E-reader news round-up
It’s a busy time for the world of electronic reading devices, particularly with Google going into competition with Amazon. Today brings news that the next edition of the Kindle will be shipping earlier than expected, advertising is bringing multiple benefits, and two of the major firms in the e-reader production process are to become one.
As we detailed yesterday, Google is to begin selling contemporary books in electronic form; unlike with the Kindle, publishers set the price and readers can use any Internet-enabled device.
It’s probably just a coincidence, but Amazon has stolen back some of Google’s thunder by announcing its Kindle DX will ship from Wednesday next week. Originally the release date had simply been set for some time this fall. The DX has a 9.7” screen and is aimed particularly at readers of newspapers and magazines, plus the college textbook market. Amazon has also announced deals with the New York Times and Washington Post under which readers who sign up to subscribe to the Kindle editions will get the DX at a reduced price.
Meanwhile, as with most consumer technologies, advertising is becoming more of a factor for electronic readers, both as a product itself and a means of promotion. Amazon’s strategy of concentrating on using its own site to promote the Kindle rather than buying ads appears to be proving successful. Some Kindle ads on Amazon.com have had been clicked on by as many as 3.5 percent of those who see them, which may sound like a small number but is extremely high by industry standards. A whopping 70 percent of all visits to the Kindle site come from clicks on ads on Amazon.
There also seems to be a role for the Kindle as a promotional device. Showtime has just experimented with a Kindle-exclusive free download of the pilot script for a new series and says it would be interested in running a similar giveaway through Google’s system.
On the hardware side, the supply chain for the Kindle is getting smaller. Taiwan’s Prime View International, the firm which produces the display screens for both the Kindle and rival Sony Reader has bought out E Ink, the Massachusetts company which developed the technology that allows displays to offer a paper-like appearance while keeping power use to a minimum. Prime View had been E Ink’s biggest licensee.
The purchase price was $215 million which is pretty low considering the touted potential of the market. It appears E Ink had little bargaining room as it had concluded there was little prospect of going public imminently given current stock market confidence problems.
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June 2nd, 2009
I’m waiting for Plastic Logic:
http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/22705/