eBooks

Apple's debut of the iPad and iBookstore has been a successful one, with Steve Jobs announcing some impressive figures during his Worldwide Developers Conference keynote:

According to Jobs, users have downloaded more than 5 million books—approximately 2.5 for each device sold—in the first 65 days of iBooks’ availability. In addition, five of the six largest publishers have reported the app's share of their electronic sale to be about 22 percent, which is rather impressive for an e-book reader that has been on the market for just over two months.

That's quite a significant amount, given the short amount of time that the iPad has been available.

The Telegraph reports that Steve Haber, president of Sony’s digital reading business division, has said that "Within five years there will be more digital content sold than physical content. Three years ago, I said within ten years but I realised that was wrong - it's within five."

Read more...

E-book sales grew exponentially in the first quarter of 2010, jumping from just 1.5% of total US book sales in 2009 to 5% of the market in the first quarter of 2010:

Thirty-seven percent of e-book buyers bought their first digital book within the last six months. Because so many consumers are only beginning to develop the habit of buying e-books, publishers have an opportunity to shape expectations about such things as pricing and the timing of digital releases.

Among e-book buyers, 25 percent said they bought fewer print books than before. Fifteen percent said they buy no print books, and 9 percent said they wouldn’t buy a print book even if the title they wanted wasn’t available digitally. This shift means publishers will be forced to reduce print runs, resulting in higher per-copy costs.

More interesting stats via the link above.

With Apple dominating the tech-market with the worldwide release of the iPad, one may have expected Amazon to take a step towards making the Kindle a more multi-function device. However, Amazon head Jeff Bezos seems to have hit that idea on the head when speaking recently about the future of the device:

Bezos emphasized the presence of the Kindle as a device for “serious readers” and insisted that this is not meant to be a multipurpose device so much as a specialty tool with a distinct purpose. Future plans for Kindle development may include the color screen that some have been pushing for, but certainly not the next model, to judge from his comments about what a complicated technology it is to get right. While it would, of course, be simple to make a device with a color LCD display, it would run counter to the purpose of the device; namely to create a reading device for those who love reading.

One rumour doing the rounds is that the next version of the Kindle will simply look to shave down in size.

Here's an excellent review of the upcoming Borders 'Kobo' eBook reader by retired journalist Len Edgerly, with some comparisons to Amazon's Kindle and the Barnes and Noble Nook:

The Kobo is set for release on June 6.

From the unofficial Kindle blog:

After years of Amazon’s dominance in the self-publishing ebook marketplace, Barnes & Noble has decided to enter the scene. Eligible independent publishers and self-publishing authors will be able to add their content directly into the BN.com and Barnes & Noble eBook Store Catalogs, giving them immediate exposure to one of the largest electronic book marketplaces on the net with all the perks already built in. Books published through this PubIt! system, as it is called, will be accorded the usual digital rights management one would expect out of Barnes & Noble, an industry standard ePub format for distribution, and a presence accessible through any of B&N’s many platforms including the nook eReader and their many computer-based software and cellular downloads. While there has not, as of yet, been any discussion of what the royalty model will be for these publishers and authors, there have been assurances that it will be competitive and simple to use and understand

All of a sudden everyone wants in to the eBook market.

It was said that Apple had already sold 1 million iPads by the start of May. And now, an analyst has said that it is likely that strong sales of the device are continuing at a rate of around 200,000 per week. In publishing terms, and in relation to the Kindle dominance thus far, that's what's known as a 'gamechanger'.

Huge developments in the eBook world over the course of last month. First, Amazon opened up their 'Digital Text Platform' service (ie. publishing Kindle books) to international publishers. Next, they announced a reversal of their previous profit distribution percentage from 30% publisher/70% Amazon to 70% publisher/30% Amazon (though with a number of rules attached, including that the book be priced below $10), beginning after June 30. A week later, Apple dominated news headlines with the announcement of their would-be Kindle-killer, the iPad, and the news that they would offer their own 'iBook' store with a 70/30 split of income as well. Then, to finish the month, Amazon and MacMillan (one of the 'big six' publishers) got into a spat over the sub-$10 pricing of eBooks, with Amazon removing MacMillan's books from sale, until later 'capitulating' with a passive-aggressive letter to consumers (in which Amazon hilariously described MacMillan as having a 'monopoly' over their titles). Read more »

Amazon's Kindle eReader continues to go from strength to strength, with the company announcing that device was the best selling item in their catalogue for November. While it must be remembered that this is helped by the fact that Amazon is the *only* place you can get the Kindle, it's still a notable moment in the eBook industry. Though Amazon doesn't offer numbers, an industry analyst has estimated that they will ship around 550,000 Kindles in 2009. Added to that is Amazon's claim that they now sell 48 Kindle books for every 100 physical books, up from 35 per 100 mid-year. By those numbers, Kindle books are now sneaking up on 33% of online book sales.

It's not all about Amazon though. Barnes and Noble's Nook is apparently selling so fast that any orders after November 30 will not be fulfilled until January. While this is good news for B&N (and the eBook industry) in general, it would seem to be a bad error of judgement in not being able to ship for Xmas throughout December.

For those that want to purchase Kindle books rather than print versions, but don't have a Kindle reader: salvation is at hand. Amazon have released a Beta version of their new PC software package, "Kindle for PC". Head to Amazon to download the program. If, like me, you're better than that and have an Apple Mac, you'll have to wait - but apparently it's on its way.