iPad What will iPad do for e-books?

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by thinkpadx

Amazon is not going to give up without a fight.

They don't have to "give up"; they only have to adapt. Making their store readable on the iPad will do that. If Apple resists (which I really doubt), Amazon could even cut a licensing deal essentially making the iPad the next Kindle (or the first color Kindle, if you will).

I never believed Amazon planned to stay in hardware manufacturing/selling long-term... I always expected they introduced the Kindle to satisfy their desired hardware requirements (which did not exist in an available HW package at the time), and once other makers built competing devices, they would stop producing Kindles and license another device, or make apps that would perform the Kindle experience on those devices. The iPad, as well as other devices, could easily be part of that.

So Amazon may be closer to phasing out its own hardware manufacturing, in favor of licensing other devices and creating apps for others.

[thinkpad]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

They don't have to "give up"; they only have to adapt. Making their store readable on the iPad will do that. If Apple resists (which I really doubt), Amazon could even cut a licensing deal essentially making the iPad the next Kindle (or the first color Kindle, if you will).

If Apple will allow the Kindle app to be installed on the iPad I will be very glad. However since this more or less will cannibalize on Apples own iBooks I'm doubtful if this will ever be allowed.

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

So Amazon may be closer to phasing out its own hardware manufacturing, in favor of licensing other devices and creating apps for others.

Hmm I wonder if they're really thinking of phasing out. Amazon's policy has been to lock the user to there own store, hence no ePub support. They've so far been able to do this by having there own e-readers.

In my own opinion Amazon should focus on being the best e-book store and thereby draw customers, instead of locking the user down taking away the users own choice.

[Kolenka]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

So Amazon may be closer to phasing out its own hardware manufacturing, in favor of licensing other devices and creating apps for others.

I'm not sure this is the case when Amazon just purchased a touchscreen tech startup to merge with the Kindle division. They're obviously planning the next revision as we speak, with the intent of getting touch tech similar to Sony's (will work with finger and stylus) without the clarity drawbacks. This company in particular claims they had a 'completely transparent' touch layer in the works, which would have solved the clarity issues Sony is facing.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by Kolenka

I'm not sure this is the case when Amazon just purchased a touchscreen tech startup to merge with the Kindle division. They're obviously planning the next revision as we speak, with the intent of getting touch tech similar to Sony's (will work with finger and stylus) without the clarity drawbacks. This company in particular claims they had a 'completely transparent' touch layer in the works, which would have solved the clarity issues Sony is facing.

Yup... I did see that this morning, after I made my post.

So, maybe not so close to phasing out Kindles after all.

[Kolenka]

I think a few companies are banking on the fact that Apple's half-hearted entry into e-books aren't gonna topple everyone else overnight (especially at the price points Apple currently has). That alone will probably keep the likes of Amazon fighting for awhile.

[DD1509]

Originally Posted by John Bailey

And I still say .. Nothing..

Hardware defines what the software can do. The iPhone OS may very well be cut to the bone, but unless computers have changed a great deal, you still need to have a given amount of power to do a given amount of work in a given amount of time. So the single application that this device can run will be limited to what power is available. Plenty of oomph for an e-book reader(My Cybook only has a 400Mhz processor), but not so much for a word processor or for opening a graphics heavy PDF or whatever.



And end world hunger and fix global warming.. and make all right with the world. Sorry.. I don't swallow it. How will it add huge buying force when every book will more than likely come from the Apple iTunes store? A subset of already available books that are easily bought elsewhere.



Would these be the e-book users that balk at paying $200 for an e-book reader? In which case they will certainly be forming lines around the block for one two and a half times the price. And paying for PD books in app form.. Hell.. I bet they will all buy three. And the case and the keyboard,and half a dozen docking stations, and the USB dongle and the SD card dongle, and the lunch box.



No doubt. But millions are not really that big any more. And of those millions, how many will use it mostly as a video watching device or a web surfing device? It might get the text book mob to finally shut up about e-ink being rubbish, but if the video I saw today is anything to go by, the page turn animation takes about as much time as the screen blanking update on my Cybook.



I thought that was supposed to be PixelQi.. The great e-ink killer from the last few months? And all the other new and yet to be released technologies that were the death of the e-ink reader.

Slight flaw with your prediction.. Despite the iPod being available for ten years or so, lots of other players are freely available on the market. Some have little LCD non backlit displays, some are memory stick shaped, some have video, some even surf the web. iProducts have not, despite the assurances of Apple fans, taken over.

You may very well be wetting your self in anticipation of a colour device, but to be perfectly honest, I'm not planning to buy one for at least another three years. At which time, I'll go for another non backlit device if at all possible. And I think there are enough like minded people to keep e-book readers selling well enough to make a profit.



Oh I'm not going to guess. Because I already know. There are quite a few ARM based sub-netbooks on the horizon. I'll be watching very closely. I'm hoping someone brings out at least one with a 7 inch wide screen clamshell design. Just right for replacing my PDA. With a custom Linux OS and a nice little community around it. And I very much doubt any will have e-ink. Colour or not.

If they are smart, many will be tablets. this is where the Linux netbooks went wrong. No imagination in the form factor design,so people expected little laptops, and expected the little laptops to run Windows. But these sub-netbooks, no matter the form factor, will be much cheaper and possibly faster than Apple's over priced sales device. With any luck, it might even give Adobe the nudge to port it's e-book software to Linux.

What they will be very likely to be is a quarter the price of the iPad. And will sell just about everywhere as cheap portable computers that can do useful stuff as well as play Youtube and other flash video streaming sites, and have removable storage. Some with wifi, some with 3G. It's all good.



No.. You are absolutely right. It's about marketing and shiny things and stupid people who buy a brand instead of a device. Nike have been sucking money from them for years.

But it's also about being fit for purpose. And I don't want to read my novels on a backlit screen, and I certainly don't want to spend nearly £500 for one.

Sorry, would like to answer many of your counter-points but my system does not allow me to debate with an idiot.

[mtravellerh]

Originally Posted by DD1509

Sorry, would like to answer many of your counter-points but my system does not allow me to debate with an idiot.

Name-calling is definitely and absolutely against our guidelines. Please tone down or there will be consequences!

MTH
Moderator