2/21/2014:  Microsoft Reported to Have Office Apps for iPad

It has been reported as far back as November that Microsoft was writing a version of its legacy Office Suite for the iPad.  Now, the rumors surface again, with source saying that the app will be ready soon and submitted to Apple for approval.

The Apple app monitor, the Daily, has seen a working prototype of the software.  According to The Daily, Word, Excel and PowerPoint files can be created and edited locally and online.

It is also believed that the suite will be made available with  few weeks.

Microsoft promptly refuted (kinda) the proposition that they would sell Office for the iPad, but they did not deny it outright.  They simply stated that the story was based in “inaccurate rumors and speculation.”  The Daily promptly defended their story and stated again that they had seen an actual demo of the software running on an iPad.

Barnes and Noble Reports 2011 Was a Good Year And it Was a Bad Year

It was a good year because B&N grew their overall sales by five percent to $2.4 billion:

$1.49 billion (up 2% for the year) in their brick and mortar edifices.

$420 million in online sales (UP 32%)

$542 million in all forms of Nook sales (Up 38%) 

It was a bad year because in spite of their increasing sales and solid market share for their Nook family of eReaders and tablets, they lost $94 million on their Nook business.  When the final profits are announced it appears the losses on the Nook business will force their total profits will be negative.

B&N did confirm that their Nook and online book sales held about 30% of the overall e-reader market.  This fact is, itself, reassuring that B&N is on the right track with their eReaders and their digital offerings.  Both are popular, deservedly so.

B&N also announced that the price of the original Nook Color will be reduced to $169, down from $199, and that they will be offering an 8GB model of the Nook Tablet for $199, $50 less than their 16GB model which will continue selling for $269. These price cuts and new model will bring them into a better competitive position with Amazon’s Kindle Fire.

2/20/2012: Amazon Planning a 6 & a 10-inch Screen This Year

The rumor mill is flying about two new devices from Amazon.  The first, and a surprise, is a 6-inch color eReader.  This would not be an LCD color but an e-Ink color for eReading only. The Chinese newspaper the Economic Daily News is reporting that Massachusetts-based E Ink Corporation has landed an order from Amazon for an estimated three million color e-reader modules per month, with shipments expected to begin in March.

E Ink owns the black and white e-ink process, and recently announced its first color e-ink display of which several commercial devices have already employed. Mirasol is used by Kobo in South Korea and a couple of specialty readers in the U.S.  This would mark the first color eReader (as opposed to a tablet) that Amazon has chosen to sell.

Then there is the rumored Kindle Fire 2, or whatever name they choose, for an 8.9-inch tablet that would compete more closely with the iPad.  Supposedly this will be available later this year—possibly in the second quarter.

2/15/2012:  BlackBerry Playbook Increases Market Share

It looks as if the BlackBerry Playbook’s price cuts have gained RIM’s tablet some market share.   Canadian source now measures the Playbook’s Canadian tablet share at 15% of all tablets, whereas the share was only 5% last fall.

It is questionable whether RIM can make any money at its current $199 price for its base model, but it is hard to see that they would sell well at prices above the Kindle Fire.  One can buy market share, sometimes, but it may not be a solution to the problem.  It does move inventory, however, and that, apparently, is what RIM needed late last year.

2/13/2012: Samsung Updates 7-inch Galaxy Tab

Samsung has provided pictures and specifications on an update to their original Galaxy Tab—the 7-inch version.  The new version, called the Galaxy Tab 2, does not make a radical departure from the original.  It has a 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM and a 1024 x 600 LCD screen.  It will ship with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) which is an improvement.

It will have a three megapixel rear-facing camera with a VGA for the other side.  It will also come with Bluetooth, WiFi, and a 3G model for the cellphone providers.

There is no official pricing announcement, but a Swedish blogger has seen the krona prices for it, and translated into greenbacks, the price appears the be $450 for the lowest memory unit with WiFi only, and $563 for a 3G model.  These currency conversions will probably hold for American prices, but it gives us some idea of what to expect.

Prices for a unit bought under a cell phone carrier will be less, of course—perhaps as the $200 prices seen for its predecessor a few months ago.

From this data it looks to me as if the 7.7-inch version, not yet available in the U.S. is where I would put my money.  Much high screen resolution, better processor and many other features will probably garner the most attention.

The Tab 2 will go on sale in Europe before the U.S., and the exact date is not yet know

2/3/2012:  7-Inch Android Tablet $99 from Sprint With Two-Year Contract

Sprint, beginning on Sunday, Feb. 5, will sell a 7-inch Android Tablet running version 2.3, for $99.  to get this price one must sign a two-year data services contract.  The contracts provides for 1 GB per month of 3G data for $20 a month, 3 GB for $35 and 5GB for $80.

The Optik tablet, manufactured by ZTE, a Chinese company, has fair to less than fair specs.  Screen resolution of 1280 X 800 is better than some.  It has a relatively slow Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core processor that runs at 1.2GHz speed, 16 GB of storage memory, and a 5 Megapixel camera and another 2 MP for front facing pictures.  The Optik also has a mini SD card slot.  The weakest part of the design is in the WiFi radio.  It will run 802.11 b/g, which is one generation behind the three-times faster “n” specification that most everyone else is offering now.  And it will soon be two generations behind when the 802.11 ac begin appearing later this year.

The China-based ZTE is making its debut into North America.  It holds No. 5 spot in the global mobile phone market for the last quarter.  It almost caught #4 LG Electronics in the most recent quarter.

Ray Hendon

Ultraportables, which include the newest incarnation of thin and light laptops, the Ultrabook, are thought by some to be a threat to tablet computers.  The instant-on capability of Ultrabooks are believed to be especially attractive to those who have been buying tablets because of this feature. 

It appears likely to me that Ultrabooks and other thin and light laptops will do well in the market place, especially when their prices fall a few hundred dollars.  But whether they will dampen any of the enthusiasm for tablets is another matter.  Personally I think both form factors satisfy separate needs for different users.

One feature of the new Ultrabooks that will help resolve the question is whether they will serve their owners as competent eReaders.  Surely there are some prospective buyers who would prefer to own only one device rather than two—but only if the one could do the work of two.  Can an Ultrabook do both heavy duty computing and convenient eReading?  Can one design satisfy both these needs?

Certainly a dedicated eReader or a tablet have some advantages over a laptop, even a thin and light one.  Reading electronic books, for example is probably done best by a device that closely emulates the look and feel of a book.  The popularity of the Kindle and Nook are thought to owe much of their success to their similarity to printed books.

How essential is the look and feel,  though, to those who read a lot.   This article takes a look at the possibility of using these new, thin and light computers as an eReader.

To put this question to a practical test, I loaded the top three eReading applications to an 11.6” screen Asus UX21 to see how they worked.  The applications chosen to test are:

Amazon’s Kindle App for PCs, Macs, iPad, iPhone and Android devices

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• Barnes and Noble’s Nook Application for PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone  and Android devices
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• Sony’s Reader Application for PC, Mac and Android devices

  

To give you a taste of the difference, I have taken screen shots of random pages from eBooks on the three applications I mentioned.

Beginning with Amazon, a screen shot of George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda, is displayed in the two column format for laptop viewing. The screen shot is taken of the Kindle application for PCs.

Screen of Kindle Reader in Two Column Format

The Kindle app is widely praised for its versatility of layout options, underlining, comments, bookmarks and especially its syncing abilities.  This app also has go-to options that ease navigation, and dictionary lookup for a highlighted word.  All these features work on Ultrabooks. 

Amazon also has a user friendly policy of allowing you to direct any book in your library to be sent to any device on your registered list of devices. Amazon is indifferent as to which device or how many you use for any their electronic titles.  It treats them all the same and syncs them in an effortless way. The moment I registered my latest laptop, the Asus ZenBook UX21, all books in my library were immediately available for reading.

The strongest features of Amazon is, in my view, the ease of use of its website.  It is easy to find books, send them to the device of your choice, and generally navigate their vast site.

Equally strong is the selection of books, magazines and newspapers. They claim over a million titles, but that includes some categories such as “Singles” that represent a new class of literature that is generally shorter than a book but longer than an article. 

The worst feature of Amazon is that they insist on using a proprietary format for their eBook files.  It has an AZW extension and works only on Kindle software or hardware.  Although all the free sites I use give the option of downloading their books in the AZW format, in practice it is not terribly inconvenient.  Amazon also can read PDF files, and they will convert your Word for Windows documents to a format that allows you to put them in you Kindle library.

The other downside to Amazon is that they use DRM (digital rights management) on everything, so there is no cutting or pasting using anything in the AZW format. 

The Nook eReader software also provides a good reader experience. The screen shot below is from one of their pre-DRM works. Don’t be fooled by the small typeface. My screen capture utility shrunk it because the Nook takes up more of the horizontal space of the computer screen than the Kindle reader, so it has to cut the size down to fit within the pasted space. In practice, the Nook screen is as readable as any other.

Screen shot from the Nook Reader using the dual pane format

All the formatting and user options are available for the Nook reader–font size, margins, highlighting, lookup, go-to. And the B&N syncing feature is excellent between devices, and they offer their reader software app for a wide range of devices.

As far as eReading goes, it is hard to find much to prefer of B&N over Amazon or vice versa.  Both are excellent and have almost identical features.

The same is true for selection of books. B&N’s inventory is huge, and they have a good selection of free public domain books—as good as or better than Amazon’s.

Nook uses the ePub format, as does Sony, although both will read many other formats as well.  They do not read Amazon’s proprietary AZW file format, however.

Something of an oddity: The Nook reader treats all ePub software as DRM protected, so they do not allow cutting or pasting of non-DRM books.  Even on the iPad, whose own iReader app allows cutting and pasting of non-DRM protected material the  Nook does not.

Sony’s reader app provides a good reading experience. The screen shot below is from an ePub file of a non-DRM version of Sherlock Holmes.

Screen of Sony Reader’s Dual Column Layout

As with the Nook, the Sony Reader software uses more of the landscape screen to display its materiel than the Kindle app, so my clipping software has to reduce it to fit the pasting space. But Sony gives one plenty of formatting options and page control.

Sony lags both Amazon and B&N with book selection and syncing ability.  Their books are generally priced high; they have few free books, and their selection doesn’t match its two larger competitors.

Sony makes its reader software available to fewer devices—no iPad, no iPhone, no BlackBerry, for example.  They have syncing available to the three types of devices they support, but I have not tried it personally.

I like the Sony reader app for its ability to read almost any kind of document regardless of format, except, of course, Kindle documents. I will always have their app installed on my computers in case a particular book is not available in the Kindle format.  And they allow cut and paste options for non-protected books.

I find all three of the reader software about equally enjoyable to use. The differences in layout and options are not terribly important. I find I use the Kindle app more than the others because I find more books on their site I like, and I like to sync the books among all my devices. Still, I maintain active use of the Nook and the Sony Readers.

Summary:

First, the reality of the size and convenience of specialized eReaders and tablets makes it clear that they have the advantage. It is not possible for an ultrabook, weighing in at 2.9 pounds, to be as convenient to use as a 7-inch tablet or even the pound and a half iPad.

However, it is also inconvenient to carry two devices if one will do. So, there will be occasions when a thin and light laptop could be a suitable substitute for a dedicated eReader or tablet. 

At bottom, all of these tested apps work well on an Ultrabook. And they would work just as well with the software from other vendors such as Kobo or Blio. If your eReading preferences include comic books, magazines or children’s books, then you might like a specialty reader designed for the formats unique to these publications.

While all the eReading apps work well on an Ultrabook, it still may not be your preferred way of reading electronic texts.  But they are completely usable as a primary or secondary eReader. The choice of one over another is more dependent on which site you prefer to use because of its particular strengths than to the characteristics of their eReades.

From my experience, I have given away my Kindle reader. I simply do not want to carry another device with me in my travels. Now that I have a 7-inch tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, I use it as my eReader of choice because of its lightness and ease of holding in one hand. I use the iPad for e-reading infrequently, but there are occasions when it comes in handy. Its weight, though, makes it a second choice, especially for long reading times. 

I rarely use a PC or my ultraportable for reading, but if I do it will be on the ultraportable.  Its lightness and instant-on feature does make it a better choice than the older, heavier laptops, but it is not as convenient to carry as a tablet.

An ultraportable may not be your favorite way of reading electronic texts, but it serves as a completely satisfying vehicle for reading if you want to carry only one device with you or if an occasion arises when it is all you have to use.

The ability of electronic devices to morph from one form to another is a source of confusion in the minds of consumers. For decades there were tablet computers, but there were no electronic readers. Then electronic readers were introduced, and within a few years browsing capabilities were added, more or less as an afterthought but not done well.  But, the distinction between these two categories was blurred just a little.

Then the tablet computer morphed from a very expensive pen-centric business device that was a sub-category of a laptop into a hand-held device that is now a category of its own. It wasn’t long before Amazon and the other eBook sellers developed reader applications that allowed these new tablets to read eBooks, too. When you put a Kindle reader on an iPad, the iPad becomes an eReader, even though it was an afterthought of the designers.

Now we have two categories of devices that have inched closer to each others’ afterthoughts. The old distinctions are gradually melding into a commonality that makes it hard to make meaningful distinctions between them.

This confusion is not only demonstrated by the buyers of these devices. It is also on display by the blogs and eMagazine sites that keep track on the industry. As an example, notice what the data below shows how differently the different blogs and eMagazines treat this distinction.

PC World: Single category: Tablets/E-Readers.

Engadget: Separate categories: (1) E-Readers, (2) Tablet PCs. The Nook Color, by the way, is reviewed under the E-Reader category, although it could just as well be classified as a tablet.

Computer World No classification of either device

ReadWriteWeb No classification of either device

ZDNet Three categories: (1) iPad, (2) Tablets, (3) E-Books and E-Readers

Crunch Gear No specific classifications. They use “Mobile” and “Gadgets.”

Laptop Magazine Separate categories for Tablets and eReaders

Cnet Separate categories for Tablets and E-Book readers as a sub-class of Tablets

Tabletreaderinfo Single category: Tablet/eBook Readers

Sometimes our classification system fails us. And recently the original eInk providers, Amazon and Barnes and Noble, have introduced what are in fact tablets, but were designed and promoted as eReaders as their primary function. They also include tight integration of the eBook seller’s sites and all the electronic media capabilities. Still, they are tablet computers underneath and eReaders by heritage.

I don’t have a solution for this failure to clarify. Although there are two clear divisions between these categories: eInk vs not eInk. But, this is not convenient terminology for anyone, although it does describe the difference fairly accurately. We will probably have to live with this confusion for a while until one or the other either disappears or does some more morphing closer to the other.

On my site I find that I spend more time lately reviewing the eReading capabilities of tablets than I do reviewing pure, eInk readers. The market is clearly moving away from eInk, although it could make a comeback. But, I can’t see how. It is a hassle to carry two devices with you when one is enough, and the way the technology stands today, the clear winner is the tablet with eReading software. I almost never use my old Kindle anymore. My 7-inch Galaxy Tab or iPad has taken over this function.

Nevertheless, there are many avid readers who prefer their old eInk devices, and they are the best way to read if you are out of doors. But I don’t see a bright future for this old technology. I am most curious as to how this plays out.  But confusion will reign for a while longer.

There seems to be a misunderstanding about eReading on the various operating systems that power many of the new tablets coming to market this year.  Some fear that the larger screens and new operating systems will not be able to read electronic texts of the major vendors.

Each of the major new tablets is reviewed below for its ability to read Kindle, Nook and Sony electronic formats.

Android Tablets

There are four Android tablets that are either out now or will be soon.

· The Motorola Xoom is on sale now at Best Buy and at Verizon stores.

· The LG G-Slate is expected this month.

· Galaxy Tab 10.1 doesn’t have a date set, yet.

· Acer has its Iconia Tab A500 set for a date sometime in April.

All are slated to run Android 3.0, the Honeycomb version, and the first Android system made for large screen formats. The new version of Android is a source of much of this confusion. Earlier versions of Android were written for cell phones with their 3 and 4-inch screens. It appears that some believe that the new software will not work with the older eReader applications that were written with small screens in mind. The pictures below show the Kindle apps that Amazons offers its customers.

Note that the second icon from the left, the Kindle for Android, is depicted as a smartphone. This is probably the origin of some of the confusion. Android versions from the first through version 2.2.1 were written for this size screen. However, the new Android 3,0 scales these apps to larger screens with good results.  The problem of clunky graphics that plagued the iPad for apps that were brought over from the iPhone, are largely avoided by Android. (Update 4/23–Amazon announced a few days ago that they were re-writing their Kindle App for Adroid 3.0.  So any problems with the larger screens will be addressed with the new release. RH)

The Galaxy Tab 7 uses the older version Android eReading apps, and the Kindle eReader works well on it. The same is true for the new Honeycomb versions of tablets. I checked Motorola’s Xoom yesterday and the Kindle app scales well on the larger 10.1-inch screen. I can say the same for an independent eReading app from Aldiko. The reading page looks fine on both apps and all the font and brightness controls available on the small-screens  work as they are supposed to.

The only drawback to the scaling is that when the Xoom is turned horizontally, neither the Kindle app not the Aldiko switches to a dual-pane display—this feature isn’t available to the small-screen versions of eithr reader.  I suspect that Amazon will make this adjustment quickly, however. They made it for the iPad within the first month it it going one sale.

I mention this because on wide screens a dual- pane division is helpful to the reader. Long lines are hard to follow, and a dual pane window solves the problem nicely.

The absence of a dual-pane switch tells me that Amazon and Barnes and Noble will most likely rewrite their reader software for the larger Android screen.

The picture below is of devices for Nook eReaders.

They match up well with Amazon with the exception of a Windows Phone 7 app, but that will probably have one soon. The scalable properties of the Nook are the same as for Amazon and Aldiko, so Nook owners need have no fear of buying an Android tablet.

Other Operating Systems: HP’s WebOS and BlackBerry’s QNX

Kobo is the only eReader app available for the Palm/HP WebOS. The Palm Pre is shown on the far right in the picture below.

The Pre runs the Palm OS that HP now owns.  HP has enhanced the OS and blown it up for the larger tablet screens. It isn’t known how the older apps will scale to the new 10.1-inch dimensions of the HP Touch Pad’s. But I cannot imagine HP not taking care of this issue before releasing their new tablet, scheduled sometime in the summer of this year.

I feel confident that HP’s new WebOS will have a full complement of reader apps when the time comes for them to go on sale. HP has too much credibility in the industry not to be able to convince Amazon and others to build reader apps for its tablet and smartphones.

RIM’s BlackBerry Playbook has several options of bringing their existing eReaders to the new seven-inch platform. First, with their huge installed base of BlackBerry smartphones, no book seller is going to be caught without a new app ready for it the day it is introduced. (Rumor has it that April 10^th will be the day).

RIM has also said that the Playbook will be able to run legacy apps from its earlier OS days, so existing apps from Kindle, Nook, and Kobo, for example, would be able to run on the new OS. There is also the real possibility that the new OS of BlackBerry will be able to run Android apps. Company executives have dropped the hint that they are considering making it compatible with Android —their hardware inside the tablet is certainly capable of being programmed to do it, and I would not be surprised to see it happen.  (Update 4/23–the only eReading app ready on the day of its release was Kobo.  I noticed the Kobo icon on the home screen when I checked the Playbook out at my local Best Buy store.  Kobo will read ePub files, so early adopters of the Playbook will have plenty of reading material available from day one.  RH)

Windows Tablets

On the few tablets that run Windows, all of the major booksellers already have software for it.  If it runs on your PC, it will run on a tablet.

This is not true for Windows Phone 7, however.  The eReader apps will have to be re-written, but that is already underway. Kindle had their app pre-installed on Windows Phone 7 smartphones the day they were introduced. Also, there are no expectations that this new operating system will be ready for a tablet until sometime in 2012.

Whether they will be as easily scalable as Android, though, we cannot know for certain until Microsoft steps forward with more details.

Overall it looks good for those who enjoy reading on electronic devices. The options are growing daily, and many of the new tablets have features that exceed what we have come to expect from laptops and the iPad. With the syncing ability of the major vendors of electronic titles, it is easy to switch devices without losing your place and without having to buy new copies.

As more magazines and newspapers become available in an electronic format, we can expect more and more time spent reading our favorite material whenever and wherever we happen to be. This is the liberating power of the new technology.

Ray Hendon

For those who recently acquired an eReader one of your first urges is to load it up with new books. Understandably, this urge is strong and eBooks stores are happy to help.

However. before jumping into paying for current titles, be aware of the availability of tens of thousands of books that are absolutely free of costs–all of them available for virtually any device, regardless of the brand. Even better, many if not most of the free titles are among the best books ever written.

In the United States, for example, books published in 1922 and prior years are no longer protected by copy-write restrictions and are free of fees to publishers. Before electronic reading began its growth stage, many publishers would print these old titles and sell them at significantly reduced prices in paperback format.   T.S. Eliot, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe and Walt Whitman are a few who come under this rule.

In Europe it is about the same, so we have available, free of charge, the high quality novels, poetry and essays of some the world’s greatest writers. Dickens, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Wordsworth, Blake, Pope, Flaubert, and thousands of others are available.

Printed copies of these titles are still being sold, but a major new wrinkle in publishing came along when the Gutenberg Project was begun. The Gutenberg Project takes as its mission in life to scan the huge library of copy-write-free books into a digital format and then give them away to anyone who asks. The internet has made this dream a reality, and the development of compressed formats of electronic titles made it easy and fast to download.  Regardless of your device, you can download a huge volumes of works to a PC, Mac or proprietary electronic reading device—Kindles, Sony Readers and Nooks, e.g.

Now there are hundreds of sites that either feature these free classic titles or at least carry many of them along with their regular for-sale inventory. Below you will find some of my favorite free sites.  Don’t forget, most of them have a variety of formats available. If you have a Kindle, you simply ask for the Kindle format. For most other eReaders, ePub and PDF formats are also available.

Gutenberg: Click Here. : The original site has a great selection of about 33,000 titles. Their site is not as slick in layout and user-friendliness as others, but once accustomed to its clunky interface, it is worth the effort. The main thing here to lookout for is that their search engine is not sophisticated in guessing what you are looking for. Spelling and precise names and titles are required to bring up a hit. Many of their titles are also available as audio books, wonderful for blind readers and others who prefer being read to.

Manybooks: Manybooks.net is much more civilized in its web page layout, and it boasts over 35,000 titles, all free. Many of the titles will be the same as Gutenberg, of course, but they have many of their own. The file formats available for download are many—all the usual suspects plus many you may have never heard of. This is almost always my first choice when looking for a classical title. Their search engine is also unimaginative, so be precise with titles and authors, or use their browsing by category system or browse alphabetically by author.

Inkmesh: Inkmesh has no inventory of its own, but will search sites for you to see if your title of choice is available and if so, where. It is also handy for fee-type titles if you want to compare prices. They also have classifications that you can browse by: adventure, romance, business, etc. It is a handy site to have available.

Amazon Free Books: Amazon has a rich library for free books, but they are not easily found. This link will get you directly to their free book section, but expect to have to fiddle with it some. Also, be careful and observant on their title searches. They will often bring up a range of options for any title, and many of the titles have fee versions as well as free. You may end up paying 99₵ or more for a title that may also be free if you look further down the list.

Barnes and Noble Free Books:  Everything I said about Amazon is true for Barnes and Noble. They have a good selection of free books, but the only file format available is ePub.

Kobo:Kobo has the ePub format, so Kindle users need not try. But Kobo has many free books. Finding them, though, is not easy. Usually, searching by a classic title will bring up paid and free versions of the title.

There are other sites, but this list should last for the first few thousand titles. Also, if you have an iPhone or Android smartphone, all the reader apps for Kindle, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo (Borders) are available. This way, you can download to your Nook, for example, and have the same library available on the iPhone or Droid. This is handy for short waits that allow you to read your current selection for a few minutes of productive fun.

There is a new use of eReaders that is fueling a boom in electronic readers and books:  A Kindle can serve as a brown paper bag for madam’s trove of racy romances with embarrassingly provocative covers.  “One Wicked Night is shown at right.

Hot romance titles are not a new genre in American lliterature.  They have been a staple of paper-back books for as long as there has been paper-back books. 

It turns out that holding one of these fast reading romances with a hot and happy ending exposes the lurid art on the cover to others.  This exposure is not welcomed by the women who read these kinds of books, and their solution is increasingly found by buying the electronic edition and read it on a Kindle, Nook or Sony Reader.  The readers don’t want their husbands to know of their taste for this steamy literature—similar to a husband who hides his Playboy from his wife.  And they don’t want others to see it either. (“Just for Tonight” shown at left.

According to industry statistics from Bowker, a research firm for the publishing industry, romance is now the fastest growing segment of the eReading market, ahead of general fiction, mystery and science fiction

“Romance,” said Matthew Shear, the executive vice president and publisher of St. Martin’s Press, which releases 40 to 50 romance novels each year, is “becoming as popular in e-books as it is in the print editions.”

The NY Times article also reported that  “. . .at All Romance, an online retailer that sells only romance e-books, sales have more than doubled this year, and the most sought-after titles are usually the raciest.”

These lustful lasses are an exceptionally profitable niche for publishers because of two characteristics:  they are fiercely loyal to an author, often willing to buy everything a particular author has written, once discovered.  And, secondly, they buy, on average, three books a month. 

An idea of the growth of this segment of the business is provided by  Sourcebooks, an independent publisher in Naperville, Ill.  In the first quarter 8 percent of total romance sales at Sourcebooks were from e-book sales. By the third quarter that number had gone up to 27 percent.

Another astonishing statistic is that nearly 75 million people read at least one romance novel in 2008.

The overall demographic of this group of mostly women  is they are between ages 31 to 49, something of a maturing, pre-menopausal group. They read voraciously, going through a book or more a week. 

Click here for the entire NYT article

Ray Hendon

11/20/2010

The month of November has been a watershed for this website.  For the period from November 14th through the 26th, the number of inquiries per day jumped about 600%.  And then, on November 24th, the drop off was dramatic.  Black Friday marked the end of the surge.

During this time of greatly expanded inquiries, I noticed that certain articles were receiving a huge proportion of the hits, and now that it is over, I have gone back to my data and painstakingly compiled exactly which ones got how many requests.

The results for the top 14 of the eReaders are posted in the table below:

*Face-off is for a single article posted that compared the iPad, the Sony Reader series, Kindle and the Nook.

A bar chart of the percentages is shown below.

I tracked six additional names, but none of them got to the one percent level.  Also, the iPad got relatively few hits, but this is a site for eReaders, so those looking for information were, I assume, looking at the iPad as an eReader and not as a full functioning tablet computer.

A number of things stand out in the data.  First, color rules.  I didn’t count the request under the generic heading of “Color eReader,” but if I had, this generic label would have placed rather high in the ranking.

Secondly, the numbers of requests for Kindle information is not good news for Amazon.  From a third to half of the Kindle requests were for an article I did on the possibility of a color Kindle in the near future, and which I answered in the negative.  Thus a large percentages of the Kindle requests resulted in an answer that would possibly point the interested party away from Kindle.

If my conclusion that color rules is correct, then that explains part of the reason Sony, the third largest supplier of eReading devices, places so poorly in the rankings.  It also expalins why the Nook (without color) didn’t even make the top ten.  I expect the price of it and the Kindle to fall in the not too distant future, if this shift to color is as pronounced as it appears.

A third conclusion is that the seven inch tablet is a strong product, at least for those looking.  The Nook Color, Velocity Cruz, View Sonic, Galaxy Tab and RIM Playbook are all seven inch screens, and all with color and fast refresh rates.  If they dominate in sales the way they dominated the requests my site received, seven inches is a winning number.

The last thing that stands out in the numbers I collected is that there is a great deal of price elasticity for tablets.  This means that a small price drop will bring in more revenue to the seller through a large increase in sales.  There is some pent-up demand for colorful surfing and eReading from a segment of the population that can’t pony up the $500 or more for an iPad or Galaxy Tab.  A manufacturer that can bring a good quality tablet to the market under the $500 price mark will likely be rewarded by large sales.

For these reasons, it looks to me that Barnes and Noble has won this Christams from Amazon.  Its Nook Color has hit a sweet spot among those looking for eReaders with color and surfing ability.  My guess is the the Nook Color is going to be under many Christmas trees soon.

Ray Hendon

Nov. 5, 2010

How do the various eReading devices stack up?  There is no list that will pass with everyone, but PC World does a credible job in ranking the top nine—they say top 10, but include only nine devices..?

I might quibble over a few of the placements, but overall, I think the list has merit.

#1: Amazon Kindle 3-with WiFi and 3G

The third-generation Kindle is the first to truly make e-reading an appealing proposition. PC World Review

Engadget Review

Geek Review

#2: Sony Reader—Pocket Edition PRS 350

For a small-screen e-reader, the new Pocket Edition is one of the best models you can buy–but you’ll pay extra for Sony’s unique touchscreen design. PC World Review

Goodreader review PC Magazine Review

cnet Review

#3:  Amazon Kindle DX

Large-format e-reader now comes with improved contrast and Wi-Fi. PC World Review

Engadget Review

Gizmodo Review

#4:  Barnes and Noble Nook

Pokey performance that may or may not be owing simply to an as-yet-unresolved software issue makes an unqualified recommendation of this attractive, innovative device impossible.

PC World Review

cnet Review with Video Engadget Review

#5:  Spring Design Alex

Innovative, intuitive design distinguishes the Wi-Fi-connected Alex e-reader, but it lacks an on-board bookstore, and carries an exorbitant premium over the competition. PC World Review

Engadget Review PC Magazine Review

#6: Aluratek Libre eBook Reader Pro

Budget e-reader delivers clear text and basic functionality in a light, well-presented package. PC World Review

Gizmodo Review

#7: Bookeen Cybook Opus

Although a little expensive, the Cybook Opus is a great, highly portable e-book reader for anyone who doesn’t care about frills.PC World Review

ZDnet Review

#8: Kobo eReader

E-reader is easy on the wallet, but expect to make compromises on performance and usability. PC World Review

Engadget Review

#9: Pandigital Novel

PC World Review

Engadget Review

Borders is stepping up their electronics eReading efforts a notch by strengthening their relationship with Kobo on both the hardware and software side of the business.

The results of this increased collaboration is a “new” Kobo Reader, which has made major improvements to the original version. The new device, available in dark gray, lilac, and white, now supports WiFi and 16 levels of gray scale resolution—both needed improvements.
The original version had only 8 levels.

The price remains at $139.95, so it is going head to head with the Kindle at that price.

Included for that price are 100 free books, already loaded.

To their credit Kobo has outdone Amazon and Barnes and Noble by making their electronic editions available for the  Palm Pre in addition to the iPhone, Android and Blackberry devices.  They are the first of the major booksellers to offer a WebOS reader, although the reader is a Beta version, so expect a few bugs at first.

Borders and Kobo are also expanding their eBook service to include 1.8 million free eBooks and 200,000 for sale, starting at $9.99.

The new Kobo reader will not be immediately available at Borders, however.  It is shown now at the Kobo site, however, but is available only for pre-order.  They probably have a large inventory of old Kobos that need to be sold while production is ramped up for their new device.

This is an important step for Borders.  It should make them more competitive with their main rivals.

To reach the Kobo site, where the new model and enhanced book offerings can be seen, follow this link.

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