Is Amazon working on a large screen Kindle?

An article from The Wall Street Journal indicates that a new large screen Kindle could be released just in time for the holidays this year. Amazon has not confirmed the rumor but some insiders say they have seen a version of the device. Whether or not the rumor is true, there are likely several large screen e-readers in development. Jennifer Colegrove, the director of display technology research at DisplaySearch confirmed that suppliers for several e-readers have been working on screens that measure 10 inches diagonally and she estimates that the world-wide market for e-readers will triple in 2009 to three million, up from one million in 2008. (Note: that is better than exponential growth).

As mentioned previously, there is also speculation that Apple is working on a large screen device that could be released this fall. If these rumors are true, then both companies and perhaps others could become viable competitors in the textbook market later this year. This is just another sign that the e-book space is starting to heat up and that we may be passing the “knee of the curve” when it comes to e-books.

Scholarly presses benefit from digital publishing

An interesting article by Scott McLemee on Inside Higher Ed discusses the recent move towards digital publishing and some of the advantages that it has provided for scholarly presses. The article begins with a telling quote from an observer of trends in the industry that reads, “We’re going to see a 15 year leap in the publishing industry in the next two years.” Interestingly enough, that comment was made last summer when the economy was in better shape and “before trillions of dollars starting vanishing into the ether.” The piece goes on to discuss an article written by Sandy Thatcher, director of Penn State University Press and past president of the Association of American University Presses entitled “The Hidden Digital Revolution in Scholarly Publishing: POD, SRDP, the ‘Long Tail,’ and Open Access.” In the article, Thatcher discusses how the small market for scholarly titles has actually given university presses an advantage because they have been able to experiment with and benefit from short-run digital publishing and print-on-demand while others in the industry are continually trying to reduce their costs through economies of scale. Additionally, university presses have been able to publish more scholarly works and distribute them to a broader audience through digital publishing. In the coming months, we can expect to see more acceptance of and experimentation with digital options as the industry struggles to find a more profitable business model during these tough economic times.

New color e-reader to hit the market early next year

A recent posting on the iReader blog features a new color e-reader that is expected to hit the market in Q1 2010. The e-reader is being developed by the companies Netronix and Astak and known as the Netronix EB900 or Astak Mentor Pro. The E Ink screens will be provided by Prime View International (PVI), the maker of the E Ink Kindle screens. The e-reader comes with some impressive features including, a large 9.7” touch screen with either 26k color or 16 shades of gray-scale, the choice of Linux or Windows CE, WiFi Bluetooth/3G wireless connection, 4GB memory, SD Card slot, two USB 2.0 ports, and it supports a variety of languages such as English, Spanish, German, French, Japanese, Korean and Portuguese. According to Netronix’s website the company plans to release five other e-readers this year that are all 5 or 6 inch devices with different capabilities/options on each.

Even children’s books are becoming iPhone apps

Last week, Houghton Mifflin and ScrollMotion released Curious George’s Dictionary as an iPhone/iPod Touch application. An article from the Earth Times explains that the application is designed for children in preschool through first grade. David Langevin, vice president and director of Electronic Markets for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Trade & Reference Division explained, “ScrollMotion has done brilliant product development, combining elegant design and child-friendly functionality. We feel the world’s most curious monkey’s dictionary adventure will be the most popular educational app in the iTunes App Store.” This has us wondering; how many young children have their own iPhone/iPod Touch or are their parents handing over their pricey devices to keep the kids entertained? Either way, more and more children are participating in digital learning with technologies designed specifically for them. How will these factors affect the way children learn in the classroom?

January 2009 e-book sales statistics

E-book sales statistics for January 2009 have been released by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) via IDPF. Trade e-book sales were $8.8 million for January 2009, a very significant 173.6% increase over January 2008. Note that these figures represent the 13 trade book publishers who have been willing to supply their data to IDPF.

Is Barnes & Noble working on an e-reader too?

Rumor has it that Barnes & Noble is the latest company preparing to release an e-reader to compete with the Amazon Kindle. According to the jkOnTheRun blog, Barnes & Noble is one of the five companies that recently approached Verizon about providing wireless services to the e-reader. However, those talks may have ended and the company could be in discussions with Sprint and AT&T. This rumor could prove to be true because as mentioned in a previous posting, Barnes & Noble recently acquired e-book retailer Fictionwise with plans to incorporate the company into its digital strategy. Although Fictionwise’s e-book inventory is not as large as Amazon’s, they still have tens of thousands of e-books and they do offer non-DRM books when publishers allow, unlike Amazon.

Popular myths about e-books

An interesting posting on the Epublishers Weekly blog features 10 popular myths about e-books. The posting is worth a read and includes some interesting points to take note of:

Myth: E-books and electronic publishing are killing the print publishing industry
Truth: Print publishing is struggling for many reasons. The print publishers that survive will need to embrace electronic publishing, transform their business models, and renew the original vision of publishing, where books are published not for profit only, but to enrich and renew our culture.

Myth: Buying e-books instead of paper books does not really help the environment
Truth: E-books save trees, energy, transportation costs, and reduce pollution. To produce one weekly issue of the Sunday New York Times 75,000 trees are consumed. To produce one year’s worth of Sunday papers, more than 3.9 million trees are consumed.

Myth: E-books are not ready for prime time: the digital reading revolution is years away
Truth: E-books and electronic publishing are young but e-book sales will surpass 100 million dollars this year. (And this does not account for rapidly-increasing influx of "free culture" works: more than two million e-books and electronic publications that are available at no cost.) That 100 million dollars is still a small part of total print publishing sales. Yet e-books are by far the fastest growing segment of this otherwise-troubled industry.

Peter Osnos – The Future of Books

The Century Foundation recently featured interesting commentary by Peter Osnos. In the piece, Osnos discusses how print and digital books can easily co-exist in the future because print books will not necessarily disappear as digital progresses. While there are often comparisons drawn between the book and music industries, Osnos explains that he believes the book industry will follow a similar path to that of the movie industry. In the movie industry, consumers are provided with a variety of movie viewing options including: DVD’s, downloads, rentals, movie theaters, etc. As the industry evolved, new delivery options were added while still allowing previous options to exist and remain viable revenue streams. The book industry could evolve in a similar way by allowing a variety of print and digital options with their own pricing structures to co-exist. Customers will appreciate the ability to consume books in multiple ways and to choose among the options just as they can when they want to watch a movie. The digital options will likely become more popular in the coming years but there will always be times when consumers just prefer a printed book.

More news on Google Book Search

An article from The New York Times discusses the objections to the recent settlement proposal for Google Book Search. As you may recall, the Google Book Search initiative includes the scanning of millions of orphan books or those which are under copyright but out of print and the rights holders are unknown or can not be located. Many major libraries including university libraries contain large numbers of orphan books and Google could gain exclusive rights to publish the books online and profit from them if the settlement is approved in June. Some academic and public interest groups plan to file legal briefs for fear that Google could become a monopoly if the settlement is approved. Without orphan books, competitors will not be able to create a library as comprehensive as Google and therefore Google could potentially charge universities, libraries, and others high prices to access the database. Alexander Macgillivray, a lawyer for Google defends the company by saying that the goal is to make orphan works more widely accessible and the prices charged would be reasonable. He adds, “This agreement expands access to many of these hard-to-find books in a way that is great for Google, great for authors, great for publishers and great for readers.” But is it great for college stores and university libraries? Several of our members forwarded this article on to us noting that if the settlement is approved it could be a real game changer and easily affect every community and stakeholder in the industry. One member summed it by saying that Google has the potential to wipe out recommended title sales overnight which could further erode the market share college stores have in the book business.

More e-readers soon to be on the market

An article from Yahoo! Tech explains that Verizon Wireless has been approached by five companies to provide wireless connections to e-readers. The article does not confirm who the companies are but explains that Verizon is looking to enter parts of the e-book market that the Kindle is not currently in, more specifically, the college textbook market. This news provides further verification that the higher education textbook market is under a great deal of pressure to change. We can expect current players in the space and companies looking to enter our market to introduce e-readers designed specifically for textbooks within the year. What is not clear yet is what the business models will look like and if the companies will choose to work with us or against us.

What is all the twitter about?

With all the recent twitter about twittering we thought you might enjoy this comic from Being Five. Have a good weekend!

What we can learn from the decline of the newspaper industry

This week’s issue of The Chronicle features interesting commentary by Kevin Carey that discusses how technology could impose a similar threat on the higher education industry as it has on the newspaper industry. He explains that the industries are threatened by technology because they are both in the business of creating and communicating information and technology is making this easier than ever before. He goes on to say that what is happening now to the newspaper industry was actually predicted in the 1990’s when the internet was introduced so newspapers had time to prepare for the digital future but the temptation to cling to the old ways was too great. However, it is not too late for higher education, the industry still has more time to embrace technology, prepare for change, and move to a more sustainable cost structure. It would be a mistake to believe that accreditation will be enough to protect universities because with the economy in decline and tuition on the rise, the number of students taking online courses is growing by hundreds of thousands each year. If higher education decides to hold on to the past like the newspaper industry did, “then someday, sooner than we think, we're going to be reading about the demise of once-great universities — not in the newspaper, but in whatever comes next.”

Innovative Kiosks

There was an interesting article in the New York Times this week about new kiosks being developed by Intel that could eventually be placed in retail locations. The kiosks feature large touch screens with software that can identify customers, recall their purchase history, suggest specials or additional items to coordinate with their new purchases, and even let customers try out virtual clothing and cosmetics. The idea behind the kiosks is that it will provide customers with more product information as well as customer reviews, in other words, the information that they would see if they were purchasing online. Joe Jensen, general manager of the embedded-computing division at Intel explained the kiosks by saying, “The prototypes are a vehicle for showing the direction we see retailers needing to move.” As retail locations begin to change their models to provide an online shopping experience in store, how will consumer’s expectations change? Or perhaps more importantly, what will students come to expect when they shop in the college store?

iPhone applications - a growing trend

Blackboard, maker of campus learning management system software, is the latest company to announce that they have released an iPhone application. According to the press release, the new application provides a mobile version of the same tools used on their website in an effort to support learners on the go. Blackboard is just one of many companies to release an iPhone application this month. In fact, according to a recent article from San Jose Mercury News, there are currently about 200 new apps added each day to the Apple App Store and the store is growing at a rate of 38% a month. Additionally, the store already offers over 31,000 applications since its debut less than 9 months ago. At this rate, we can expect to see many more reading, campus related, learning, and social networking applications introduced in the coming months. These applications can be developed quickly and offer powerful new ways to connect users in ways that we have not seen before. What effect could these applications have on the way students learn and communicate, and in turn the college store? This is definitely a trend to watch, particularly with rumors of a new Apple device due out perhaps this summer or fall.

Shelf Awareness article about CAMEX

Today, Shelf Awareness featured a nice write-up about the efforts of NACS Media Solutions and Mark’s digital content presentation at CAMEX. The article provides good coverage of the presentation and is worth reading especially for those that could not attend however it incorrectly states a few statistics. It explains that “only 38.1% of college stores are selling digital materials” but this statistic is misleading because it only includes independent and private stores and does not represent the industry as a whole. If contract managed stores were added to the statistic, the number would be higher. Additionally, the article explains that at Taylor & Francis, “direct sales to consumers are at a 50/50 ratio of print to digital format.” This statistic actually represents several publishers and not just Taylor & Francis. A correction notice has been submitted to Shelf Awareness.

Barnes & Noble launches free e-reader application for the Blackberry

According to an article from The Wall Street Journal, Barnes & Noble has released a free e-reader application for the Blackberry. As noted in a previous posting, earlier this month, Barnes & Noble acquired Fictionwise, so the new e-reader is an extension of the Fictionwise e-reader application currently available for the iPhone and other mobile devices. The article explains that the decision was initiated by consumer demand and now Blackberry users will be able to access the 60,000 plus titles available on the Fictionwise eReader store. William Lynch, President of Barnes&Noble.com explained the launch, "E-books are a nascent market. We think users will engage with this. We want to be there with the right application and content regardless of the device."

Samsung to launch e-reader in June

A posting from the Wired blog reports that Samsung will launch a new e-reader called Papyrus this June in Korea. It is reported that the device is A5-sized with an E Ink touch screen and 512MB of memory but does not include a memory card option or WiFi capability. Samsung plans to eventually release the e-reader in the U.S. and the U.K. Additionally, the posting provides a great summary of the e-readers currently on the market or soon to be released.

University of Michigan Press goes digital

Earlier this week, the University of Michigan Press announced that they will be moving to digital format. According to an article from Inside Higher Ed, the majority of the monographs published will now be released in digital form but readers will have the option to use print-on-demand if they choose. This announcement differs from other recent news because the University’s decision was not based on a cost saving initiative and no jobs will be eliminated, the shift is purely to take advantage of the ability to publish more books and distribute them to a broader audience. Phil Pochoda, director of Michigan press explained. “I have been increasingly convinced that the business model based on printed monograph was not merely failing but broken. Why try to fight your way through this? Why try to remain in territory you know is doomed? Scholarly presses will be primarily digital in a decade. Why not seize the opportunity to do it now?” As we begin to see more scholarly presses transition to digital for distribution or cost saving purposes, college stores should also consider seizing the opportunity to provide digital content.

Thinking the Unthinkable

There is a great posting on Clay Shirky’s blog titled, “Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable” that provides an insightful analysis on the past, present, and future of the newspaper industry. All college stores, publishers, and book retailers should read this piece because as one of our members noted, one could easily substitute “textbooks” for “newspapers” in several places. In the posting, Mr. Shirky explains that the problem that the newspaper industry is facing is not due to lack of preparedness for the internet, in fact, in the 90’s, many plans were created to deal with the internet. The real problem is that all the plans were based on the idea that the newspaper just needed a “digital facelift.” He explains:

“Round and round this goes, with the people committed to saving newspapers demanding to know ‘If the old model is broken, what will work in its place?’ To which the answer is: Nothing. Nothing will work. There is no general model for newspapers to replace the one the internet just broke.

With the old economics destroyed, organizational forms perfected for industrial production have to be replaced with structures optimized for digital data. It makes increasingly less sense even to talk about a publishing industry, because the core problem publishing solves — the incredible difficulty, complexity, and expense of making something available to the public — has stopped being a problem.”

Mr. Shirky goes on to say that nothing will really replace what we are losing with the demise of news on printed paper but through experimentation we can find a way to preserve journalism. “Now is the time for experiments, lots and lots of experiments, each of which will seem as minor at launch as Craigslist did, as Wikipedia did, as octavo volumes did.” It is in retrospect that these experiments are considered turning points.

Mr.Shirky’s advice can also be applied to the college store industry. As the old publishing models are broken, experimenting with digital initiatives on campus is imperative for defining the future. One experiment may not be the answer but a collection of experiments can help to preserve the important role of the college store on campus.

Clay Shirky's posting is a must read for all college stores.

Interesting digital content article

There is a very interesting article by Len Vlahos posted on the American Booksellers Association site that provides a great overview of the book industry’s history with digital content and the changes that have occurred in recent years as consumers have became more comfortable with digital content through the music industry. Additionally, the article discusses the factors contributing to the recent interest in digital content and the opportunities that lie ahead for the book industry. We encourage you to read the article for general knowledge and understanding.

GameFly partners with Barnes & Noble to test game rental kiosks in college stores

A recent article explains that Gamefly, an online video game rental service, has partnered with Barnes & Noble to test out game rental kiosks in college stores. The kiosks will provide students with the opportunity to rent hundreds of popular games for various gaming systems without a return date or late fees. The first kiosk was launched last Wednesday at the Texas Tech campus store and GameFly plans to install similar machines in stores across the country.

Fujitsu’s color display e-reader

A recent posting on CNET features a close-up look at the color E Ink display on Fujitsu’s e-reader. As mentioned in a prior posting, until recently the e-reader was only available for trial in a Tokyo restaurant but now it is available for pre-order and is scheduled to begin shipping on April 20 in Japan. There is no word yet on when the e-reader might be available for purchase in the U.S. Another posting on the Wired Blog explains that the device appears to be more like a hybrid of a tablet and e-reader because it comes with Window CE5 operating system which supports e-mail, web browsing, and spreadsheets among other functions. With capabilities such as these, the device becomes more than just a color e-reader and consumers may be more likely to purchase it. We look forward to hearing the reviews next month.


Update on 3/26/09:
Here is another recent story on the Fujitsu e-reader:
http://www.slashgear.com/fujitsu-flepia-color-e-book-hits-japan-next-month-1838035/

E-Book Cartoon

The Penny Arcade recently featured this funny cartoon about e-books. Enjoy!

Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper moves to digital version only

Earlier this week, there was another signal that the tipping point from print to digital is approaching. According to an article from the Associated Press, on Monday the Seattle P-I became the largest American newspaper to announce that it will move to an online version only and on Tuesday the newspaper produced the final paper edition after 146 years in print. This announcement follows the recent closing of Colorado’s Rocky Mountain News and this Saturday’s scheduled closing of Arizona’s Tucson Citizen. The Seattle P-I’s move to digital will likely be closely watched as other newspapers seek to find a way to survive as the industry struggles. Additionally, this move could put additional pressure on the Seattle Times which had a joint operating agreement with the P-I and will be the only mainstream daily newspaper in the city. Steven Swartz, president of Hearst’s newspaper division explained the move to digital and the hope to capitalize on the P-I’s existing web traffic, “We clearly believe we are in a period of innovation and experimentation, and that’s what this new SeattlePI.com represents. We think we’ll learn a lot, and we think the Seattle market, being so digitally focused, is a great place to try this.” In recent months, other large newspaper companies have sought bankruptcy protection including the owners of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Google and Sony partner to take on Amazon

An article from Forbes explains that Google and Sony have announced that they will partner to make 500,000 of the public domain books from Google's Book Search scanning initiative available for free via the Sony eBook Store in EPUB format. This is interesting news because this is Google’s first move into the e-reader space and they have elected to go with Sony which uses open standard format over Amazon’s proprietary offerings. Until now, Google has only offered the scanned books via PDF format which does not display well on e-readers. With the EPUB files, the text will reflow and adapt to fit various screen sizes. Additionally, consumers do not even need to own a Sony Reader to benefit from this partnership because the files can be used on any device with EPUB software and even on Amazon Kindles with the proper conversion software. This move signifies a step forward for the adoption of the EPUB open format standard for e-book distribution and away from propriety formats which has hindered consumer adoption. In addition, according to another posting on Teleread, Google plans make the additional one million books in their library available in EPUB format as well.

Advice from Peter Osnos

Last week, Shelf Awareness featured a conversation with Peter Osnos, founder and editor-at-large of PublicAffairs and founder of The Caravan Project. In the piece, Osnos explains that he sees a bright future for the book world because as technology advances a book publishing model is developing that will make it possible for readers to buy books in any format they choose – traditional, e-books, print-on-demand, or audio, and he envisions that this could take place in a bricks-and-mortar bookstore. He does however, have concerns about booksellers who, "still have not yet accepted that digital delivery is a good thing and that it can be part of what they do. There isn't any reason any bookseller cannot completely embrace digital delivery." His advice for people in the industry is to "step back and think of themselves as civilians and appreciate the extent to which we always look for convenience and quality. It doesn't mean that 100% of people will read online and that the printed book is doomed. It means that there will be choices and options, and it's essential that publishers and booksellers be a part of that." Embracing digital delivery and recognizing the opportunities and options it provides is especially important advice for college stores. We do not have time to wait because if college stores do not provide content options in the formats that students desire, someone else will.

Future of the News

An interesting posting on the Wired Blog discusses how the New York Times is working to create a digital future for the news through research and development. Recently, Nick Bilton, design integration editor and user interface specialist at the New York Times R&D lab spoke about the efforts at the Emerging Technologies conference. We also had the opportunity to see him present about a month ago at the O’Reilly Tools of Change conference and were intrigued and impressed by the technologies in development. Some of the most interesting technologies include a prototype called "CustomTimes" which is a digital version of the traditional newspaper machine that will allow users to select certain content to be printed via print on demand, “smart content” which keeps track of the stories that users have read across their devices so that when a user picks up their mobile device a story that was read on their computer appears grayed out, and a Times mobile application that can sense when a user is traveling in their car and delivers the news in audio format. While these advanced technologies are likely five to ten years away, the transition to digital is inevitable for the newspaper industry, and as Bilton points out the newspapers and news organizations can still thrive in digital format, “Paper is dying, but it's just a device. Replacing it with pixels is a better experience.” What can other industries, such as course materials, learn from the shift to digital in the newspaper industry?

Video presentation by Richard Baraniuk founder of Connexions

As mentioned in previous postings, the video presentations on the TED website are a great resource for ideas and inspiration. The presentations are given by the world’s leading thinkers and doers at the TED conference each year. Richard Baraniuk founder of Connexions gave a presentation titled, “Goodbye, textbooks; hello, open source learning” that is worth watching. In the presentation, Mr. Baraniuk explains the vision behind Connexions and how through open source learning, ideas from the music industry can be used to reinvent the way books are written, used, and taught from. He explains that in the music industry anyone is free to create new music and use existing music in innovative ways which has created a community where things are kept constantly up-to-date. Connexions is similar to that of the music industry because it will “enable anyone in the world, to be their own educational DJ, creating education materials, sharing them with the world and constantly innovating them.” As we continue to see more interest in open content learning models, it is important to consider the effect that free educational content could have on college stores.

CAMEX 2009

CAMEX, one of NACS biggest events of the year and the industry’s largest trade show and educational event begins today. Some digital sessions to take note of include, Mark’s presentation this afternoon entitled NACS 2009 Digital Update: Moving Beyond Mousing Around. Mark will be discussing the many recent signals of change occurring in the industry and the choices that college stores are faced with as we prepare for the transition to digital.

On Saturday afternoon there will be a few other digital sessions. The session: Re-defining the Future of Your Health Science Store: Incorporating Digital Content will feature a panel of health science publishers and booksellers to discuss the types of digital content that students in the medical fields are using and how stores can incorporate digital content into selling strategies. Another session entitled Exploring E-books will discuss how some universities are piloting e-book initiatives on campus. The session will be given by college store managers and directors Jennifer Berry (BYU Bookstore), Todd Summer (San Diego State University Aztec Shops), and Jason Katzman (Colorado University Book Store) and will be a great opportunity to gain ideas for how to pilot e-books on your campus.

We look forward to seeing many of you at CAMEX!

DukeMobile and iStanford applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch

Last week, Duke University unveiled a suite of applications for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch called “DukeMobile.” According to an article from The Wired Campus, the applications allow users to browse the university’s catalog, search a campus map, and watch Duke related content on YouTube and iTunes. The application was created by Terriblyclever, a company started by Stanford students which recently produced an even more advanced and impressive suite of applications for Stanford University called “iStanford.” The “iStanford” applications are connected to the university’s core computer system which allows students to perform tasks that are normally only accessible over secure campus networks. Students can add and drop courses, find out the exact location of the campus shuttle, and review grades and course history. Additionally, students can use an interactive campus map to find out the locations of other students with iPhones and send them instant messages. For students that do not have an iPhone or iTouch, there is also a website designed for web-capable phones that offers campus services. A recent article in TIME explains that the applications have received great reviews and we are likely to see more universities invest in similar applications in the upcoming months.

Asymmetric Competition

Several months ago, Umair Haque, Director of Havas Media Lab and a blogger for Harvard Business School discussed an interesting concept known as asymmetrical competition on his blog. The concept can be applied to the competition occurring in the corporate world and has some specific relevance to college stores. Haque explains that in years past the majority of competition was symmetrical, meaning that companies typically competed with comparable resources and capabilities. Some examples of these competitors include Ford and General Motors. Today, the competition has become asymmetrical and new companies are emerging and rewriting the rules of strategy to displace the leaders of yesterday. Google is one example of a company that is doing exactly the opposite of what traditional strategy says and yet has become the world’s most powerful brand in record time. Hague explains that while new companies have always produced competition what we are seeing now is different. “First, rarely before have new and lateral entrants been able to upset incumbents so decisively - to actually put them out of commission. Second, rarely have they been able to dominate entire industries with such speed. Third, almost never before have so many revolutionaries threatened so many incumbents across a broad sweep of industries. Fourth, in asymmetrical contests, yesterday's sources of advantage become today's sources of disadvantage.” Asymmetric competition is happening across the corporate world and could soon impact college stores. In the last several months, we have seen new companies emerge and existing companies introduce new technologies and solutions for the higher education market. As new companies and technologies are introduced and acquisitions take place, it is hard to predict how quickly things could change for higher education. With radical environmental changes, the incumbents are rarely the victors. That does not mean they do not survive – they just end up with a lesser role to play – like candles compared to light bulbs. The higher education textbook market is under a great deal of pressure to change, and if we are not part of the change, forces of asymmetrical competition could replace us.

How e-readers and e-books could win mass appeal

An interesting article from TWICE explains that some analysts are predicting mass appeal of e-readers and e-books if the technology is adopted by schools. Josh Martin, Yankee Group Senior Analyst commented, “I’m not really bullish that this will be a mass-market product. But if schools adopt the devices, the market could take off.” For universities such as Northwest Missouri State that are piloting e-readers and e-textbooks this semester, there could be a gradual switch to the digital versions this fall. For schools that have yet to experience the technology, the shift to digital could take more time but as more schools begin offering digital options, we could see the transition gain speed. Stores must begin preparing for the transition to digital if or perhaps when e-readers and e-books gain mass appeal.

Read an E-Book Week: March 8-14

Sunday marked the start of Read and E-Book Week, a not-for-profit week designed to inform the public about the pleasures and advantages of reading electronically. Read an E-Book Week was founded in 2004 by author Rita Toews and has since gained many supporters including E-INK, Sony, Stanza, and IDPF among others. During the week, Stanza will be offering a catalog of free e-books for the iPhone and iPod Touch while many other publishers and authors have a variety of free e-book offerings. To show your support for e-books and to find out more about the week and its offerings, refer to the website’s E-Book Supporters page.

Fujitsu’s color display e-reader

A recent article from Fast Company features photos of the first color display e-reader produced by Fujitsu. The e-reader uses Fujitsu’s FLEPia technology and includes a slender design, large touch-screen, Wi-Fi capability, SD card slot for memory expansion, stereo speakers, a battery life of 50 hours, and Windows CE5 operating system. Currently the e-reader is only available for trial in a Tokyo restaurant. Patrons visiting the restaurant can test out the technology by browsing newspapers, train schedules, and weather reports.

University of Pennsylvania Libraries to make 200,000 titles available for on-demand digitization and printing

Another example of the recent increase in the number of libraries offering digitized collections appeared in a recent article from Campus Technology. The article explains that the University of Pennsylvania Libraries have partnered with Kirtas Technologies to make 200,000 public domain titles available for on-demand digitization and printing. This partnership differs from other efforts because the books will be digitized upon user request which will eliminate up-front printing, production, and storage costs and allow the university’s digital collection to grow based on demand. Customers that wish to participate in the offering will search for titles on the Kirtas site and then place a “digitize for me” request. The book will be pulled from the library shelves, digitized, and then either printed or made available for online access depending on the customer’s preference.

Barnes & Noble acquires Fictionwise

There has been some interesting news in the e-book world this week. Yesterday we heard about Amazon’s release of an e-book application for the iPhone and today we learned that Barnes & Noble has acquired Fictionwise, a leading independent eBook publisher and distributor. According to the press release, Fictionwise will operate as a separate business unit under Barnes & Noble and founders Steve and Scott Pendergast will continue to run the business. Barnes & Noble plans to incorporate Fictionwise into its digital strategy which includes the launch of an e-Bookstore later this year. A posting on Teleread explains that the founders shopped the site around to potential buyers and decided on Barnes & Noble because of their support for Fictionwise’s philosophy of “platform neutrality and eReader everywhere,” meaning that customers should still be able to buy non-DRM books from Fictionwise when available.

Hearst Corporation to introduce large screen e-reader

Last week, Hearst Corporation, owner of many popular daily and weekly newspapers as well as magazines, announced that it will launch a large screen e-reader designed to meet the needs of publishers in the declining market. According to an article from The Wall Street Journal, the e-reader initiative is part of the company’s “100 Days of Change” program which seeks to review the longstanding newspaper business practices to define a new cost structure and business model for the future. Another article in Fortune magazine explains that the e-reader is likely to debut later this year in black and white and may even be foldable. The company plans to sell the e-readers to publishers and take a share of the revenue acquired from selling magazines and newspapers on the devices. Additionally, publishers will be able to develop their own branding and payment methods. A third article from Information Week explains that Hearst’s move into the e-reader market is definitely risky but also necessary because even if Hearst is not successful in making money at first, the experiment could eventually lead to a solution to help boost subscriptions and revenues. Michael McGuire, analyst with Gartner’s media consulting business explained, "This is absolutely the kind of thing they have to be doing – experimenting. There are no set answers anymore." The same can be said for college stores. The market is changing with technology and the future is not clearly defined but experimenting with digital initiatives on campus can help lead to a solution for the future.

Amazon releases e-book application for the iPhone and iPod Touch

Earlier today Amazon made a surprising move in an effort to capture more of the e-book market. According to an article from The New York Times, Amazon has released a free application for the iPhone and iPod Touch that allows Apple users to access and purchase the 240,000 e-books currently available for the Kindle. Ian Freed, Vice President in charge of the Kindle explained that Amazon sees the e-reading application as a complement to the Kindle device and believes it could lead to more Kindle sales for its larger screen and longer battery life. Additionally, people that own both Kindle and Apple devices will benefit from the Whispersync technology which allows users to view all of their previously purchased e-books on both devices and place bookmarks on one device and have it display on the other. However, a posting from Gadgetwise explains that the application does lack some important features including widescreen reading capability, touch screen functionality to increase the text size, the ability to add notes, and most importantly the ability to download easily. It seems that the new Kindle application is best suited for customers that have either purchased the book via the Kindle or by using their computer because when users try to purchase e-books from the application a message says, “Get the best shopping experience by visiting www.amazon.com/kindlestore on your Mac or PC.”

iPhone experiment at Houston Community College

A recent article in The Wired Campus discusses an iPhone experiment occurring at Houston Community College. Earlier this semester, students in one section of a combination distance education and in-classroom course were loaned iPhones to supplement their computers while students in another section of the same course were asked to use only their computers to view lecture videos and do online assignments. The students in both sections have been keeping journals to record when and where they logged in to use the course materials and how much time they spent. The preliminary findings from the experiment show that the students with iPhones spend more time studying than those without. This finding can most likely be attributed to the student’s ability to access the material wherever they are although the newness of the technology could also have an effect on the results. Additionally, the professor of the course has noticed a social benefit to using the iPhones because the devices were like an icebreaker for the students, most of which are working adults, and they are now interacting more outside of the classroom and forming study groups. More results from the study will be available at the end of the semester.

Digital textbooks in the news

Recently there have been several articles regarding digital textbooks featured in the college newspapers. Here are the links to a few of the stories:

• San Jose State University
• Lehigh University
• The University of Victoria
• Brown University
• Sonoma State University

The articles provide some interesting information about the use of digital textbooks on the respective campuses. The Spartan Daily at San Jose State University reports that the appeal of e-textbooks is increasing and the digital offerings at their bookstore have more than doubled in the past year. At the University of Victoria, a survey was conducted to find out if students would buy e-textbooks when available. The results showed that 7% would always buy e-textbooks, 33% never would, and for the remaining 60% it would depend on the price. The Brown Daily Herald article explained that at Brown University most of the textbooks are from university presses and not yet available in digital format however, students do want the option to buy e-textbooks and could decide to go with the environmentally friendly digital version if given a choice.

In recent months, more and more campuses have begun expanding their offerings to include digital texts. While many students may still prefer the print version over the digital, we are beginning to see an increase in the appeal of e-books.

Digital pilots in the U.K.

A recent article from Russian Today provides a look at how a university in the U.K. is piloting digital technology. Similar to a pilot occurring at The Ohio State University College of Medicine in the U.S., The University of Derby is experimenting with the use of iPods for medical students. Recently, 35 first-year students studying diagnostic radiology were given iPods with video lessons to supplement their lectures in hope that the medical demonstrations would be more useful than a traditional textbook. According to Chris O’Reilly, e-Learning Development Coordinator for Radiography, the university is already realizing the academic and social benefits of the devices. He explains that students find the devices to be a great resource and appreciate the ability to access the material wherever and whenever they want. Additionally, the device provides a social benefit by helping the university develop a relationship with the students from the start of their enrollment. The iPod pilot is likely the first example of additional digital initiatives for the university. Chris O’Reilly explains, “We are always looking for innovative ways to deliver education to students.”

NPR interview with Northwest Missouri State University

Earlier this week, NPR featured a radio interview and related article with Northwest Missouri State University President, Dean Hubbard and a few students participating in the e-textbook pilot at the university. As mentioned in a previous posting, the university is conducting a pilot with e-textbooks that can be downloaded to laptops as well as testing out Sony PRS 700 e-readers. The interview notes that about half of the students at the school still say they prefer physical textbooks however at least one professor has noticed that the students are more likely to bring their laptops to class than their textbooks and in turn students could be more likely to read the digital text over the printed version. This article also incorrectly cites a statistic from NACS that 18% of college students have purchased an e-book. The actual finding shows that 18.5% of students have either purchased or accessed digital course materials; this includes materials such as digital articles or applications like Pearson’s MyMathLab.

A Kindle Cartoon

It is Saturday -- time for a cartoon. We have not had a fun cartoon or video here in a little while. A colleague in DC sent this one along and it is worth sharing. Enjoy!

2009 Horizon Report

The 2009 Horizon Report produced in collaboration with the New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative is now available for viewing and downloading. This year’s report is the sixth annual report in the series. We have a prior posting on the CITE for the 2008 report. As with prior reports, this version outlines, “Six emerging technologies or practices that are likely to enter mainstream use in learning-focused organizations within three adoption horizons over the next one to five years. Challenges and trends that will shape the way we work in academia over the same time frame are also presented.” The report breaks down the technologies into three adoption horizons based on the likelihood of entrance into the mainstream for teaching, learning, research, or creative applications. This year’s list includes:

Within 1 year or less
- Mobiles
- Cloud Computing

Within 2-3 years
- Geo-Everything
-The Personal Web

Within 4-5 years
- Semantic-Aware Applications
- Smart Objects

More information about each technology and the key trends can be found in the full report. Additionally, there is a Horizon Project Wiki that is used as a workspace for the project and contains links to the data, research, and background materials in the report.

The Ruckus Network shut-down

Earlier this month, The Ruckus Network, an online music streaming service designed to fight illegal file sharing on college campuses, abruptly shut down. According to an article from Tech Crunch, the closing came because Total Music, the joint venture between Sony BMG and Universal Music Group that acquired Ruckus last year, is also struggling. Total Music acquired Ruckus with the intention of using the technology for the back-end of a music streaming service for Facebook however it is not likely that this deal will happen now because both companies can not agree to the terms. Facebook is not willing to share revenue and user data in return for free music and Warner Music has refused to join in the agreement with the other major music labels.

This announcement has left over 1,000 universities that were registered in the Ruckus system wondering what to do next because as an article in PC Mag explains, the Higher Education Opportunity Act requires that students using university networks are given an alternative to popular P2P sharing networks. However the law does not currently explain what measures would be considered an appropriate alternative and now the U.S. Department of Education is working to define the terms, a task that could take several months. Additionally, the remaining leading service, the Choruss initiative which is backed by Warner Music Group, is not currently available because many details including pricing still need to be worked out.

The music industry is now tasked with determining an affordable solution for universities to participate in, as the fight to stop illegal file sharing on campus continues. The tough part is coming up with a pricing model that works for all parties. As Jason Herskowitz, Vice President of Project Management at TotalMusic explained on his blog soon after the Ruckus announcement, “I only hope that someone else figures out how to crack this music-on-the-web nut in a way that is a win for everyone in the value chain. The problem is that to make a music service a win for everyone, then all of the famished participants have to sit at the table - and be content to let all the others have a little bit to eat, even though they are still hungry themselves.”

December 2008 e-book sales statistics

E-book sales statistics for December 2008 have been released by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) via IDPF. Trade e-book sales were $6.5 million for December 2008, a 119.9% increase over December 2007. IDPF reports calendar year to date revenue is up 68.4% for the year. Note that these figures represent the 13 trade book publishers who have been willing to supply their data to IDPF.

Flat World Knowledge to offer free textbooks on campus learning management systems

According to a recent posting on the Wired Blog, Flat World Knowledge, an open source textbook publisher, announced that they will begin offering their free textbooks for use on campus learning management systems (LMS) such as Blackboard and Angel. In the past, typically only supplementary materials have been available on LMS but with this announcement, entire Flat World textbooks can now be uploaded to the systems and then divided by chapters. Flat World’s current textbook offerings include mostly business texts but a recent partnership with an education assessment software company will add general education textbooks to the offerings.

Is piracy the reason e-books are slow to take off?

An interesting posting on the Guardian Technology Blog suggests that the real reason e-books are not taking off is due to the lack of pirates. The posting explains that the music and publishing industries are often compared and therefore everyone is waiting for a drastic change for books. However, the reason that the music industry changed was due to the overwhelming amount of lost revenue from music piracy and currently the publishing industry is just not feeling that same push. The posting notes:

“I suspect that the real change will come as more authors who are already part of the digital age push for new things. But that's a generational shift, and we're still a long way from it.
It's not that I don't believe electronic books can't be a success - just that without an outside factor that can push things faster than the industry is comfortable with, progress is always going to be very, very slow.”

Although there is piracy in the publishing industry the authors point is that by comparison the publishing industry is currently not in the same situation as the music industry. Perhaps the growth in open access textbooks are an equivalent, albeit more legal, response to industry dynamics than piracy. It will be interesting to see if the publishing industry has learned from the lessons of the music industry and if it will be prepared for the change when it ultimately arrives. Textbooks seem to be an ideal market for the piracy problem as the consumers are telling us one thing, but what is being provided is another. In the end, as the music industry learned, the consumer always gets what the consumer wants. If publishers and college stores do not provide that, someone else will.

Are you prepared for the transition to digital delivery?

The group at ICBA put together a great program this past Friday -- a full day of digital content topics. Very well done. In advance of the day, a number of stores participated in a multi-part webinar series, which included a quiz of sorts. The quiz appeared in the program brochure, but it asked such a fantastic set of questions, that I thought I should repeat it here for the benefit of all college stores -- and for that matter, other stakeholders in the higher education digital content space.

The quiz asked the following 8 questions:

1. Have you created a sense of urgency about succeeding with digital delivery throughout your organization?
2. Have you built a team to guide the transition to digital delivery?
3. Have you created your digital delivery vision and strategy?
4. Have you communicated your commitment to digital delivery throughout your organization and achieved buy-in from everyone?
5. Have you empowered all levels of your store to act on your digital delivery strategy?
6. Have you identified short-term wins to be achieved immediately?
7. Are you unwavering in your desire to succeed with digital delivery?
8. Are you using the execution of your digital delivery strategy to build a new store culture that can sustain it?

These are questions I wish every college store in the country were thinking about and working on answering. I wish I had come up with these questions first! Kudos to the ICBA on this one.

Training/hiring collaborative people/ideas

A member sent the link to the following video in, which in turn was forwarded among senior staff at NACS. The speaker talks about a culture and hiring philosophy that links to innovation and collaboration. The video is of Randy Nelson, Dean of Pixar University (training arm for Pixar). The idea of collaboration as being a process of building on other people's ideas (rather than judging and correcting). It is a 9 minute video worth watching. Find it at:

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/cliff-kuang/design-innovation/pixars-approach-hr

A different stream of thought for a Sunday posting.

An observation on stores, libraries and IT

I made an observation recently at the ALA meeting during a panel for SPARC/ACRL. It is one I have made before, but this time I have gotten a few comments back, so I thought it might be worth sharing more broadly. Having experience in academic IT, libraries, and college stores, I have observed that these three groups have some very common interests and overlap. There is a challenge to our working together effectively though. That challenge is a conflict in values. Put in its simplest and most sterotypical form, that conflict of values plays out as follows:

- Libraries want to give everything away for free
- IT departments want to control access to everything
- College stores want to charge for everything

These fundamental value differences and stereotypes (based somewhat in reality) make it difficult for these three groups to come together to work on collaborative solutions for the benefit of the whole. The days of stovepipes in higher education must necessarily come to an end, however. That means we must find ways to overcome weaknesses or leverage the opportunities that come from these distinctly different value systems -- and the resulting skills and biases that come with them. As some institutions are finding, there is great advantage to be realized for students in doing so.

Does your campus have a group that meets regularly to discuss the future of digital content on campus? Does that group include the above three stakeholder groups, plus faculty, students, and others? What is your campus strategy for the transition to digital?

Another thing stores and libraries have in common

There were a couple articles of interest in the past week on things libraries are doing in the digital space. The Daily Iowan had an article that detailed how UI's main library is bringing its special collections and artifacts online -- and the implications of doing so for education. Here's one quote from the piece:

“Many professors are really starting to emphasize teaching with primary documents,” said UI history Associate Professor Leslie Schwalm, who studies Civil War era history. “It involves a much closer examination of the subject, and it’s always a little more exciting for students than a textbook would be.”

Inside Higher Ed also had an article this week on libraries and the move to digital. The article points out indicators of the "declining value of the library Web site as information gateway." Wow. If campus libraries, with their specialists in information cataloguing and retrieval, are having problems creating environments that help faculty and students find information to support teaching, learning, and research, what hope, might you ask, do college stores have? It signals yet again that there are reasons for us to work with libraries to provide a unified environment to the resources students and faculty require to be successful.

The article references a 2008 report by Ithaka on the "key stakeholders in the digital transformation of higher education." The report is worth reading for college stores -- even though the authors somehow did not see stores as key stakeholders in the digital transformation of higher education. Perhaps another signal that stores are being marginalized on their own campus because they are not engaging in the campus discussion. In a survey we just completed at NACS among college stores, only 24.5% of stores reported knowing whether or not their campus had a committee that discusses digital course materials. Of those where a committee did exist, fewer than half had college store representation. To be part of the future, stores must be part of the discussion today.

The Inside Higher Ed piece continues with some lengthy discussion, but the last paragraph is perhaps in some ways the most relevant for the store environment. The author, a librarian himself, writes:

Put simply, the library portal as we know it today is unsustainable. It, along with a host of other indicators such as declines in reference questions and shifts from print to e-resources, signals that for academic libraries a “let’s just keep doing business as usual” mentality is a sure path to obsolescence. If academic librarians fail to grasp the urgency of needed changes to their portals it is quite possible we will read in a future article something along the lines of “Academic librarians thought they were in the information gateway business, but they were really in the learning and scholarly productivity business. They just didn’t recognize it.”

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? One could substitute "college stores" for "academic libraries" and the tale would read the same.

Interactive whiteboard technology used in K-12

A recent article in the Sun Sentinel discusses a new interactive teaching technology that is currently being used in Broward county elementary schools in Florida. The technology consists of a touch-screen whiteboard as well as microphones and speakers that capture the conversation between multiple classrooms to provide students with a fun and interactive way to learn with other students in their county and potentially across the world. Additionally, the new learning method gives teachers the opportunity to learn different techniques and teaching styles to incorporate into their own classroom. James Notter, Superintendent of Broward schools explained that the district plans to convert all of the public schools to digital classrooms in three to five years time. He noted, "It's their world, we are absolutely modifying learning to our students' world of today...We're not sitting in rows and columns, handing out a textbook and a workbook."

This example of learning technology re-iterates a common theme in today's successful e-business environment: collaboration and participation are key. The K-12 environment is no different, so why should we expect higher education learning models to be any different? Or, along the same lines, why should we expect course materials not to follow this pattern? Which reminds me, if you have not read the article by John Seeley Brown and Richard Adler from yet -- you should do so. It was the most read article in EDUCAUSE Review last year -- and for good reason. It addresses this idea of education as participation and has implications for the course material market. For stores, one takeaway question should be, "how do we contribute to or provide a collaborative or participatory experience for our student customers when participation is increasingly the norm?" A related book on this topic is Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams. Anthony will be a featured mega-session speaker at CAMEX this year.

The effect of Web 2.0 on textbooks

An article in Campus Technology yesterday discussed how factors such as high textbooks prices, the Web 2.0 business model, and knowledge building could lead to a revolution for how students will access textbooks. The article repeats, as have others, that the revolution in digital textbooks is not about digitizing print textbooks. Instead, this article suggests the solution is to get authors to write for companies that follow a Web 2.0 business model and publish textbooks online. BookBoon, Flat World Knowledge, Connexions, and Wikibooks are some examples of companies that follow the Web 2.0 business model, where the online content is free but the ability to generate revenue is just a click a way either through advertisements or charging for the print version of the content. These business models are examples of how many businesses outside of the publishing industry operate today and provide us a glimpse at what some of the new entrants to the textbook market could provide. In addition to providing new, more flexible pricing models for students, many of these new companies participate in the Web 2.0 model of knowledge building which is the idea that knowledge is available to be worked on and used by others. For example, Flat World Knowledge offers faculty the ability to modify online textbooks and create customized versions for their students while Wikibooks are free content textbooks and annotated texts that anyone can edit. The article goes on to suggest that while this idea may take some time to catch on, students need to push faculty to adopt the more affordable online texts.

What does this mean for the college stores? As we continue to see a shift towards collaborative learning and more textbook content becomes available for free, stores must consider their role in this change. In a panel at TOC last week, one of the educational publishers noted that free content is increasingly devaluing other content, and that this is one of the issues driving e-publishing in higher education. Stores must find ways to work with free content, to preserve market share, and perhaps define new revenue opportunities that satisfy the needs or interests of students having content in different formats.

Interactive art history textbooks

An interesting posting on Fast Company last week discussed a new interactive art reference website known as smARThistory. The site is an ongoing effort by Beth Harris, MoMA's director of digital learning, and Steven Zucker, graduate-studies dean at the Fashion Institute of Technology to create an engaging "web-book" to enhance traditional art history courses.

The project began in 2005 after years of dissatisfaction with large and expensive art history textbooks and has evolved into an intuitive reference website that features an interactive timeline with images that link to podcasts and screen-casts. The podcasts and screen-casts are recorded by Harris and Zucker and include spontaneous discussion about the works of art, which they have found to be more compelling to students than monologue. On the website, Harris and Zucker explain that their efforts are "a first step toward understanding how art history can fit into the new collaborative culture created by web 2.0 technologies."

The posting on Fast Company goes on to discuss how virtual textbooks like smARThistory could greatly benefit other disciplines such as math and science with the use of animated illustrations. As we move towards a more collaborative learning culture and more content becomes free via the web, stores must consider their role in this change.

Blogroll please...

A couple updates to the blog roll. Teleread moved its blog a couple weeks back, so I updated the link. And then, alas, I will refer readers to yet another blog of interest on the topic of digital content. This one is thedigitalist by the folks over at Pam Macmillan publishing. It is a very good blog with interesting postings. Here is a quote from one recent posting that gets to the question I posed to everyone yesterday:

Quite frequently I hear people talking about the future. They will argue and pontificate about when the new digital book, the new digital fiction, the new digital culture will arrive. In the world of digital publishing futurologists abound as we all try and work out what will happen next, even as we are still working out what’s just happened. The thing is that digital books and digital fiction and the like are already here. The die is, by and large, cast, and if we are still talking about the future it’s either because the new forms so little resemble the old we can’t recognise them or they are so familiar as to have slipped under the radar.

A couple of examples. A few years ago we had these things in our cars and houses called maps. They were, if you recall, like large books with lots of pictures of how to get from A to B. Often they were quite confusing and the source of many arguments but they pretty much worked. People had a nice sideline in publishing them. Likewise we had these big books known as Encyclopedias, great Enlightenment projects to capture the totality of man kinds knowledge, preferably in expensively produced multi-volume hardback editions.

Now we have Google Maps and sat nav, Wikipedia and, ahem, Google Knols. There is a reasonably obvious equivalence between the products. They resemble one another albeit with crucial evolutionary differences, but perform the same function. The content is roughly the same, the generation of that content and the interface is radically different. The point is no one is talking about what maps and encyclopedias will be like in the future. We know that already.

Yet digital fiction and the book is still surrounded by rampant speculation. However I think all the elements are already here, as with maps and encyclopedias. Firstly we have the ebook. Digital is meant to be good precisely because it breaks with print; however I believe the success of the ebook is because it resembles print. People don’t necessarily want a radical break. They want the same but easier.

For the full posting, check out the blog. Interesting stuff there.

A question...

I had a conversation recently which bothered me on several levels. One of those levels will be the punchline to a talk I am giving later this week for ICBA. But at the moment, I am thinking about another question that has been rolling around in that apparently empty head of mine... I was recently asked if ebooks are a marketing solution to a problem for which there is no demand?

After giving this quite a bit of thought, I think this is in fact the wrong question. I think the question should be more something along the lines of "are current e-book solutions a poor substitute for what is really wanted?" After Henry Ford created the automobile, he reportedly quipped that if he had asked people what they really wanted, they would have said faster horses. There is another quote, who's author I do not know, that goes something like, lightbulbs did not result from the continuous improvement of candles. In other words, sometimes breakthrough advances or radical changes in a space result in new technologies that are so different from what we remember, that they are hard to predict. But, when the right technology comes onto the scene, there can be a more or less rapid transition from the old technology to the new.

People may be skeptical of e-books, arguing that there is no market demand for such content or devices, yet look at the success of Stanza -- an e-reader application for the iPhone. At the TOC conference last week they reported that in less than seven months after their creation they had over 1.3 million downloads of their reader across 60 countries and had downloaded more than 5 million books in twelve languages. Not bad for a platform where the CEO of the company said not long ago that no one reads anymore. Maybe reading the "old way" has become like using candles before the lightbulb.

Any thoughts?

Lessons from the music industry...

This is a reference to an old post on a good blog -- Seth Godin's. Seth's site has a lot of useful material, including a fair number of posts about digital content. The post referenced here is one Seth did just over a year ago on lessons learned from the music industry's shift to digital.

The most important lesson he notes (lesson 0, because it is so important) is:

0. The new thing is never as good as the old thing, at least right now.Soon, the new thing will be better than the old thing will be. But if you wait until then, it’s going to be too late. Feel free to wax nostalgic about the old thing, but don’t fool yourself into believing it’s going to be here forever. It won’t.

Given some of the new data from a survey we just completed in the college store industry and the transition to digital, more stores might want to pay heed to Seth's message.

SONY markets notebooks with mannequins

This posting is a bit of a deviation from the traditional posting here, but marketing of new technologies is part of the innovation and adoption process, and this one is quite different, so I thought it would make a good weekend posting.

There was a piece in the Event Marketer this week on a new Sony campaign for the latest Sony notebook. The goal is to mix style with technology -- or technology with fashion. It continues the stream of observation by Sony that if people experience a well-designed technology they are more likely to adopt it -- and this is true of the Sony reader as much as their other devices.

In the marketing event, people had three opportunities to interact with the live mannequins. First, the mannequins walked through the event location presenting the device in a passive way. Second, they paused and revealed the product in action. Third, the mannequins froze in place, allowing consumers to explore the capabilities by taking the devices into their own hands.

Interesting approach to experiential and event marketing.

How The New York Times could cut their printing costs in half

The folks at the Silicon Alley Insider came up with a very interesting comparison to show just how expensive printing the newspaper can be. The posting notes that it currently costs twice as much to print and deliver The New York Times as it would to send each subscriber a brand new Amazon Kindle. The posting describes the calculation and explains that the printing costs could actually be even higher than the numbers used in the comparison. When you consider this comparison along with relevant factors such as the economy and environmental concerns, its makes you wonder how far off the tipping point for e-readers really is.


BTW -- Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

The Kindle2

Okay, everyone else is posting on the Kindle2, so we might as well too. As anticipated, Amazon introduced the second generation Kindle at a news conference in NYC on Monday. According to the news release, the Kindle 2 has several enhancements over the first generation Kindle including: slimmer design, 25% longer battery life, faster display with 16 shades of gray, seven times more storage, instant dictionary lookup, and a text-to-speech feature that converts words on the page to spoken words.

There have been mixed reactions to the text-to-speech feature and the Authors Guild among others are questioning if the feature is legal. In an article appearing in the Wall Street Journal, Paul Aiken, Authors Guild executive director explained, "They don't have the right to read a book out loud. That's an audio right, which is derivative under copyright law.” While Drew Herdener Amazon spokesman said, “These are not audiobooks. Text to speech is simply software that runs on devices and reads content.” Most other postings out there appear to agree with Amazon on this one. I think a pair of postings on Techdirt capture the perspective well, and with some humor. Although, once computers get good enough to read in a lifelike way, with proper intonation and interpretation, there could be an issue -- at that point, what is an audiobook? Maybe there is something of a true legal question here that should be addressed before the e-audiobook industry of the future is replaced. (Not saying that it should or shouldn't be replaced, only that if that industry wants to survive future technologies, it would be logical for it to take this development a little more seriously).

As for the future, Jeff Bezos commented on the ultimate goal for the Kindle and its library saying, “Our vision is every book ever printed in any language in under 60 seconds." Hmm... I wonder if instant translation to different languages by the device in the future is also a violation the Author's Guild will be concerned about?

Cornell University Library to offer more than 80,000 titles via POD

According to a recent press release, Cornell University Library plans to increase its print-on-demand offerings to more than 80,000 titles by the end of 2009. The additional titles will be added to the roughly 6,000 items currently available on Amazon.com. For the past two years, the library has been working with Microsoft to digitize the books which include many out of print titles.

Oya Rieger, Associate University Librarian for Information Technologies explained the initiative, "Although demand for online access to digital books has been growing, books as artifacts continue to have a real value. This initiative supports the reading and research patterns of users who prefer the affordances provided by physical books - they support deep reading, underlining and writing comments in the margins. The Web is great for easy access and browsing, but because digital content can sometimes be ephemeral, physical books continue to serve as valuable reference sources on your shelf."

This announcement provides another example of the recent increase in the number of libraries offering digitized collections. As discussed in a previous posting, the movement to digital creates some new opportunities for libraries and college stores to work together. The creation of on campus partnerships could provide print-on-demand opportunities for the universities rather than Amazon.

How literature is evolving in the digital age

An interesting article from Time magazine takes a look at how literature is evolving in the digital age. The article discusses a number of topics that factor into the change including the outdated business models that have guided the industry for years, the increasing popularity of self-publishing, and how for the first time in history, novels are becoming detached from the dollar with the rise of fan fiction websites that carry free novels written by amateurs. Additionally, the author provides his take on what the publishing future will look like. He explains,

"More books, written and read by more people, often for little or no money, circulating in a wild diversity of forms, both physical and electronic... If readers want to pay for the old-school premium package, they can get their literature the old-fashioned way: carefully selected and edited, and presented in a bespoke, art-directed paper package. But below that there will be a vast continuum of other options: quickie print-on-demand editions and electronic editions for digital devices, with a corresponding hierarchy of professional and amateur editorial selectiveness. (Unpaid amateur editors have already hit the world of fan fiction, where they're called beta readers.) The wide bottom of the pyramid will consist of a vast loamy layer of free, unedited, Web-only fiction, rated and ranked YouTube-style by the anonymous reading masses." He goes on to add that fiction will be, "Like fan fiction, it will be ravenously referential and intertextual in ways that will strain copyright law to the breaking point. Novels will get longer--electronic books aren't bound by physical constraints--and they'll be patchable and updatable, like software.

Recently we have begun to see some examples of publishers moving to pure e-formats for selected content and finding ways to monetize the new way of releasing fiction. In the future, we could see consumers shift away from content abundance and rely on respectable publishers to do the editing and presentation. In turn, this could drive publishers back to their core competence of editing and compiling information - leaving the delivery, formatting, and consumer choice of access to other companies and technologies.

Google, and Amazon, and Apple -- OH MY!

There were several interesting articles in the New York Times in the past week of interest to content producers and retailers. Three large companies -- Google, Amazon, and Apple -- are shaping up to be top competitors in the future e-book marketplace. Here is a synopsis of the articles from the past week:

Both Google and Amazon announced increases in their digital offerings to include e-books formatted for mobile phones. According to the article from the New York Times, Amazon is currently working to make Kindle titles available for mobile use while Google has just introduced a new mobile version of the Google Book Search initiative. A posting from the Inside Google Book Search blog explains that over 1.5 million of the public domain books that were scanned for Google Book Search have been made into a mobile version for viewing on iPhones or phones that use Google’s Android operating system. Additionally, the New York Times article provides some commentary from analysts on whether mobile phones will take the place of dedicated e-Readers. The analysts note that they do not see this occurring in the near future due to the small size of the screen, the backlighting present while reading, and the shorter battery life, however, as mobile devices become more advanced, consumers may be willing to give up some quality in exchange for convenience and cost.

There were two other articles in The New York Times this week, one about Google and the other about Apple but both about a similar topic – these companies are changing content production (and potentially retail) as we know it. By digitizing library collections across the world, Google is gaining the ability to offer books that no one else can thereby solidifying its dominant position in the market. Meanwhile, Apple continues to dominate the music industry having just reached an agreement with the labels to allow flexible pricing in exchange for DRM free music. So what does this mean for the future?

Color and Flexible e-book displays

The Economist recently had an interesting story that is a must-read for those interested in e-reader technology. They report that HP Labs, Arizona State, and E Ink have been successful at producing flexible electronic paper in long rolls -- bendy electronic paper, that can display words and images, and perhaps eventually replace paper books, newspapers and magazines. The new screens are both low-weight and have low power consumption. Early uses are expected to be in the military, who funded the project -- for purposes such as maps and receiving information. Consumer applications are likely a few years away.

The article goes on to talk about the two key barriers to the technology being successful -- a lack of color, and a refresh rate that enables moving images. But the new technology is substantively lighter, more reliable in production and use, and consumes less power -- all factors that will lead to the new technology surplanting the old. The breakthrough reported in the Economist article, though, is the ability to mass-produce flexible displays -- greatly reducing the cost. The article concludes with comments on different technologies that are emerging that may make color displays possible in the future.

More news on e-books

We are at TOC this week... so here are some other postings and articles of note in the news...

A British blog's take on the coming of e-books.

An early view of the Kindle 2 -- to be released tomorrow.

Another sign of change -- article reports that searches for e-books up by 100%.

More news is likely to follow in the week ahead.