minimum prices is ‘slam dunk’ illegal, especially when one of the first effects of the price fixing, after increasing consumer cost, has been to raise publisher profits.”
In an interesting aside, the various agencies and even private businesses who have taken it upon themselves to voice their opinions to congressional groups involved in this investigation seem to be bookseller associations and ebook platforms from across the country who are urging their elected officials to not make any decisions that would result in making Amazon even more powerful than it already is.
How did Amazon become the bad guys during an investigation into whether or not Apple and several publishers violated anti-trust laws in order to artificially raise prices for reading consumers, thereby resulting in an increase in their own profits as well? Yes, Amazon was one of the key companies named who would be hurt by the supposed price fixing, but they are not alone in the fallout from it. This investigation is supposed to be about determining whether or not the people involved illegally worked together to force a price increase across the board.
This may be an example of the vultures circling over Amazon just because the opportunity is there. It’s important to remember that the entire investigation—and the one that Amazon, Walmart, and Target were under for the same accusations in 2009—is supposed to be about whether or not the consumers were required to pay artificially high prices at the hands of shady corporate closed-door meetings. Once again, it’s not about Amazon.
Next Kindle Might Include Front Lit E-Ink Display
Posted by: | Comments
How about a Kindle e-reader glowing in full e-ink glory? Well, that seems to be the way the next Kindle might function. The new Kindle using front lite glow might strike a blow to all of the screen lights and aftermarket book lights. It is thought to have a blue white glow that the front lit displays that will be easy on the eyes and be a firm departure from LCD which burn your eyes. Further, there will also be the feature to control brightness to adjust the glow as per individual user preference. That said, the light will still be way softer even in full blast than the same from a back lit LCD screen.
Right now, Amazon offers the Kindle Fire with a vibrant full color LCD screen though battery life is still mentioned in hours or at best days. That’s a far cry from the weeks or even months of backup time that e-ink based displays boasts of and a new Kindle with a front-lit e-ink display can work wonders in the dedicated e-book reader market.
However, let’s be reminded all of it is still very much in developmental stages and there is no way to state definitely if such a Kindle will indeed make it to the market. But then again, all of it is the result of Amazon acquiring the Seattle based company ‘Oy Modilis’ that prides itself as a world leader in light-guide technology. The acquisition was completed in the latter half of 2011 and was done with none getting an inkling of it. However, it would be a waste if such technology is not to be included in future Kindles which again keep the hopes alive of such a Kindle coming our way sometime in the future.
via techcrunch
Amazon’s KDP Select Contains Over 100K Titles
Posted by: | Comments
Image courtesy of myhungergames.com
It’s the retail ebook platform that everyone loves to hate, at least according to its numerous critics, but Amazon’s April 4th report on the status of its KDP Select program would show otherwise. Authors who have opted to enroll their titles in the exclusive program and fans who buy up those titles seem to be supporting the program very well.
When KDP Select first launched, the negative response was loud. Under this optional program, an author cannot list his ebook or distribute it anywhere else, including posting its entirety on his own blog, for example. Critics saw this program as an effort to control the industry on Amazon’s part, but indie authors saw things a little differently.
Part of the exclusivity that authors are committing to when they enroll their individual titles also buys them enrollment in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. Self-published ebooks that authors opt into KDP Select are available for borrowing, just like any traditionally published title. That feature alone made the program attractive to a large number of authors. That number is also continuing to grow, considering that the Lending Library for Amazon Prime members now contains over 100,000 ebooks.
The press release today from Amazon listed some specific authors’ achievements in sales in the last month, proof to them that the program is a success. Amazon also highlighted some new titles in all of it programs, such as Kurt Vonnegut’s recent Kindle Single publication, “Basic Training.”
The release included a very interesting point towards the end of the report that speaks to an issue much larger than book distribution, this time involving traditionally published author Suzanne Collins and her Hunger Games trilogy and several other authors:
“In the case of Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy, 24% of customers who borrowed The Hunger Games bought Catching Fire and 24% bought Mockingjay, despite the entire series being available to borrow for free in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.
Debora Geary was one of the top 10 KDP Select authors in February, and 51% of customers who borrowed one of her books from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library went on to buy one of her titles.
L.J. Sellers, author of the Detective Jackson Mystery/Thriller series, saw that 25% of customers who borrowed one of her books also bought one of her books, all of which are also available in the lending library.”
Data like the sales numbers above should hopefully help ease the fears that a significant portion of the publishing industry seems to have that ebook lending will somehow evolve into a “cheapening” of the value of books. KDP Select has now proven that a large number of readers go on to make book purchases after borrowing a book by the same author, something that makes back list publication and lending availability an even more appealing option.
