Archive for November, 2011

E-book reader sales to boom as prices plunge

November 30, 2011 at 11:07 am · Published under eBook Readers

Rivals follow Amazon and cut World shipments of e-book readers with electronic ink screens topped 6.5m in Q3 2011, market watcher IDC has said.

That represents quarter-on-quarter growth of 27 per cent, and an increase of 165.9 per cent on Q3 2011′s total.

Expect even greater increases this quarter, IDC said, as the gadgets get cheaper. Not only did Amazon knock the entry price of the Kindle to $79/£89, but its rivals pushed their own prices down too in a bid to remain competitive.

Sony, for example, is currently selling its Reader PRS-T1 for just $99 – it’s still £129 ($200) here, ahem – in the States, which is a real bargain.

The US matters to Sony and others because it’s the world’s biggest e-book reader arena. It accounts for 80 per cent of global reader shipments, IDC said. Europe is in second place.

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Amazon launches ebook lending service

November 14, 2011 at 1:42 pm · Published under eBooks

Amazon announced the launch of their ebooks lending service for owners of Kindle ereaders, letting them borrow one digital book per month with no due date.
Amazon said Kindle owners with an annual Prime membership can choose from thousands of books to borrow for free, including over 100 current and former New York Times Bestsellers. The online retail giant did not give an exact figure on the number of books of the new service.

According to the company, readers’ notes, highlights and bookmarks in borrowed books will be saved, so they will have them later if they purchase or re-borrow the book. Customers can have one book out at a time and the borrowed book should be returned through the Kindle device when they want to borrow a new one.

In a press release, Amazon said it has reached agreement with publishers for a vast majority of titles for a fixed fee. But in some cases, Amazon is purchasing a title each time it is borrowed by a reader under standard wholesale terms.

An Amazon Prime membership costs 79.99 U.S. dollars a year in the United States and gives members free two-day shipping and free access to the company’s video streaming service containing some 13, 000 TV shows and movies.

The new service is not compatible with smartphones, personal computers or tablet computers from other vendors running with Kindle apps, which makes Amazon’s Kindle e-ink readers and its latest low-price tablet Kindle Fire more enticing to customers.

According to Amazon, the Kindle Fire, which is priced at 199 U. S. dollars, will be released on Nov. 15 2011.

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