Fallout from new Kindle line

[covfam]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

Why would you consider apple as plausible competition? iBooks hasn't been setting the world on fire.

because what makes the ipod/ipads such good readers is not the Ibooks app. its the fact that i can read my books from Amazon,B&N,Kobo,Sony,Ibooks and another 5-10 reader apps. imho people who look at ibooks as the only source of reading material/apps are seriously short changing themselves.

[cfrizz]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I fully expect the sky to fall. The gnashing of teeth and rest of the old apocalyptic standbys will follow closely after that

[stonetools]

Originally Posted by covfam

because what makes the ipod/ipads such good readers is not the Ibooks app. its the fact that i can read my books from Amazon,B&N,Kobo,Sony,Ibooks and another 5-10 reader apps. imho people who look at ibooks as the only source of reading material/apps are seriously short changing themselves.

Word. I also think that Apple has been focusing on stuff other than the IBook store till recently. It was really focused much more on magazines and periodicals, as well as its main business, which is hardware.
After ios5 is out, I think we will begin to see it make moves on the iBookstore front, if only to challenge Amazon. Remember, its sitting on 76 BILLION dollars in cash. Apple can do just about anything it wants to do to build up iBooks.
I've already started to see some stirrings.

*iBooks is on Twitter
* Its responded to Kindle Singles with its own version-Quick Reads
* It has rolled out a version of ePub which is better at displaying graphic content.
This is pretty small beer , but it shows that Apple is beginning to focus on iBooks. It would be interesting to see if Apple could bring something fresh to the ebook experience that would enable it to challenge Amazon. October 4 just became even more exciting.
In the end, though, what covfam said.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by covfam

because what makes the ipod/ipads such good readers is not the Ibooks app. its the fact that i can read my books from Amazon,B&N,Kobo,Sony,Ibooks and another 5-10 reader apps. imho people who look at ibooks as the only source of reading material/apps are seriously short changing themselves.

There are a couple of problems with the iPad as an e-reader. The first is that it sucks to read on as compared to e-ink. This may be less of an issue when an iPad with a higher resolution screen comes out...but right now it's inferior except for special cases, like reading at night when you can't turn a light on.

The iPad's ability to read multiple formats is nice because I can use the kindle app and have it sync with my Kindle. But I haven't used the iPad to buy iBooks or Nookbooks or other Epub books because I would then be left with a collection of different files in different formats with different DRM schemes that I could only read on my iPad.

Originally Posted by stonetools

Word. I also think that Apple has been focusing on stuff other than the IBook store till recently. It was really focused much more on magazines and periodicals, as well as its main business, which is hardware.
After ios5 is out, I think we will begin to see it make moves on the iBookstore front, if only to challenge Amazon. Remember, its sitting on 76 BILLION dollars in cash. Apple can do just about anything it wants to do to build up iBooks.
I've already started to see some stirrings.

*iBooks is on Twitter
* Its responded to Kindle Singles with its own version-Quick Reads
* It has rolled out a version of ePub which is better at displaying graphic content.
This is pretty small beer , but it shows that Apple is beginning to focus on iBooks. It would be interesting to see if Apple could bring something fresh to the ebook experience that would enable it to challenge Amazon. October 4 just became even more exciting.
In the end, though, what covfam said.

Those are pretty minor changes. As I said above, I don't think that the iPad can do much with iBooks until it gets a better screen. And that may not be enough. Although I don't think that Apple really cares *that* much about books.

[Phogg]

War.

War never changes.

[stonetools]

Those are pretty minor changes. As I said above, I don't think that the iPad can do much with iBooks until it gets a better screen. And that may not be enough. Although I don't think that Apple really cares *that* much about books.

Actually, I'm hoping more than anything else. I think Apple may be concerned with Amazon's aggressive move into tablets, though. It might want to build up iBooks as a counter to Amazon.
I think its a given that the iPad 3 will have a much better display.

[CHunter_Author]

I don't see Apple ever really taking e-books that serious. Hardware is what they do and what they do best. They might take steps to make their store a little more visible, but it's kinda hard to see them bending over backwards to sell .99 to 9.99 books when people will line up outside of buildings to buy $500 devices.

[stonetools]

Originally Posted by CHunter_Author

I don't see Apple ever really taking e-books that serious. Hardware is what they do and what they do best. They might take steps to make their store a little more visible, but it's kinda hard to see them bending over backwards to sell .99 to 9.99 books when people will line up outside of buildings to buy $500 devices.

If Apple does anything with ebooks, it will be about offering a better ebook reading and buying experience. Apple doesn't do the race-to-the bottom pricing thing.
I could see Apple offering an iPad with a Retina display, and then offering better formatted e-books that would take advantage of the better display. It would be something with a WOW factor-something that we don't know we want yet. We'll see if they have something for us in a few days.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Phogg

War.

War never changes.

You tread a lonesome road, gets you singing the old world blues.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

You tread a lonesome road, gets you singing the old world blues.

Maybe.

[caleb72]

I'm a bit annoyed that the Kindle Touch won't have dedicated page turn buttons. Other than that it looks pretty good. I don't do "special offers" versions though, so it looks like I'll be set to spend a bit more.

EDIT: Oh - starts off being US Only. I wonder how long it will take to come to Australia.

[OtterBooks]

Gary? Garyyyyyy

[rogue_librarian]

Originally Posted by elcreative

That's dead easy... they remember that the US is only a part of the world and actually supply the rest of us with a choice... Amazon are currently only offering the cheapest and least of the new Kindles outside the US...

At least they are, unlike, say, B&N which will not sell internationally at all (officially, at least). I am convinced that the other models will be available internationally soon, say after Christmas, once the home market's initial demands (so to speak) have been met.

[leebase]

I was super impressed by Amazon's big splash. The $79 price point is going to blow off the doors. What Amazon has done in putting together an ecosystem of books, movies, apps -- puts them up there with Apple in "what you have to do to make a successful tablet".

The Kindle Fire is it's OWN thing -- not an iPad wanna be.

The pricing of these products is super aggressive. It will be interesting to see what steps, if any, Amazon will take to keep other vendors off as clearly they hope to make their money selling content, not making the devices.

Clearly, some folks will buy a Fire who might otherwise have bought an iPad. I just don't see it being THAT big a group enough to worry Apple. The folks who are going to be hurtin' for certain are B&N, Sony and Google.

Yep, I'm including Google. Google is getting nothing out of this deal. On the contrary, Amazon isn't putting on any of the Google apps and is using it's own browser. This browser is going to give Amazon all that glorious user data that is Google's lifeblood.

Lee

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by stonetools

I could see Apple offering an iPad with a Retina display, and then offering better formatted e-books that would take advantage of the better display. It would be something with a WOW factor-something that we don't know we want yet. We'll see if they have something for us in a few days.

Unfortunately, any WOW factor will probably be more of a gimmick than anything else. As it is, one of my main gripes with iBooks is you can't disable the page turn animations. A lot of ebook reader apps enable display customization (e.g. colors, night mode, background images, etc) and have a host of other features that there's not really much that Apple can do that's totally new. Page syncing, Amazon has had way before Apple and I think that's one of the more useful features. Kobo has all these social stuff on their reader (I think B&N, too) and Amazon has Xray.