Amazon Introduces a New E-Reader

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, let all his Twitter followers know on April 4 that a new Kindle was in the works. Just over a week later, Amazon started showing off its completely redesigned Kindle Oasis e-reader.

The new device is close to square with a side grip and a 6-in. screen that contains the e-reader’s central processing unit, storage, and battery. By changing the glass covering, Amazon was able to strengthen the glass and cut down the device’s size, according to a report from Mashable.

Amazon claims the battery life of the Oasis will be two weeks, but the leather case that will be shipped with it includes a backup battery that will extend the life by seven additional weeks. However, the device does not include the Alexa app that provides voice services to a number of Amazon products such as the Echo wireless speaker and voice-command device.

The Oasis is available for preorder and will begin shipping on April 27. It will cost $289.99 for the Wi-Fi-only edition that shows advertisements when the reader is turned on. The unit without advertisements costs $309.99, while a 3G device will cost $359.99 with offers and $379 without.

“The device’s funky new aesthetic is a surprise move for the relatively no-frills Kindle category, and yet it packs the longest battery of any e-reader ever made,” Nick Statt wrote in a review of the Oasis for The Verge. “These changes raise interesting questions for book lovers: What do we really need in an e-reader, and how much should those elements cost us?”

Amazon Launches E-Textbook Creator

Amazon is targeting educators and textbook authors with its new Kindle Textbook Creator. Authors use the tool to create PDFs of educational content that works on multiple devices.

Once the content is finished, it’s uploaded to Kindle Direct Publishing for use by students. The tool allows students to highlight in multiple colors, store notes in a single location, create flashcards, and find definitions and information for difficult terms, while providing authors with 70% royalties.

Blogger Nate Hoffelder sees even more benefits for Amazon.

“There may not be much money in digital textbooks, but there is value in getting teachers and students to use the Kindle apps,” he wrote in The Digital Reader. “This keeps them in reach of the Kindle Store where Amazon can sell them other e-books.”

E-Reader Sales Crumble, Tablet Sales Explode

It appears the e-reader market has bottomed out.

A new study from HIS iSuppli Consumer Electronics reports that shipments of the devices will fall 36% by year’s end, down to 14.9 million units from 23.2 million units in 2011. The study predicts shipments will drop another 10.9 million units in 2013 and total just 7.1 million units by 2016.

“The versatility of the media tablet—able to serve as a reader of e-mails as well as books, while capable of surfing the web and playing movies—has even overcome the cost advantages of the e-book reader,” the report said.

Dedicated e-readers will have to sell at cost or less to maintain their market, according to the report, which points to the Txtr Beagle device, which has a 5-in. screen and a potential selling price of $13, as an example. However, iSuppli predicts that even such a low price won’t be enough to help e-readers regain their popularity.

The clear winner is tablet computers, with shipments expected to reach 122 million this year and 172 million in 2013. Growth is being fueled by strong sales of Android tablets, along with the addition of the iPad mini to the Apple product line.

“Tablets continue to captivate consumers, and as the market shifts toward smaller, more mobile screen sizes and lower prices points, we expect demand to accelerate in the fourth quarter and beyond,” said Tom Mainelli, IDC research director in a statement to Campus Technology. “Android tablets are gaining traction in the market thanks to solid products from Google, Amazon, Samsung, and others. And Apple’s November iPad mini launch, along with its surprise refresh of the full-sized iPad, positions the company well for a strong holiday season.”

University of Texas El Paso Selling Kindle and e-books

Here is an October 18 article on University of Texas El Paso bookstore selling Amazon Kindle family.   In partnership with a third party digital textbook provider they hope to see more students turning to digital for their coursework.   While the sales were not great within the first two weeks of launch, Yolanda Torres, textbook manager at the bookstore, remains hopeful that UTEP students will soon resort to e-readers to avoid textbook hassles, according to the story.  "As of right now, we haven't sold any. I suppose the kids either prefer physical texts or don't know about them," Torres said. "We do not sell them online and the only way we advertised is in-store and the sign outside the doors."

E-Readers Aren’t Ready for School Yet

College students will likely continue to watch the development of e-readers from the sidelines because the devices simply aren’t yet suited for use on campus. That’s the conclusion of a blogger for the Seattle Times, who looks at the findings from a pilot study using Amazon’s Kindle DX at the University of Washington.

After seven months of use, fewer than 40% of the computer sciences and engineering graduate students taking part in the study used the device for homework. They found the Kindle DX to be poor for note-taking, and said skimming text and looking up references were difficult.

While those are all problems that could be fixed with future upgrades, the study also suggests the digital text disrupts a learning technique called cognitive mapping, which allows readers to use physical cues, such as the location of words on the page, to help retain and recall information.

A possible solution may be found in tablet computers such as the iPad, because the Apple device is able to bolster conventional text and images with interactive and multimedia content, according to Fast Company.

Kindle Adding Page Numbers, Note-Sharing

Kindles may soon be sporting some new features that address short-comings raised by the higher education market. According to Amazon's recent posting on the Kindle Daily Post blog, software updates for the Kindle and Kindle 3G will enable e-books to display page numbers that correspond to the same pages in the print edition of the book.

That may seem like a relatively minor improvement to some, but higher-ed researchers need to be able to provide publication pages when they cite sources for a paper or book. Right now they can’t do that with an e-book.

Even more importantly, the page numbering feature may make the Kindle more attractive for classroom use. Some college bookstores have reported their professors asked them not to make e-books available for their textbook adoptions because the lack of page numbers creates problems in making sure the class is literally on the same page. With the updated Kindle, students could use either print or e-book versions and remain in sync, page-wise.

As another new feature, the Kindle upgrade will also allow users to share their book annotations and highlights with other Kindle users.

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Additional commentary:

I once read that page numbers did not emerge as a concept in printed books until about 40 years after the printing press had become commercially viable. At the time, it was the scholarly community who identified the need. While Amazon's page numbering development has already been accomplished by others in the space, the development does signal two things. First, that we will continue to adapt current and new technologies to past ways of doing things. Perhaps there is a better way to cite a reference than the print-page equivalent. Second, it seems that Amazon is working to address short-comings in the Kindle identified by the higher ed market, and so they may still have plans in the work for a new reader or other technology that will support textbook users in the future.

e-readers expected to be a top seller this holiday season

E-readers are expected to be a popular gift this holiday season and many e-reader companies have expanded the distribution of their devices to stores like Target, Best Buy, and Walmart. In addition, Amazon, Borders, and Barnes & Noble, have come up with new ways to promote their devices on the web or in the stores.

In an article from The New York Times, Peter Hildick-Smith, president of the Codex Group, says, “This is the tipping-point season for e-readers, there’s no question. A lot more books are going to be sold in e-book format. It also means that a lot fewer people are going to be shopping in bookstores.”

Forrester Research predicts that about nine million e-readers are currently in circulation in the United States and this could increase to 10.3 million after the holidays.

As mentioned previously, according to a survey by the Consumer Electronics Association, e-readers rank fifth on the holiday wish lists of adults.

Kindle e-book gifting program

On Friday, Amazon announced that consumers can now give Kindle e-books as gifts to anyone with an e-mail address. Consumers that do not own Kindle devices can download the free Kindle app to their PC, Mac, Apple, Blackberry, or Android devices to read the e-books.

Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Amazon Kindle, noted, "We are thrilled to make it easier than ever for our customers to give their favorite Kindle book to a friend or family member as a gift. We're making this functionality available in time for the holidays to offer an easy, stress free holiday shopping option for anyone - not just Kindle owners."

Best Kindle e-books of 2010

Amazon recently posted a list of its 100 bestselling e-book titles for 2010. They also have a second list that shows the top 100 editors’ picks.

Digital Happenings

While the blog highlights many of the digital happenings affecting our industry, there is often more going on than we have a chance to cover. Here are some links to interesting articles from the past few days.

• Apple sold 4.19 million iPads last quarter bringing its total sales to almost 7.5 million since April. Interestingly, the iPad sales last quarter were greater than the sales for the entire line of Macintosh computers which also hit a record high at nearly 3.9 million units. Some analysts are now predicting that Apple will sell up to 40 million iPads next year.
• According to an article from Adage, Apple has also expanded distribution for the iPad to retailers such as Target, Walmart, Sam’s Club, and Best Buy. Previously, the iPad was available at 300 Apple stores and now it will be available at 8,000 stores across the country.
• A recent survey of students by the Associated Press and mtvU found that 57 percent of students said that life without computers and cell phones would be stressful but 25 percent said it would be a relief.
• An article from The New York Times says that Sharp is scaling back its laptop operations to focus on tablets. Sharp plans to launch 5.5-inch and 10-inch screen Android tablets in December. In addition, Sharp will launch an e-book store that will give users access to 30,000 e-books, newspapers, and magazines. A second article from MacWorld provides more information about the tablets.
• According to a TechCrunch article, Amazon says that it continues to sell more Kindle books than print books. Amazon says that it has sold more than three times as many Kindle books from January to September of this year than it did for the same nine months of 2009. Amazon also says that sales for its latest Kindle device have already surpassed total Kindle device sales from the holiday season last year (October through December 2009).
• A recent article from Publishers Weekly discusses the challenges associated with formatting e-books.

Amazon announces a lending program for Kindle e-books

According to an announcement on Amazon’s website, later this year it will introduce an e-book lending program for Kindle users. Users will be able to loan an e-book to a friend that uses a Kindle device or the Kindle app. The loan period will be for 14 days and the lender will not be able to read the book during that time. The announcement notes that publishers and rights holders will determine whether or not their titles are available for lending. Barnes & Noble has a similar lending program in place for its Nook device.

Amazon also announced that it will make Kindle newspapers and magazines available for reading on the Kindle apps. This functionality will be available for Apple devices initially and for Android devices or other apps in the future. This functionality may encourage users to stay within the Kindle app for all of their reading on various devices.

Sales forecasts for the iPad and Kindle

A few recent articles discuss updated sales predictions for the iPad and Kindle.

Gene Munster, analyst for Piper Jaffray, says that Apple could control 94 percent of the global tablet market this year. This means that Apple may sell an estimated 10.7 million tablets out of 11.3 million in industry sales. Munster also increased the forecast for iPad sales in 2011. Munster previously estimated that Apple would sell about 14.5 million units in 2011. The new forecast says that Apple could sell 21 million iPads and surpass sales of the Mac.

A second article from Electronista discusses Kindle sales. Douglas Anmuth from Barclays Capital estimates that Amazon will sell about five million Kindles this year and 11.5 million in 2012.

These forecasts put Apple ahead of Amazon in terms of device sales but Amazon will still benefit from e-book sales on the iPad. Currently, the Kindle app is one of the most popular apps for the iPad.

Digital Happenings

Here are some links to interesting articles from the past few days:

• The Xplanation blog has a posting about “Nine Important Trends in the Evolution of Digital Textbook and E-learning Content” that is worth a read. Some of the trends include the growth of OER, the development of a common format for e-textbooks, and a merging of the rental and e-textbook markets.
• An article from the Wall Street Journal reports that Blackberry could unveil a 7-inch tablet as early as next week. According to the report, the tablet will not be sold with a cellular service but users will be able to connect to cellular networks through Blackberry smartphones.
• According to a recent press release, Vook has released 47 enhanced e-books or “vooks” in the Apple iBookstore. As mentioned previously, vooks blend text, video, images, and social networking into a single experience. Here is a video demo that explains more.
• Here is an interesting article about a school in Scotland that gave each of its students an iPad for use in class and at home.
• According to Publishers Weekly, the Community College Open Textbook Collaborative (CCOTC) has partnered with Dynamic Books, an interactive digital textbook platform from Macmillan. CCOTC is a nonprofit coalition of colleges, governmental agencies, educational nonprofits, and other education-related organizations that was formed to help reduce the cost of textbooks. CCOTC has identified 27 open textbooks that will be made available through Dynamic Books beginning in January 2011.
• A posting on the Kindle Nation Daily blog says that Amazon is winning the e-book pricing war against publishers. The number of e-books in the Kindle store that are in Amazon’s preferred price range has increased significantly over the past few months. The posting includes a pricing analysis as well.

Digital Happenings

• According to a recent press release, three universities and the Virginia Department of Education have announced pilot programs with Inkling. The universities include: Abilene Christian University, Seton Hill University, and the University of Alabama. Inkling is a new start-up company that is working with publishers to rethink electronic textbooks. You can read more about Inkling in one of our previous posts. The Bits Blog also has a recent post.
• An article from Forbes features a Q&A with Tom Christopher, the president of Follett’s Higher Ed division, about the future of the college store.
• Is Apple working on a touch-screen desktop iPad?
• Reuters has an interesting article about a new social networking technology called Scoop. According to the developers, Scoop is intended to help connect college students with their campuses and social communities.
• Fast Company tells you why you should not underestimate the B&N Nook.
• An article from San Francisco Chronicle says that mobile payment technologies are gaining momentum and companies like Apple, AT&T, and Verizon Wireless may soon offer this type of feature.
• According to Information Week, Amazon says that its latest Kindle model has sold more in its first four weeks than any of its previous Kindle devices. For this version, Amazon has reduced the size, weight, and price of the device.
• In regards to e-book sales, Amazon recently said that they continue to sell more Kindle books than hardcover books. “Over the past three months, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 143 Kindle books.”
  
  

Donate a Kindle 2

Here’s a great idea. If you are thinking about upgrading to the Kindle 3 but can’t figure out what to do with your Kindle 2, you could donate it to the soldiers deployed overseas. A new program called Kindle 2 for Troops (K24T) is accepting donations of pre-owned Kindle 2 e-readers through Thanksgiving Day. Visit the E-Books for Troops website for more information.

Results from the Consumer Attitudes Toward E-book Reading study

Each week, O’Reilly Tools of Change (TOC) hosts a conversation on Twitter that focuses on topics of interest in the book and reading community. One of the recent conversations featured some of the latest results from the ongoing Consumer Attitudes Toward E-book Reading study by the Book Industry Study Group (BISG). The study includes hundreds of e-book consumers and aims to understand their purchasing and reading habits.

Some interesting results from the study include:
- Half of all e-books acquired today are free e-books.
- The cost of entry is still the top reason people give for not switching to an e-reader device.
- The Kindle has surpassed the PC as the most frequently used device for reading digital books.

To read more of the results, visit the TOC website.

e-reader accessibility

Recently Ars Technica compared the Kindle, the iPad, the Sony Reader, and the Nook to find out which device had the best accessibility features. Their research showed that the iPad and the Kindle are farthest ahead but there is still room for improvement. While all of the e-readers allow users to increase the font size, only the iPad and the Kindle include text-to-speech functionality. In addition, only the iPad and the latest version of the Kindle, the Kindle 3, include audible menus.

In a recent press release, the National Federation of the Blind praised Amazon for making the Kindle 3 accessible.

Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: "We commend Amazon on the unveiling of a new Kindle that blind and print-disabled people can use. In order to compete in today's digital society, blind and print-disabled people must be able to access the same reading technologies as the sighted. The National Federation of the Blind has long been urging Amazon to make its reading device accessible, and we are pleased that our efforts have come to fruition."

Digital Happenings

While the blog highlights many of the digital happenings affecting our industry, there is often more going on than we have a chance to cover. Here are some links to related stories that might be of interest.

• Campus Technology has an interesting article about the colleges that are remaking their campuses and designing learning spaces to accommodate student interaction and technology.
• CNET recently featured an interview with Ian Freed, Vice President of Amazon Kindle. Freed says that Amazon believes it has 70-80 percent of the e-book market.
• An article from eSchool News discusses the new copyright law that lets students and faculty in film or media studies courses legally “rip” movie excerpts to make commentaries, compilations, and other works.
• An article from Campus Technology discusses the news that Ohio’s Board of Regents will be working with Blackboard to create a statewide online learning clearinghouse.
• A recent article from NYU Press says that fifty-five university presses have expressed interest in participating in a University Press EBook Consortium to sell collections of e-books to academic libraries. The consortium will launch in fall 2011.
• A press release from the University of Scranton features praise from recent graduates for the university’s successful online learning program.
• A recent article from The NY Times compares the iPad (a multitasker device) to the Amazon Kindle (a specialist device) and says that early evidence suggests that some Kindle owners are also purchasing iPads and moving some of their e-book purchases to the Apple iBookstore.

Kindle 3 / Kindle Wi-Fi released

Last week Amazon announced the release of the third generation Kindle, which implements many expected features and updates, is 21% smaller, 15% lighter, and provides 4GB of storage space. This third generation Kindle comes with a 6” version of the high-contrast, next generation E Ink screen found on the Kindle DX Graphite, and it features 20% faster page turning speeds. In response to the accessibility issues for the visually impaired, which we discussed in a previous posting, Amazon implemented Text-to-Speech enabled menus—a much-needed and long-promised feature that allows visually impaired users to navigate through the Kindle.

As expected, Amazon also added built-in Wi-Fi connectivity and launched a less expensive, Wi-Fi only version of the device, coined the Kindle Wi-Fi. Due to demand, the Kindle 3/Kindle WiFi are temporarily sold out, and the next shipment is expected to be around September 4th.

More information and a review of the Kindle 3 can be found here.

e-book readers in the global market – Amazon out of Kindles

A recent article from Digitimes takes a look into e-reader shipments and market share. According to the article, 1.35 million e-book readers were shipped globally in the second quarter of 2010, falling short of the forecasted 2.02 million units. Digitimes speculates that this is due to several companies’ shipments of new models being pushed back to the third quarter in addition to lower than expected sales in China.

Digitimes research indicates that Barnes & Noble took the leading position in the second quarter with 33% market share, followed by Amazon's 27%. However, Amazon is expected to regain the leading position in the third quarter when the company launches a new product.

Digitimes Research forecasts that the global e-book reader market will reach seven million units in the second half of 2010 and attain the target of 10 million units for the whole year.

Despite not meeting forecasts, the e-reader market is growing rapidly, and this trend is expected to continue as global demand rises. In fact, according to Amazon’s website, the Kindle is currently sold out. Although this is more likely in preparation for a new device or alteration, as it is rumored that Amazon will release an updated Kindle or third generation product in August, it is still an interesting move. Amazon is expected to release a less expensive WiFi only device in response to Barnes and Noble’s plans for the same.