Kindle news after vacation's end: E-readers trigger a boom in reading; Kindle Fire Sales-another look; Target; Lovefilm and NBCUniversal

VACATION'S END
My vacationing at Yosemite is ended for this year, but with a bang in a way, in that after a week of totally sunny weather, we had sudden thunderstorms throughout day 5, with snow and hail in the higher areas -- at the end of May.

  I spent about 6 hours that afternoon, along with many others, trying to catch the shifting light during the 'clearings' between the storms, and it was a pretty wet time, at near-freezing temperatures at about 4,400 ft, and very odd to drive a bit higher above Tunnel View (the lower viewpoint shown here), to find the trees at the junction of Highway 41 and Glacier Point Road almost wholly white with instant snow as we approach summer.
  Small pieces of hail stayed on my windshield for a bit even in the area of the valley's stables earlier, where the mule and horseback rides were being cancelled.

  Below that blanket of green in the image above is Yosemite Valley, where we lodge and play.
  During the week, it's often explained to us in several ways how, long ago, glaciers carved out that space, specifically Yosemite Glacier.

  I haven't gone through the snow photos yet, but did put a set of about six shots of Tunnel View's scenic changes during the latter part of that day (ending about 7:30pm in these scenes).  There are also a couple of shots from Glacier Point (3,214 feet above the valley) of an area with the somewhat lesser-known Vernal and Nevada Falls, taken on the first day I was there.
  If pbase is having photo-display problems, you can use the google-plus album instead.

So, now I'll settle back into more regular blogging while the rest of the world goes on longer vacations.

Are people reading less? Or more?
The Royal Gazetteonline's Marcia Breen reports today that Pew Research Center's most recent research finds that about one in five adults in the US owns an e-reader as of January 2012, "up from one in ten in mid-December of last year" and "it looks like that boom in e-readers has triggered a boom in reading."

' According to the research, the average e-book reader reads 60 percent more than a traditional book reader. Owners of a Kindle, Nook or iPad read an average of 24 books a year compared to the non-e-book readers who read an average of 15 books a year.

The study also found 42 percent of those who read digital content say they now spend more time reading than they did before, whether it’s in bed or on the go and that women are reading more than men. '

Reasons given for moving to e-readers: easy access while traveling and commuting; font size adjustments, built-in dictionary, a library in the palm of your hand.  Even now, the study found, "88 percent of people" in that study who had read an e-book in the past year had also read a printed book during that time.  Read more on that here

Did Kindle Fire Sales really fade that much in 1st quarter 2012?
PCWorld's Jeff Berolucci points to a column by Stephen Baker for the NPD Group, "Shipments are Not Sales," in which he "pulls no punches in chastising tech bloggers for misinterpreting new data from research firm IDC.  Baker points out:

' Of course, sales always rise dramatically in the fourth quarter of the year--also known as the holiday shopping season--and Amazon understandably shipped millions of Kindle Fires to its warehouses and retail partners to meet demand. All of those 4.8 million Fires shipped didn't sell, naturally, which meant plenty of inventory was left over for early 2012. This resulted in lower (OK, significantly lower) Kindle Fire shipments in that quarter.

So how did the Kindle Fire do in the first quarter of 2012? Pretty darn well, thank you very much. According to NPD's Consumer Tracking Service, the Kindle actually sold (there is that word again, this time properly used) 1.8 million units in the first quarter. That is, "an actual consumer bought it and took it home (or had it delivered) and paid their own real money," Baker writes. '

  See Baker's post for much more detail.

I remember when ace commenter jftorres wrote this uncommon sense to Nate Hoffelder's The-Digital-Reader at about the same time, when IDG Research was also focusing on the drop in Kindle Fire shipments in the first qtr after the Holidays:

' ... Not unusual with seasonal products to see a big spike during the holidays followed by much lower sales during the year.
Gaming consoles are a perfect example:
MS has sold 67 million XBOX 360s worldwide (I just saw the number this morning) since 2005.
Last XMAS they sold about 4 million of those in the US over three months, whereas last month they sold about 400,000.
And those are good numbers.
700K FIREs in a month may not be in iPad territory but they still point at 10 million-plus for the year, which is what has been predicted for FIRE. '

Target's Kindle news
In the meantime, the recent story of Target dropping Kindles, indicating the reason is that Amazon is an aggressive retail competitor, coincided with their announcement that 25 of its main stores will add new iPad departments.

Amazon's LOVEFiLM (European)
LOVEFiLM announced today a "multi-year digital license agreement with NBCUniversal International Television Distribution, providing LOVEFiLM members exclusive streaming access to titles from Universal Pictures during the second pay window."
  My question: Why the serial-killer style capitalization-mix in a company name?  It reminds me of the tortured enTourage eDGe, which is no longer with us, possibly partially due to people not wanting to even type that name.

  The European streaming video company has previously announced exclusive content deals with Disney, Sony, Warner Bros. and STUDIOCANAL. [Now we have all caps.]
  See the press release for the several films included.

  The Telegraph's Emma Barnett explains that the "second pay window" means "around six months after [a film] has been released to Sky Movies (which has a lock on most pay-TV movie rights) after the cinema run has finished" and she adds that this deal is "a coup for Lovefilm" (she ignores the capitalization) as it goes head to head with Netflix...which launched its on-demand movie subscription service in the UK at the start of this year."

  Engadget's James Trew thinks it "looks Kick Ass."
  TechCrunch's Sarah Perez describes the wide variety of devices supported, "including PCs, Macs, the iPad, internet-connected TVs and Blu-ray players, as well as game consoles like the Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation. There are 175 devices, in total, which are supported."

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Current Kindle Models for reference, plus free-ebook search links

US: Kindle Fire  7" tablet - $199 Kindle NoTouch ("Kindle") - $79/$109 Kindle Touch, WiFi - $99/$139 Kindle Touch, 3G/WiFi - $149/$189 Kindle Keybd 3G - $189, Free, slow web Kindle DX - $379, Free, slow web

UK: Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £89 Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - £109 Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi, UK - £169 Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149   Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

OTHER International Kindle NoTouch Basic - $109 Kindle Touch WiFi - $139 Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi - $189 Kindle Keybd 3G - $189   Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

Check often: Temporarily-free recently published Kindle books
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.  Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published free books, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

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Kindle News 10/25/11 - UPDATE - 39 free Kindle books Tuesday. Also, Kindle Fire, Amazon customer service, Steve Jobs's cancer.

KINDLE FIRE SELLING FASTER THAN EXPECTED BY J.P. MORGAN

Mobile Entertainment's Zen Terrelonge writes today that J.P. Morgan is "eating its words" that the Kindle Fire wouldn't do well relative to the iPad, and the financial services firm's hardware team now projects that Amazon will move 4.5 to 5 million devices in the 4th quarter.

  This is based on checks of supply chains that show production on this model has increased due to a large number of pre-orders and vendors reporting "an abundance of rush orders over the past fortnight."

  Douglas Anmuth, an internet analyst there who monitors Amazon, anticipates several models in 2012, including 7" and 10" devices with 3G and WiFi.

  One J.P. analyst disagreed saying the tablet is under-featured, something that was said about the iPad last year too.  Consumers seem to have different requirements from those with a largely technical focus, from what has been seen in pre-orders.  Other articles have explained that the minimum iPad cost of $500 has been more than some want to spend, and some want a smaller, maybe more personal style tablet for web browsing and email.

  Considering the streaming media content that Amazon offers (12,000 streamig-videos, including more current PBS ones, that come with Amazon's Prime package of free two-day shipping on most products for $79/yr ($6.58/mo.), it's not a surprise that this new, smaller tablet is doing so well on pre-orders.

  Amazon currently has over 100,000 movies and tv shows at a time that Netflix has lost about 800,000 subscribers due to their pricing decisions.  Despite better earnings than expected, Netflix stock plunged.  I'm a fan of Netflix's streaming video library, though, which works well through my Comcast.  At least we have several options these days.


Amazon expected to to show a profit dip this quarter due to low margins (if any) on the Kindle Fire
Slashgear's Chris Davies reports that some believe Amazon is taking a loss on the Kindle Fire, relying instead on resulting digital media sales to be enjoyed on the tablet.

Geeky-gadgets's Roland Hutchinson writes that Google's Andy Rubin has said there were around 6 million Android tablets out there, so if Amazon sells as many the next quarter as most analysts are expecting, the Kindle Fire would be the most popular Android tablet released so far.

  In the meantime ViewSonic will launch the 7" ViewPad 7e tablet soon, with several more features but an inferior display (800x600) and touchscreen ("resistive").  While Amazon should welcome the release of more tablets that can access their content, I imagine they'll be customizing (beyond the special accelerating features of the Silk browser on the Fire) content for their own tablet.


Reviews of Steve Jobs book by Walter Isaacson (Fixed link)
SecondAct's Patrick J. Kiger has a good summary round-up of reviews of Isaacson's book, which Amazon thinks could be the year's bestseller.

A couple of observations from the roundup:
  His summary of NY Times critic Janet Maslin ends,"Isaacson also explains that Jobs' mean streak, unpleasant as it was, also helped drive Apple to its phenomenal success."

  Salon's Mary Elizabeth Williams focuses, he writes, on Jobs's controversial decision of postponing conventional medical treatment for a tumor in 2003.  As a cancer survivor, who knows how unpredictable cancer can be (and how unnecessarily destructive some treatments), I noted her sensible, "Jobs lived eight years after his initial diagnosis.  Anyone with experience of cancer will tell you that five is considered a relative triumph."

  I've known many who obeyed all the doctors' recommendations, and even when after the requisite operations their lymph nodes were diagnosed to be free of spread beyond the local area and they were announced to be cancer free, they were given chemo for 'prevention' and were dead in a few months to two years.  Others fare well.  It's just not utterly predictable as has been presented by too many about Jobs' cancer.

  I think people should get off his case, post mortem, for his personal decision though of course he would wonder what would have happened had he had the operation.  Not only did he survive 8 years with the less aggressive form of pancreatic cancer, he led a quite productive life during those 8 years.


CBS News story on Amazon's good customer service noted on Reddit (Link fixed)
CBS News's Chenda Ngak writes about a Reddit thread and Ngak's own experience with customer service.  I've posted a link to a recent customer support forum thread on the Kindle forums.


Tuesday's free Kindle books
UPDATED on Wednesday to show each book link for Tuesday, since most will stay free for a few days.  These will be shown on the 'next' page showing "More", so that those wanting to go through the details can do so by: clicking on "MORE" just below)
*****
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[... CLICK HERE for MORE ... »]

Kindle News: With corrections of some inaccuracies. Kindle for PC updated with Collections. Less-known Kindle features.

KINDLE NEWS, AUGUST 2

FoxNews: Features Amazon should emphasize
FoxNews's Clayton Morris writes, "Things Amazon Should Tell Us About the Kindle," a well-intentioned article with some good points but which has a couple of errors that need correcting.

While pointing out that most people don't know about the 'Collections' feature (folder equivalents that are implemented with 'tags' or labels) or the text-to-speech ('TTS') function by which the Kindle voices (male or female) can read aloud to you from books, subscriptions, or personal documents if you're too busy doing something else, he laments that "Amazon doesn't do a very good job marketing the Kindle as a service as well as a consumer device" and he's found that people are more inclined toward the device once they're made aware of what it can do besides presenting e-books for reading.

  It's true that the computerized voice (taken from the recordings of words by humans -- see the Tom voice for more info on the 'Tom' voice -- cannot replace actor renditions.  The TTS is serviceable though, for short sessions, and not as robotic as most computer voices.

  However, he complains that when he creates Collections on his Kindle, these won't be available to a replacement- or new Kindle.  Actually, they are -- as long as you don't delete the contents of the first Kindle before you replicate the Collection.  The User Guides explain how this is done.

  I wrote the following in Comments to Morris' article, as I couldn't find an email address for him. (Bracketed words are added for the blog.]

' Clayton,
1. Update your Kindle for PC, as it now has Collections.
      [This is included in the latest update, though it is somewhat buggy for a few people but fine for most, per what I see on the forums.]

2. Also, when you get a new Kindle, go to Archived Items folder, which will hold titles of Kindle books you've bought AND you'll see "Add other device collections" - and it'll download your Collection choices.  But first get the books [by clicking on the titles] and then add the Collection from another device and the books will automatically go into the Collections. '

As he points out, the text-to-speech feature is, for him, "a wonderful feature I use regularly during car rides or sleepy train jaunts."  I know people who use it while cooking or exercising.  No competing dedicated e-reader has this.  In fact, no new competing e-Ink reader has a correctly-working web browser and the other e-Ink reader vendors are dropping free 3G even for bookstore downloads, not to mention never offering free 3G access to the rest of the net, albeit slow-access.  To keep things simple, web browsers have not been customized for touchscreen e-Ink eReaders from the basic, optionally embedded Android web browser and they don't work correctly, so they are hidden.

  He focuses on the two features he has found very valuable and doesn't mention that the Kindle can play mp3s (whether audio books or music) as background and that is now a unique feature too because other ebook vendors are simplifying, removing speakers and headphone access.  For more on this see the "Features Comparison" here between the new Nook e-Ink and the current Kindle 3.

  Re Collections: See more on this in the Kindleworld Guide to Making Collections.  It's also good to read Collections: Cautions.

  Re Kindle for PC update v1.6 -- as with the Kindle device version, you have to add or import a Collection from another Kindle device to see the Collections you've made.


Daily Mail (UK)
Daily Mail headlines "New rules for Apple's App store mean Amazon must hand over 30% of profits made through its Kindle app."

  As most readers of this blog know, what Apple would have wanted with 30% of the sale of an e-book was *100%* of Amazon's profits, since Amazon (thanks to the Apple Agency model set up with large publishers) gets 30% of a sale from the Big6 publishers).

  That Apple would actually stake a claim to 100% of the profit is seldom reported.  Now, we don't know if Apple quietly offered Amazon and Barnes & Noble a lower percentage.  At any rate, 30% is all that's ever reported and is the figure from their guidelines for app developers, but that is usually based on subscriptions, for which the publishers would get to keep 70% of a sale rather than the situation with bookstore vendors, who must give 70% to the Big6 publishers, leaving the rival bookstore vendors $0.00.

  There are now many news stories about anger from iPad Kindle-book app users, focused mostly on Apple at this point.  I don't understand why Apple would think this is a good thing for them, the company that began its life with a now-famous Super Bowl ad showing the non-robotic among us hurling a hammer into the screen image of an authoritarian figure-head, "smashing it to bits and releasing a strong breeze and a bright light, while the citizens gape in awe.  A voice-over announces, 'On January 24, Apple Computer will introduce the Macintosh.  And you'll see why 1984 won't be like "1984"'." You can see this at the uriah.com site.


Photo credit: eHow's "How to Edit Kindle Collections with Calibre"


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($139)   DX Graphite

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Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.  Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
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Kindle news - 6/20 Nook Touch vs K3. Software hack

KINDLE NEWS OVER THE WEEKEND

MOBILE TECH REVIEW posted an announcement and description of its usual, very thorough video comparison of e-readers, this time of the Nook Simple Touch vs the Kindle 3.  The video takes almost half-hour to view because they go through all the features for each e-reader, comparing their pro's and con's.  They explain that they look at these elements:

  . books,
  . highlighting
  . the dictionary
  . PDF support
  . buying books
  . text clarity   (not a small thing, w/ Pearl screen capabilities)
  . reading features.

Their full written review will follow next week.  This was of interest to me because I hadn't seen any other news-site "reviews" yet that paid attention to anything but the TouchScreen interface, and -- while it is the key factor for many people because it does make navigation easier -- the effectiveness of an e-reader for people who read many books and periodicals is a lot more than that.

 It seems that many who look mainly at hardware don't pay attention to the other 4/5ths of a user's guide that will deal with the many reader options and explain the functioning of features that are very useful for book clubs and for classes but also for people who like to make notes about their reading or who like to look up more info while they're reading, with the ability to get back to that page with the press of a Back button.

  That your highlighting and notes can be easily lost without backup beyond the device's dependence on what happens with an e-book (accidental or premature deletion) and the lack of a method for transfering those notes to your computer (for use with a text editor or for printing or just for backup) is getting too 'simple' for my tastes.  But Amazon's 'cloud' has provided these capabilities for 4 years.  Beyond this, they added an extra copy of your web-readable annotations in a Kindle owner's private Amazon web page, organized by book.

The video review is at YouTube but can also be seen at MobileTechReview's forum.  (Those using Kindle blog-editions to read this can't run videos of course.)

The feedback at YouTube is mainly happiness at how thorough the reviewers are and there's little of the blind-siding with either device because the review goes into so much detail.  I did see there, and at MobileRead.com, that viewers of the video report end up discussing the merits of each without just going into the side-taking that's normally seen.

CONSUMER REPORTS also posted their results of a review of the Nook Simple Touch (NST) and the Kindle 3 (K3).  The new Nook "beat" the Kindle 3G model by 1 point, though the Touch capability is a strong factor.  So one can wonder how it did in other areas.

But to an extent, it makes sense that the Touch Screen makes the difference and the other factors are less important (especially when they're not mentioned).

  Oddly enough, CR stresses that the new Nook is "emulating Amazon's focus on reading with minimal fuss and extra features and adds, "The Simple Touch drops those bells and whistles and the second screen.  As a result, it (like the Kindle) successfully "gets out of the way and disappears and lets you get on with your reading..."

That is bizarre because the Kindle 3 has a plethora of very useful features that the Nook has dropped from what it put into its original Nook Classic a year ago or that it never had at all.  Consumer Reports is normally known for looking at a myriad of features that, together, make a product what it is, but in this case they looked mainly at the type of navigational control, as if just driving a car a certain way would be the sole concern while not caring how the car functions along the way when there are several things you hope it will do well if at all. [Edited to correct a word choice.]

  In this case a car radio would be an unnecessary extra feature (the Nook dropped its mp3 player and ALL audio and has no speakers), and while its original Nook Classic had a GPS-like unit that would guide you to various web sites and allow you to download books from other stores, that is not functioning in this model, at least, and B&N shows it (the web browser) as non-existent, mainly because it fails at doing the most basic things and is therefore hidden.

  For one thing a web browser, while you're reading, can take you to a library (Wikipedia or Google) for more info on a subject.  One of the features that the Kindle allows free via normally-expensive 3G cell phone networks, in 100 countries, is access to Wikipedia FROM the page you are reading, for a search word or phrase.

  For students of any age, that free, 3G cell phone network access to Wikipedia (or Google) is no small feature, and it's been present since 2007 on the Kindle.  I've little doubt that if other e-Ink readers gave customers this feature for no add'l charge via 3G, a review would heap praise on it and not consider it not worth a mention.

  But the Nook is US only, for purchasing Nook books, so is relatively limited and that's not particularly known either.

For those interested in the actual features that were made for people who love to read, see both my Features-Comparison and, for sure, the MobileTechReview video of the features of both e-readers, as it's a very balanced report, giving credit to each where due.

  The depth of the look via that video means there is less hype over just one product feature and less reliance on weight to today's library-lending when Agreements have been announced that the Kindle will be participating in that but, unlike most ereaders, there'll be no additional software to be downloaded or required, and the borrowed books will be delivered over Wifi without the arduous Adobe 3 DRM rights-protection method that requires using a computer and an extra piece of software to do the library borrowing.  However, Amazon came from behind on that one and since it's not ready as of today, that's fair game.

Here's the interesting reaction by the Mobile Read forum crowd to the Consumer Reports evaluation.  It's of interest because it's not a group wedded to any particular e-reader but they are a tough, knowledgable crowd.


KINDLE 3.1 SOFTWARE HACK FOR OLDER KINDLES
First, I'm not recommending that anyone reading try this, since it not only violates the usual Terms of Agreement but it is also not a piece of cake for most and you could wind up with a non-working Kindle instead of an improved one.

  I just came across PC World's story about a software patch that opens up older Kindles to new features such as enhanced PDF support and better web browsing.  See the PC World story by Chris Brandrick for the details.

  More than anything, it's a strong sign that Amazon is long overdue on providing a software update for its Kindle 2 and DX models but especially for the expensive DX Graphite (which has the Pearl screen capability that the Kindle 3 has and was released only a couple of months before the Kindle 3).  The natives are restless.


"AFTER DISCOVERING THAT PEOPLE DO ACTUALLY STILL READ, APPLE DECIDES TO BE A LITTLE NICER TO PUBLISHERS"
Ad Age's Simon Dumenco writes an entertaining story about what has happened in the e-reader world since Steve Jobs originally told the NY Times's John Markoff that the Amazon Kindle was doomed because "It doesn't matter how good or bad the product is," he'd said. "The fact is that people don't read anymore.  Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year.  The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don't read anymore."

  While he provided a tablet for web-browsing, video watching, and games, it also allows the unusual reading-users an area also.   And now, Dumenco adds, "the next version of the iPad operating system, iOS 5, will finally have a unified home for all your iPad newspaper and magazine subscriptions: something called Newsstand."


JOHN LOCKE IS THE FIRST SELF-PUBLISHED AUTHOR TO SELL OVER 1M E-BOOKS THROUGH AMAZON
The Bookseller's Lisa Campbell reports that John Locke is the first self-published author to join what Amazon has dubbed the Kindle Million Club.  Here's his Amazon page.

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For daily free ebooks, check the following links:

Temporarily-free books - Non-classics - USA: by: NEW:  Apr  May  June 2011    Publication Date   Late-listed    Bestselling   High-ratings UK: PubDate   Popular What is 3G? and "WiFi"?       Battery Care Highly-rated under $1,  Newest: $1-$2, $2-$3

Most Popular Free K-Books U.S. & Int'l (NOT UK):    Top 100 free UK-Only:    Top 100 free USEFUL for your Kindle (U.S. only, currently):   99c Notepad 1.1,   99c Calculator,   99c Calendar,   99c Converter

Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($164)   DX Graphite

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From the news: Impact of Amazon Kindle price change to $189

After Amazon's reduction of the Kindle 2 price from $259 to $189, I noticed quite a few positive articles about the Kindle, though it had actually started about a week before (and a couple of these are from then) when reporters and columnists probably had written all they could about the iPad and were refocused to the iPhone 4.

 Here are some of the thoughts I gathered over the last few days.

Forbes, and iSuppli
Forbes.com's Lee Gomes wrote in The Economics of Kindle

' The price reduction caught the attention of iSuppli, an analysts' firm known for taking apart gadgets to estimate how much they cost their manufacturers to put together.

  According to iSuppli's figuring, Amazon and Barnes & Noble are no longer making money on the e-readers, as the costs of the "bills of materials" for the devices are equal to what they're being sold for.

"With zero profits on their hardware, both these companies now hope to make their money in this market through the sale of e-books," iSupply says. "This is the same 'razor/razor blade' business model successfully employed in the videogame console business, where the hardware is sold at a loss and profits are made on sales of content."
. . .
E-readers aren't the first gadget to be offered at little or no profit with the expectation of some future revenue stream, as that's essentially the model for many gadgets. Except, of course, those sold by Apple.
  A $500 iPad, says iSuppli, costs Apple just $259.60 to make. '

Trefis.com
Trefis Team reports

'Three Amazon Initiatives That Can Make eBooks a Billion Dollar Business

...increased Kindle unit sales as a result of the price cut will benefit eBook sales by increasing the e-reader user base (classic razor / razor blades model developing here).

...consumers can buy an eBook from the Kindle store and read it on a Kindle, iPhone, iPad, or Android-based device (smartphone or tablet).  So even though the iPad has outsold the Kindle, Amazon still benefits from potentially wider distribution than it had before the iPad was introduced.

...Kindle has an edge over Apple in terms of the availability of eBooks.  Kindle has about 600,000 eBooks in its store.  This also includes 109 of 112 of the New York Times bestsellers.
 In comparison, Apple’s iBook store has far fewer NYT best-selling titles. '

  This assessment by them raised my eyebrows:

'Amazon Could Earn $800+ million in 2010 from eBooks Sold to Kindle Owners
  According to the research done by Foner Books, Amazon could be selling around 24 eBooks per Kindle per year.
 If we consider about 3 million Kindle units in use in 2010, Amazon could sell 72 million eBooks for 2010.
  If we consider the average pricing to be around $12 per eBook, Amazon could be earning $864 million in 2010 from eBooks alone that are distributed on the Kindle device.

  The upside can be even greater if Amazon succeeds in becoming the eBook store of preference on the iPhone (50+ million sold), iPad (3+ million units sold) and Android-based smartphones / tablets...

  If current trends continue, there will be more than 100 million iPhone, iPad and Android-devices in use within the next 1-2 years. Even if each device were to download only one eBook through the Kindle store annually (at $12 a piece), that would imply $1.2 billion of Amazon sales from non-Kindle devices. '

They also speculate that revenue from e-books could increase at a faster rate than they are forecasting if Amazon were to benefit from higher Kindle sales and traction on non-Kindle devices.  With the substantial price cut this week, I imagine they will definitely have higher Kindle sales.

Hydrapinion
Hydrapinion's Adam Turner writes:

' The iPad might be a jack-of-all-trades device, but it's certainly outclassed as an eBook reader by the likes of Amazon's Kindle.  The 6-inch Kindle outguns the iPad in terms of size, weight, battery life, screen technology, price and range of books (especially if you live in Australia, where Apple's iBookstore only features public domain titles).

  Amazon has just slashed the price of the 6-inch Kindle to $US189 - making it an even more attractive alternative to Apple's wunderslate.
  The iPad is an amazing device *if* you can find a good use for it. If you think that use might be as an eBook reader, I certainly recommend you consider the alternatives before handing over your money. '

Huffington Post's Rafi Mohammed
Rafi Mohammed writes that

' Instead of wishfully hoping that e-books will remain a niche product, publishers now have to realize that e-books are officially a game changer.  If an increasing percentage of readers choose to read electronically, it's foolish to thwart e-book sales (which are more profitable due to cost efficiencies) with tactics such as delaying the digital release for months after the hardcover is in stores.  Consumers aren't going to wait.  The pathway to survival for publishers is straightforward: publish (and promote) e-books or perish. '

  Well said !

CNBC's guest expert on money and markets
Michael Yoshikami writes wisely: iPad & Kindle—Room for Two!

' ...Perspective matters.. one of the most popular applications for the iPad as of today is the Kindle reader.  The iPad is designed for internet browsing and running applications, whereas the Kindle is best suited for reading text.  As such, demand for the Kindle could hold up over time as the best way to read digital books. '

Amazon is releasing a version of its reader software to Google's [popular Android platform which means Kindle books will be available on Macs, PCs, and virtually all smartphones.  As a first entrant into the e-reader market, Amazon is clearly the leader in content and is compelling consumers to stay with their format to avoid the need to buy new material for new devices.
. . .
Kindle continues to be a multi-billion dollar opportunity for Amazon, and will likely grow as more and more consumers get used to the idea of e-readers.  Amazon can succeed with its own Kindle reader and the iPad platform.

TopNews
Seher Dhillon points out, in E-Reader Fever Goes On, that

'...customers still welcome the truth that gadgets such as the Kindle have extraordinary screen display technology that lessens strain on the eyes caused by characteristic LCD screens like the one used in the iPad. '

The Guardian
Robert McCrum on Books, for The Guardian, notes that

' E-book sales increased a staggering 177% in 2009, admittedly from a very low base.

  Everywhere I travelled there were Americans reading Kindles.  On the New York shuttle I estimate that as many as 10% of the passengers were reading books or magazines and newspapers on screens.  Every New York publisher I spoke to is grappling the profound implications of the shift to the virtual book.
. . .
  If you like the book review you read in the New York Times on your Kindle you can download the e-book from Amazon with one click.  Some say the hardback will even benefit from this proliferation of e-reading as book lovers acquire hardbacks as lasting souvenirs of a fleeting, electronic literary encounter. '

TMCnet's infoTECH Spotlight
Gregory Karp, a personal finance writer for The Morning Call newspaper in Allentown, Pa., writes

' [ In finding "Justification to spend money on hottest tech gadgets," before the price decrease ]

THE AMAZON KINDLE: ... Savings come from two sources: cheaper reading material and free wireless service.
. . .
Assume that during a year you substitute two $25 hardcover books and four $15 paperbacks for the $10 Kindle versions.  And assume you swap a Kindle subscription for the paper version of The Wall Street Journal at an approximate non-introductory price of $250 per year.  Total annual savings: about $120.
. . .
Another source of savings is the Kindle's crude Web browser with free wireless service.  It's tedious to surf the Web using it, but you can check Web-based e-mail and read a few news headlines for free.  If that can substitute for a $20-per-month smart phone data plan, that saves $240 per year.
  [ Emphasis mine ] . . .
You also will never have to rebuy a lost book.  Kindle books are always available to download again.  And you can use the Kindle's voice reader to read aloud some books, potentially substituting for audio-book purchases. '

Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Businessweek's Rich Jaroslovsky focuses on the joys of beach reading.

' One of the joys of the beach is beach reading, and the era of the e-reader means no more lugging that extra bag of books -
. . .
Apple Inc.’s iPad is the all-around best, but its glaring weakness is, well, glare.
  The backlit display and reflective screen make it hard to use in sunlight, even if you weren’t concerned about getting sand in the virtual gears of your $829 3G-enabled baby.

  By contrast, Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle thrives outside.  Its grayscale digital-ink display is easily readable even in direct sunlight, it weighs a mere 10 ounces and goes for days on a single charge.

  The built-in AT&T 3G connection lets you buy and download books anywhere you happen to be, taking advantage of a selection that far surpasses Apple’s nascent iBookstore ...
  ... as an added bonus, Amazon’s family of free Kindle apps syncs your reading material across devices, so you can pick up on your iPad precisely where you left off on the Kindle. '

An interesting bit of Amazon history
In "Amazon, eBay and Financial Momentum," Practical eCommerce tells us that

' "Both companies are publicly traded, and both are ecommerce pioneers.  Jeff Bezos launched Amazon in 1994 as an online bookseller in a Seattle garage.  He rigged-up a bell to ring every time an order came through.

  Yahoo! then mentioned Amazon as a “cool” site, book orders poured in, and the bell wouldn’t shut off.
  Amazon has since diversified its product line.  Bezos is now 46 and Amazon has roughly 24,000 employees.  It sells books, movies, games, electronics, computers, consumer goods and much more. '

Another interesting tidbit
In "The iPad and I: Of Love and Meh," Elizabeth Bluemle writes about books that provide movement and 3D features as important elements of their digital offerings:

' The biggest problem with adapted e-books: the transformation of it into a one-way experience, beaming out at the viewer like a TV show.

  With recent studies showing that the human brain while watching TV is less active than the brain while it’s asleep (!), this is something to think about.
  There is a danger in losing the conversation that a book sparks between writer and reader. '

That's all for now ...

---

Check often:  Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
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Kindle in the news - an upbeat week

This week saw an upswing in positive feedback on
the Kindle in the news.

  And it brought up some thoughts of my own
that I'd posted earlier to another forum.

1. Wendy Lawton, a literary agent in Santa Rosa, California, writes:

"I was at a gathering at author Lauraine Snelling’s house. Several of us had Kindles.  As soon as someone would recommend a book, we’d all go online and buy it right then and there.  Other e-readers require a computer and an internet connection to load books.  But when you’re sitting in an airport finishing a book, those things are just not available to you."

She doesn't like non-fiction on it (I do because I use the notes and search tools) -- and because you can't share the e-books unless you share an account with someone, she finds herself buying another version of the book for someone and even an audio version.  Still, she ends:

"I’ve heard so many readers say, “I could never use an e-reader.  I love the smell of a book. . .the feel of it in my hand.”  I used to say the same thing but with each novel I read on my Kindle, I’m more connected to the look, the feel the smell of it.

  Whether it’s a book or an e-reader, it’s not the device, it’s the magic of story.  The device becomes infused with the stories, settings and characters and we fall in love"

  The 'magic of story' - I really liked that.  While she is mindful of layout and presentation (just look at how well-organized and relaxing the feel of her page is), she doesn't seem to overly miss the book cover, the paper, the layout, leafing through the book.

2. For me, who had not read much for years when not on the computer where I did 95% of my reading (but for hours), it's been interesting to see how pulled I am to read on the Kindle.  In trying to explain it to the members of a writer's blog area (Catching Days, by Cynthia Newberry Martin) who had been lamenting the popularity of the Kindle because they love the look, smell and feel of books (do visit them, very good conversations there), I wrote on June 28:

" I finally realized that the rectangle acts as a sort of magic window for me (as a paper book does for others) into other worlds, so much of it available to me at any given time, depending on my mood, my need to learn something I ordinarily wouldn’t but have downloaded a book for, and I never wonder 'where did I put that book' or regret leaving it at home when out and about.  Every book I’m currently interested in is with me whenever I leave the house.  And then there are the newspapers and magazines.  I am, most of all, info-drawn.

  We who Kindle quite a bit sometimes joke that we are book readers, not book sniffers :-)  But more seriously, what is a book ?

  A collection and special distribution of words written by someone who wants to tell me something, who wants me to get lost in the world created by that person.  When an author sits down to write, I don’t think that s/he is thinking about what the cover will look like (though that always comes later) or what the layout of the externals will be.

  What I experience when reading on my Kindle is — without attention to those eye-catching externals — something that feels like direct contact with the author’s mind..."

I got carried away and wrote a lot more, but that's essentially how I personally am affected by reading on an almost weightless 10 oz. plastic tablet with a truly strange keyboard which nevertheless works well for searches and short notes.  And now I find myself reading most of the time on the heavier but even clearer larger-screen'd Kindle DX.

3. Dolph Tillotson, president and publisher of Galveston County's The Daily News writes about the many reasons he likes, though doesn't love, his Kindle, as he feels he will miss the memories a physical book can bring when encountered years later.

4. Suranand Vejjajiva, a book lover writing for The Bangkok Post describes his reaction:

" As I got hold of the electronic reading device, I felt like the first time I held an iPod and looked back to my college days when vinyl records on turntables were the norm.  Every song could now be downloaded, and soon every book would be.  Or would it not?

... Luckily I got the new version, 1/3 of an inch thick, weighs 10.2 ounces, clear text and sharp letters and, most amazingly, it is supposed to hold more than 1,500 books in this single tablet.
  The device also has other features, such as one can highlight words or sentences, take notes along the way, remember where you left off without needing a bookmark, and at a click, a dictionary appears to automatically look up words that baffled you in the past. "

But because there is no Whispernet or cellular wireless operational there, he feels the 'cracks in the digital divide'
... all of which remind me that:

5.   This Friday's weekly The Kindle Chronicles podcast by Len Edgerly included a 'Tech Tip' on "How to buy and feed a Kindle if you don’t live in the U.S." (a hot topic on the Amazon forums).  The tip was sent to Len by Charles Tay of Singapore, and he links to online tutorials by users outside the U.S.

  The weekly interview is with Steve Shank, who was the founding president of Apple Japan and Apple Australia and has decades of experience as an industry watcher and mover, so he had some interesting views of where Amazon is, with the Kindle.  He also is a Kindle enthusiast, as is his wife.

  That brought up the now common struggle with a "family Kindle" in a home with two avid readers.   Another Kindle owner (Len Charnoff?) emailed:

' The other day I knew it was time to purchase a second Kindle.  I work part time as a Manufacturer's Rep.  When I go on long trips my wife always says " Drive carefully and give me a call when you get to the Motel".  This time all she said, " Tell me you're not taking the Kindle". '

6. By the way, as mentioned on the podcast, Stephen Windwalker has just released a book with lots of good tips on how to do things not described in the User's Guide.  Give it a look.

7. And, finally, here's an article that is so positive that I disagree with its final prediction about printed books -- The Dallas Morning News's Scott Burns feels so convinced by the Kindle and other e-readers, that he suggests that the Kindle will replace physical books in the way that digital cameras have replaced film cameras.

  But books are the end result, in any text format, while photos are the end result with both types of cameras.  A fine distinction, but in no way do I think e-readers will ever totally replace books.  That would be sad, even for someone who loves doing most of my reading on the Kindle.  I still love printed books for content for which they're vastly superior vehicles, and I still will want a printed book in addition to an e-book I really loved reading and want to enjoy in a format that stands alone. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!