Tag archive: eReaders

Barnes & Noble is facing a dilemma. On the one hand, the company is seeing success with its Nook e-reader and digital book ecosystem. Today, it trumpeted that sales throughout the Nook business — including its tablet and e-readers, as well as content — were up 70 percent this holiday season, compared to last year. However, at the same time, Barnes & Noble has been forced to scale back its financial guidance for its overall business:… Read More

The iPad may have launched in 2010, but 2011 was a big year for tablets. Almost every major smartphone and PC manufacturer has joined the tablet party Apple started, beginning with the Motorola Xoom way back in February. To combat Apple on new territory, most companies turned to Google and its fledgling tablet OS, Android 3.0 (Honeycomb). Results were mixed, with some great and innovative devices coming out, padded by more iPad clones than you… Read More

Online retailing juggernaut Amazon.com has declared 2011 the “best holiday ever” for its Kindle line of ereaders, with the Kindle Fire, Kindle Touch, and plain-jane Kindle occupying the first, second, and third places on Amazon's best-seller charts during the holiday season. Amazon also says the Kindle Fire was the leading seller on its mobile Web site, as well as the most-gifted and most asked-for product Amazon offered.… Read More

According to a recent study conducted by OnlineColleges.net, six out of ten students won't consider a college unless the education institution provides access to “free” Wi-Fi services on campus. While any development and maintenance costs of a campus-wide Wi-Fi network is ultimately billed to the students through tuition costs, colleges that are behind the curve on providing Wi-Fi infrastructure may be negatively impacted by… Read More

Hot on the heels of the European Commission launching a formal inquiry into whether five publishers colluded to raise prices on ebooks—possibly with the assistance of Apple—the U.S. Justice Department has confirmed that it is also looking into the ebook industry, as are states attorneys general. Speaking at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on oversight of antitrust enforcement agencies, the Justice Department's acting antitrust chief… Read More

Remember back in early 2010 when Apple launched iBookstore? The idea of selling electronic books wasn't new — the Kindle, Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble Nook, and other e-readers were already on the market, along with their associated book stores and third-party efforts like Google Books. But one thing that made consumers' jaws drop when Apple unveiled iBookstore was the price tags: New releases were initially priced at $12.99 to… Read More

The Kindle Fire is reported to be the top tablet at Best Buy this year, and Amazon is expected to sell 5 million in the fourth quarter against an estimated 13 million for the iPad. While Apple’s iPad remains the clear winner, if these projections hold up, the Kindle Fire will be the first tablet to come this close to challenging it. The Fire has two clear differences to the iPad. The first is a dramatically lower price; you can effectively buy… Read More

Penguin eBooks are once again available for library lending to owners of Amazon Kindle devices, at least through libraries using OverDrive's ebook lending service. Penguin withdrew all its titles from library lending to Kindle owners through OverDrive earlier this week citing “security concerns,” and said it would stop making new titles available to library lending on any platform. Penguin's reversal returns makes… Read More

This past week, I got the Kindle Fire and the Kindle Touch in. My wife and I already both own Apple iPads to compare them to. One thing that jumps out almost immediately to me is that the Kindle Fire is to the iPad what the Mazda Miata is to an Audi A4. When price and small size matter, it’s a better choice, but only if they matter significantly more than functionality. In short: The Kindle Fire and Apple iPad appeal to different users. To take… Read More

Amazon has long been heralded as the enemy of the brick-and-mortar bookstore, offering consumers a huge selection of titles via mail order at prices even the largest booksellers have trouble matching. Over time, Amazon expanded its online marketplace horizontally, adding clothing, groceries, computers, games, tech, tools, and myriad other products to its online shelves. But, with the Kindle, the company came back to its roots as a bookseller and… Read More

Bookseller Barnes & Noble has released its financial results for its first fiscal quarter of 2012, and while the company is still seeing sales dropping off in its traditional brick-and-mortar business, it's Nook and ereading businesses are helping make up the gap. The company's total sales for the first quarter were $1.4 billion, which is an overall 2 percent increase compared to the same period a year ago. Overall, sales at… Read More

Time Inc. has decided to double down on the the tablet and e-reader revolution, announcing today that it plans to launch tablet editions of all 21 of its U.S. magazine properties by the end of the year. The announcement means that titles like Entertainment Weekly, InStyle, and Real Simple will join the likes of People, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, and Time itself on tablets and ereader devices—and will make Time Inc. the first major U.S.… Read More

Back in February Apple angered folks offering digital content to iOS devices via their apps by announcing a new policy that requires in-app purchases go through Apple's own services, rather than connecting to the publishers' own digital content systems. Now, the policy is reaping more victims: booksellers Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo—along with The Wall Street Journal—have removed in-app purchasing from their… Read More

Today there is a bit of a stink about the new black and white Nook with its two month battery life. Granted, no matter how you look at it, the battery life of an e-reader is going to be several times that of a tablet but you are giving up a lot to get there. On the other hand Kindle fanatics – and I am one – wouldn’t trade our beloved Kindles for any tablet for what we think are very good reasons. Over the next decade many of these… Read More

Four years after introducing its Kindle ereader, Amazon is crowing the platform's success with another milestone: customers are now buying more titles for the Kindle than hardback and paperback books combined. Amazon says it sold 105 Kindle books for every 100 print books in any format since April 1, including print books for which no electronic version is available. Overall, Amazon says the success of the Kindle have resulted in the… Read More