Will Cheap Android Tablets Give iPad a Race for the Future of Publishing?

In the recent past, the slumping newspaper and magazine industries were drawn to Apple's iPad as the possible publishing savior for their products.

Of course, Apple had the only game in town in the recent past ... and with some bad management caveats at that; like not allowing the publishers access to the subscribers' demographic data.

All that is about to change; and I never thought for one moment that it wouldn't! I have posted on this issue previously.

BetaNews has the latest developments on this ever evolving issue in a report by Tim Conneally:

Still think iPad is the future of publishing? Philly papers offer cheap Android tablets to subscribers

The withering newspaper and magazine industries began to gravitate toward Apple's iPad as a possible anchor publishing outlet last year, but a pair of Philadelphia newspapers are taking a different approach and bundling cheap Android tablets with a subscription.

Last year, Conde Nast's Wired showed off an impressive iPad-optimized version of its magazine, and News Corp released The Daily, a subscription magazine designed from scratch for consumption on the iPad. These major ventures didn't simply re-format existent content for the iPad, but rather designed their content around the tablet itself.

The major hindrance here is that readers have to already own an iPad to get a subscription, so the audience will always be measured as a subset of iPad owners.

So the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News are taking an approach to distribution more similar to mobile phone companies. When a customer subscribes to a digital edition of one of these papers, they will get an Android tablet at as much as 50% off of its retail price.

This way, they are subscribers first and tablet owners second.

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The Samsung Galaxy Tab Challenges Apple's iPad

I often post on electronic gadgets that are useful to writers and publishers. The iPad and now it's first credible challenger from Samsung, the Galaxy Tab, are such devices.

I love certain aspects of the Galaxy over the iPad...It's more compact size and lighter weight, for one. It can be handled in one hand versus two for the iPad with a screen size of 7" compared with iPad's 9.7". Also, the Galaxy includes the three most-requested features missing in the iPad: a camera (two in fact), the ability to run Web videos and applications written in Adobe's Flash software and multitasking.

This report comes from Walter S. Mossberg in the Wall Street Journal:

After seven months of unchallenged prominence, Apple's hot-selling iPad now has its first credible competitor in the nascent market for multitouch consumer tablet computers: the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

The Tab is being introduced over the next week by three major U.S. wireless phone carriers at $400 with a cellular data contract, or at $600 with cellular capability but no contract. The iPad starts at $499 for a Wi-Fi model with no cellular-data capability or contract, and is $629 for the least expensive model with cellular data capability but no contract.

Like the iPad, the Tab, which uses Google's Android operating system, is a good-looking slate with a vivid color screen that can handle many of the tasks typically performed on a laptop. These include email, social networking, Web browsing, photo viewing, and music and video playback. It also can run a wide variety of third-party apps. But it has major differences, most notably in size.

The Tab has a 7-inch screen versus the 9.7-inch display on the iPad. That may seem like a small difference, but the numbers are deceptive, because screen sizes are always described using diagonal measurements. In fact, the actual screen real estate on the Tab is less than half of the iPad's. That's a disadvantage, but it allows the overall unit to be much smaller and lighter, and thus more easily used in one hand, something some users will welcome.

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Apple Gobbles eBook Share; Amazon Needs to Go Cheap to Compete

Apple is devouring the eBook market and the strictly eReading devices need to cheapen-up to remain in the game...At least that's my opinion, as well as others like Geoffrey A. Fowler of the Wall Street Journal:

Fowler writes:

At Steve Jobs’ Apple Worldwide Developers Conference keynote on Monday, he dropped a stat that’s become the buzz of the publishing business. In the first 65 days that the iPad has been on the market with Apple’s new iBookstore, Apple customers have downloaded some 5 million e-books — and the company has captured a 22% share of the e-book market, he said. Presumably that count will go up when Apple releases its iBooks app for the iPhone later this month, too.

There’s plenty of room for debate on what those sales statistics mean, exactly. Apple, like other e-book retailers, “sells” a lot of free e-books that would pad the tally. Also, there are many different ways to count the size of the publishing industry, depending on the sorts of books one includes. Gartner analyst Allen Weiner said it must have been based on “some sort of voodoo algorithm”, given the secrecy that surrounds sales figures in the publishing industry. Jobs said only that he got the market share figure from “five of the six biggest publishers in the US.”

Nonetheless, the stats have renewed speculation about what this means for Amazon’s Kindle, which has led the market both in e-reader and e-book sales. Last month, Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos told investors that the Kindle wouldn’t have color for some time, and that the company was focused on making the device serve hard-core readers.

Amazon introduced its current-generation Kindle device in February of last year, and dropped the price to $259 last October.

Writer Seth Godin had a modest proposal for Amazon: Amazon should cut the price of its Kindle dramatically.

Godin dubs a $49 device the “paperback Kindle.” It wouldn’t be hard to hit that price “if you use available wifi and simplify the device,” he wrote. Or even, he suggests, make a “Kindle of the month club,” whereby people who sign up to get a Kindle book each month would get the device for free. The impact could be that the Kindle could quickly blow away some of its competition from companies that depend on gadget sales, not e-book sales, to make a profit.

“You can’t out-Apple Apple,” Godin said in an interview. “If all Amazon does is try to come up with something sort of like an iPad but less colorful, they are going to fail.”

Moreover, he said the current Kindle isn’t cheap enough, and doesn’t contain the social reading functions — call it a virtual book club — that would really differentiate it as a reading device from the iPad.

Already, other single-purpose e-reading devices are playing in the sub-$200 market. Sony has offered discounts that drop the price of its entry-level reader to $169. And Kobo’s basic e-reader sells for $150.

B&N Adds Browser To E-reader, Competes With Ipad

I see the other e-readers, that were slightly diminished when the "more options" iPad came bursting on the scene, are scrambling to add extras NOW so they can stand a little taller against king iPad and keep a viable share of the market...Look forward to seeing many more improvements from all...including iPad!

From Associated press through Cain's New York Business:

An update to Barnes & Noble's Nook e-reader will also allow users to browse complete books in B&N stores at no cost in another application in testing.

(AP) - Barnes & Noble says a software update to its electronic reader the Nook will let users surf the Web and play games.

The update will also allow users to browse complete books in Barnes & Noble stores at no cost in another application in testing.

Barnes & Noble's Nook uses Google's Android operating system. When it was launched, executives said Android applications could be developed for the Nook. The games, which includes chess and Sudoku, are the first Android applications.

Dedicated e-readers have been threatened by the launch of Apple's iPad earlier this month. Amazon.com's Kindle also offers a basic Web browser.

Nook users can download the update at www.nook.com/update.

Ipad = The Savior Knight of Publishing

Sir iPad came riding through speeding arrows, splattering fire balls and spiralling lances on a snorting, fire-breathing, white dragon and pulled Princess Publishing from a gasping death in the Amazon Kindle dungeon!...Ahhh, I've always wanted to write a little something gothic or medieval...

This comes from The New Yorker magazine through Carolyn Kellogg of the LA Times:


This week's New Yorker brings an excellent overview by Ken Auletta of what the iPad means for the publishing industry. Auletta shows that Apple's entry into the e-book universe was about a lot more than just a new device: It gave publishers an alternative to Amazon's e-book pricing structure, a bit of leverage where they had previously had none.

Auletta details what happened when Amazon removed MacMillan's buy buttons and the role of e-books in the larger bookselling landscape. He also goes back, trying to get at Amazon's intentions toward books: "'Don't forget,' the chief of a publishing house said, 'Bezos has declared that the physical book and bookstores are dead.'"

He talks to Markus Dohle -- the CEO of Random House, the biggest of the big six publishers -- about why his company is selling e-books only with Amazon and not with Apple. He hears from business publisher Tim O'Reilly, who says publishing's traditional business model is flawed.

And then he looks forward, at the probable coming of Google's massive book project, which has an entirely different structure. Apple's entrance has shaken up the industry, but it's not settled yet. How people get books is diversifying; the iPad is just the latest, shiniest access point.

About the only thing Auletta's marvelous piece doesn't address is the reading experience. I tackled that in our pages, and while in my estimation the iPad handily beat the Kindle, a flood of e-mails tells me that Kindle owners remain unconvinced.

Get the full Ken Auletta article here http://alturl.com/go9p

Could an 'iPad Skeleton' Transform Tablets into Notebooks?

How about a stand or sleeve to prop your iPad on coupled with an app to accommodate a keyboard and processor with an operating system to magically turn your iPad into a notebook computer? This scenario, or some facsimile, is sure to come...

You realize, of course, I made the previous statement with only the foggiest idea of what the hell the difference, if any, there is between a tablet computer, a notebook (or laptop) computer, a slate, an iPod or iPhone, etc, etc, etc!

This from Mark Hachman of PC Magazine...and thank the computer god for experts:

Lenovo's U1 Hybrid could signal the future of the Apple iPad and tablet industry, if any accessory manufacturers want to jump on board.

Lenovo's U1 is something truly novel: a Linux-based tablet that can be docked back into a notebook form factor, adding a keyboard, a second processor, a Windows operating system, and additional battery life to the mix. But what if all a user wanted was a keyboard?

Let me explain. I haven't been lucky enough to play with the iPad yet, so I can't comment on the usability of its keyboard. But the disadvantage of any touchscreen device, in my mind, has been the lack of a quality keyboard, that can be used as effectively as a physical keyboard over long periods of time. And this, I believe, is a concern: by adding iWork to the iPad software ecosystem, Apple has signaled that it hopes customers will perform some light content creation. Patrick Moorhead of AMD, who used the iPad for a week as a business tool, noted that his wrists became cramped after a few hours of work.

From a physical standpoint, here's what differentiates a notebook from a tablet: A hinge. And a keyboard.

While MacBooks can be found all over college campuses, I can't imagine too many students will be taking notes (typed notes, mind you) on an iPad or other tablet unless there's a hard surface to support the tablet. Even though Apple banished laptop users to a specially designated ghetto at the recent iPhone OS 4 launch, the majority of attendees at that and at any industry event tend to favor notebooks or netbooks. We're used to the experience.

In February, LaCie announced several tablet sleeves that (coincidentally, as it turns out - LaCie did not receive any information about the iPad's specs before the launch) fit the iPad and other tablets. Since then, a number of other sleeve manufacturers (including, most recently, Speck) have launched protective sleeves and cases.

But the one innovation I haven't seen is a sort of skeleton notebook, with an open sleeve at the top to allow users to insert and remove the iPad, with a hinged plastic or metal backing that would support it. If I was designing the concept (a tab-book? an iPad skeleton? a "Markbook"?) I'd either build in a Bluetooth wireless keyboard into the plastic base, or somehow leave a space for users to attach their own. Basically, think of an empty notebook shell, with a keyboard, but with an iPad replacing the display. (Bluetooth allows a physical separation between the keyboard and iPad.)

I imagine the skeleton might look vaguely like the Sweetbox notebook case above, just a bit more rugged, integrated, and with a more elegant design.

Before the iPad's launch, I wasn't sure if Apple would allow a Bluetooth keyboard to connect to the iPad. Fortunately, it is increasingly becoming clear that users have a great deal of freedom in selecting one; according to reports, Bluetooth keyboards that work with Apple's tablet include the iGo Stowaway, the Think Outside keyboard, and, best of all, Apple's own Bluetooth keyboard.

The advantages are significant; Apple's Wi-Fi-only iPad starts at $499. The MacBook starts at $999. That $500 gap is roomy enough for a sleeve or other accessory manufacturer to sell an iPad skeleton for $80 to $140 and still lure customers. And since we're talking about a keyboard married to a case combined with a sleeve, I can imagine both keyboard and peripheral manufacturers (Belkin, LaCie, or Logitech, for example) as well as sleeve manufacturers potentially entering the market.

Note that the concept isn't necessarily confined to iPads. A number of other suppliers (including Dell, with its Mini 5 tablet, the HP Slate, and an undisclosed tablet from Toshiba, among others) could certainly take advantage of the skeleton concept.

Of course, the concept could be taken even farther, with full-fledged docking stations built into the skeleton base. At that point, the line between laptop, netbook, and tablet would blur even further.

A skeleton certainly represents a threat to the Apple MacBook; a skeleton takes a product primarily designed for consumption and turns it into more of a productivity tool. But it seems like a win-win for all concerned.

I've held informal conversations with a few manufacturers, and they've seemed intrigued by the idea. That either means we should be seeing iPad skeletons shortly, or else they're running into some unexpected snags. Either way, I'm personally interested in the concept, and would like to see what the industry could do with it.

San Luis Obispo's iFixit to Teardown & Analyze iPad

A cool company started back in 2003 by two college freshmen dudes actually tears down Apple's products, analyzes them and publishes fix-it manuals for the products. Today they are tearing down the iPad in real time!

Julia Hickey, The San Luis Obispo Tribune, writes this about iFixit and it's neat task:

Somewhere in America this morning, as thousands of Apple fans are waiting in line to buy an iPad, computer engineers from the San Luis Obispo company iFixit are taking one of the newly- acquired gadgets to a hotel room to suction off its glass screen and expose its secrets under bright photographic lights.

If the July 2009 debut of the Apple iPhone 3GS — for which iFixit co-owner Kyle Weins flew to London to be one of the first in line — is any indicator, then more than a million Apple enthusiasts will be following the iPad “teardown” in real time as iFixit posts commentary and photos to its Web site. See Kyle Weins in photo below.



Where exactly Weins’ three teams have traveled is a secret, but they will say the destination is domestic, as the iPad is debuting in America. They’re racing against other companies to get it first.

Weins admits the event is promotional for iFixit, which he says has become one of the world’s biggest after-market Apple parts retailers and a trusted voice in the tech world. The 26-year-old Wiens and co-owner Luke Soules, 25, say that teardowns are part of their company’s larger mission to reduce electronic waste by showing that customers can take repairs into their own hands.

“Apple would prefer we didn’t exist,” Weins said.

IFixit actually got a head start Friday. IFixit techs discovered that the Federal Communications Commission had put some images of the iPad’s inner workings on its Web site. Parts like the computer chips had gray boxes put over them as a form of redacting, Weins said. But iFixit techs were able to remove the layering so Web viewers could see the chips.

IFixit takes apart, then rebuilds, Apple products and posts free, user-friendly repair manuals to its Web site. Apple is notoriously secretive about what goes into its products, making it difficult for amateurs to perform repairs as simple as replacing a battery.

IFixit has taught moms how to replace the batteries on their children’s iPods instead of sending them back to Apple, which, according to Weins, would recycle or refurbish the old device and send her a different one.

“Recycling is much less environmentally-friendly than reuse,” Weins said. “Let’s make something last four times longer, and then recycle it.”

Multiple attempts to reach Apple representatives — both at the San Luis Obispo store and corporate headquarters in Cupertino —were unsuccessful.

IFixit began in 2003 when Wiens and Soules, then Cal Poly freshmen, decided to sell computer parts online to buy a $900 projector for their dorm room.

Now they have 24 employees and offices in San Luis Obispo and Atascadero and generate more than $2 million in annual sales, Wiens said.

Apple’s iPad on sale and online today

Apple begins sales today of its latest device, the iPad, a tablet computer. It will operate using the touch-screen technology made popular in the iPhone. IPads have a starting price of $499. Apple has a company store at 899 Higuera St. in San Luis Obispo.

Technicians with the San Luis Obispo firm iFixit will conduct their teardown of an iPad this morning in a live streaming on the company’s Web site, www.iFixit.com. The teardown will begin sometime between 7 and 8 a.m.

Two Opposing Views On Apple's iPad

To date people are either absolutely thrilled with the ipad or think it's a complete wash! David Pogue of the New York Times examines who makes up these two camps and what their motivations may be...Interesting gossip!

David Pogue:
In 10 years of reviewing tech products for The New York Times, I’ve never seen a product as polarizing as Apple’s iPad, which arrives in stores on Saturday.

“This device is laughably absurd,” goes a typical remark on a tech blog’s comments board. “How can they expect anyone to get serious computer work done without a mouse?”

“This truly is a magical revolution,” goes another. “I can’t imagine why anyone will want to go back to using a mouse and keyboard once they’ve experienced Apple’s visionary user interface!”

Those are some pretty confident critiques of the iPad — considering that their authors have never even tried it.

In any case, there’s a pattern to these assessments.

The haters tend to be techies; the fans tend to be regular people.

Therefore, no single write-up can serve both readerships adequately. There’s but one solution: Write separate reviews for these two audiences.

Read the first one if you’re a techie. (How do you know? Take this simple test. Do you use BitTorrent? Do you run Linux? Do you have more e-mail addresses than pants? You’re a techie.)

Read the second review if you’re anyone else.

Review for Techies

The Apple iPad is basically a gigantic iPod Touch.

It’s a half-inch-thick slab, all glass on top, aluminum on the back. Hardly any buttons at all — just a big Home button below the screen. It takes you to the Home screen full of apps, just as on an iPhone.

One model gets online only in Wi-Fi hot spots ($500 to $700, for storage capacities from 16 to 64 gigabytes). The other model can get online either using Wi-Fi or, when you’re out and about, using AT&T’s cellular network; that feature adds $130 to each price.

You operate the iPad by tapping and dragging on the glass with your fingers, just as on the iPhone. When the very glossy 9.7-inch screen is off, every fingerprint is grossly apparent.

There’s an e-book reader app, but it’s not going to rescue the newspaper and book industries (sorry, media pundits). The selection is puny (60,000 titles for now). You can’t read well in direct sunlight. At 1.5 pounds, the iPad gets heavy in your hand after awhile (the Kindle is 10 ounces). And you can’t read books from the Apple bookstore on any other machine — not even a Mac or iPhone.

When the iPad is upright, typing on the on-screen keyboard is a horrible experience; when the iPad is turned 90 degrees, the keyboard is just barely usable (because it’s bigger). A $70 keyboard dock will be available in April, but then you’re carting around two pieces.

At least Apple had the decency to give the iPad a really fast processor. Things open fast, scroll fast, load fast. Surfing the Web is a heck of a lot better than on the tiny iPhone screen — first, because it’s so fast, and second, because you don’t have to do nearly as much zooming and panning.

But as any Slashdot.org reader can tell you, the iPad can’t play Flash video. Apple has this thing against Flash, the Web’s most popular video format; says it’s buggy, it’s not secure and depletes the battery. Well, fine, but meanwhile, thousands of Web sites show up with empty white squares on the iPad — places where videos or animations are supposed to play.

YouTube, Vimeo, TED.com, CBS.com and some other sites are converting their videos to iPad/iPhone/Touch-compatible formats. But all the news sites and game sites still use Flash. It will probably be years before the rest of the Web’s videos become iPad-viewable.

There’s no multitasking, either. It’s one app at a time, just like on the iPhone. Plus no U.S.B. jacks and no camera. Bye-bye, Skype video chats. You know Apple is just leaving stuff out for next year’s model.

The bottom line is that you can get a laptop for much less money — with a full keyboard, DVD drive, U.S.B. jacks, camera-card slot, camera, the works. Besides: If you’ve already got a laptop and a smartphone, who’s going to carry around a third machine?

Review for Everyone Else

The Apple iPad is basically a gigantic iPod Touch.

The simple act of making the multitouch screen bigger changes the whole experience. Maps become real maps, like the paper ones. Scrabble shows the whole board, without your having to zoom in and out. You see your e-mail inbox and the open message simultaneously. Driving simulators fill more of your field of view, closer to a windshield than a keyhole.

The new iBooks e-reader app is filled with endearing grace notes. For example, when you turn a page, the animated page edge actually follows your finger’s position and speed as it curls, just like a paper page. Font, size and brightness controls appear when you tap. Tap a word to get a dictionary definition, bookmark your spot or look it up on Google or Wikipedia. There’s even a rotation-lock switch on the edge of the iPad so you can read in bed on your side without fear that the image will rotate.

If you have the cellular model, you can buy AT&T service so you can get online anywhere. (Cellular iPads aren’t available until next month; I tested a Wi-Fi-only model.)

But how’s this for a rare deal from a cell company: there’s no contract. By tapping a button in Settings, you can order up a month of unlimited cellular Internet service for $30. Or pay $15 for 250 megabytes of Internet data; when it runs out, you can either buy another 250 megs, or just upgrade to the unlimited plan for the month. Either way, you can cancel and rejoin as often as you want — just March, July and November, for example — without penalty. The other carriers are probably cursing AT&T’s name for setting this precedent.

The iPad’s killer app, though, is killer apps. Apple says that 150,000 existing iPhone apps run on the iPad. They either appear actual size — small and dead center on the screen — or, with a tap, doubled to fill the screen, a little blurry. Still, all the greats work this way: Dragon Dictation, Skype (even voice calls, through its speaker and microphone) and those gazillion games.

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But the real fun begins when you try the apps that were specially designed for the iPad’s bigger screen. (When the iPad section of the App Store opens Saturday, it will start with 1,000 of them.)

That Scrabble app shows the whole board without your zooming or panning: a free companion app for your iPhone or Touch is called Tile Rack; it lets you fiddle with your letters in private, then flick them wirelessly onto the iPad’s screen. Newspaper apps will reproduce the layout, photos and colors of a real newspaper. The Marvel comic-book app is brilliant in its vividness and panel-by-panel navigation. (Oops, maybe that app belongs in the review for techies.)

Hulu.com, the Web’s headquarters for free hit TV shows, won’t confirm the rumors that it’s working on an iPad app, but wow — can you imagine? A thin, flat, cordless, bottomless source of free, great TV shows, in your bag or on the bedside table?

Speaking of video: Apple asserts that the iPad runs 10 hours on a charge of its nonremovable battery — but we all know you can’t trust the manufacturer. And sure enough, in my own test, the iPad played movies continuously from 7:30 a.m. to 7:53 p.m. — more than 12 hours. That’s four times as long as a typical laptop or portable DVD player.

The iPad is so fast and light, the multitouch screen so bright and responsive, the software so easy to navigate, that it really does qualify as a new category of gadget. Some have suggested that it might make a good goof-proof computer for technophobes, the aged and the young; they’re absolutely right.

And the techies are right about another thing: the iPad is not a laptop. It’s not nearly as good for creating stuff. On the other hand, it’s infinitely more convenient for consuming it — books, music, video, photos, Web, e-mail and so on. For most people, manipulating these digital materials directly by touching them is a completely new experience — and a deeply satisfying one.

The bottom line is that the iPad has been designed and built by a bunch of perfectionists. If you like the concept, you’ll love the machine.

The only question is: Do you like the concept?

Apple's iPad Has New Competition from Germany's Neofonie's WePad!

BIG news! Neofonie, a German company, has supposedly come up with a more technically inclusive (e.g. includes "flash video") slate PC (multi-media device) called the WePad that will not be as restrictive RE formats as Apple's iPad.

Markus Goebel, reporting for TechCrunch (Europe), details some of the big news about the 12 April 2010 unveiling of WePad PLUS who they already have on board among other things:

Billed as an iPad competitor, the WePad is not vaporware, but is in fact, The Chosen One. At least, that’s the view of some, who are hailing the WePad as the saviour of the German print publishing industry.

While Apple is still racing to the wire to secure enough media content partnerships for the iPad before its launch this week, the WePad has already bagged Europe’s biggest publisher, Gruner + Jahr.

Bernd Buchholz, CEO of Gruner + Jahr, presented the first German-born slate PC at last week’s annual press conference for his company. Unfortunately, there is only a very dark photo of this event on Facebook (see below), but you can find new professional shots on sites like Areamobile.


Axel Springer, publisher of Europe’s biggest newspaper BILD is also in talks to use the WePad, says the latest rumour quoted by German newswire DPA.

But Buchholz must have jumped the gun, because the WePad’s creator Neofonie had scheduled all official announcements about the WePad’s hardware and media partnerships for April 12.

That didn’t hold Buchholz back from presenting a WePad version of Stern, one of Germany’s biggest magazines which sells 900,000 copies. Other similar versions of Gruner + Jahr magazines like Geo or Gala are in the making. They will be marketed at similar prices like their print versions and the launch date is just some months away. Apart from the text and pictures of their print issues, the WePad versions will be full of audio, video and Flash and also interwoven with the magazines’ websites.

It seems that Gruner + Jahr is not the only publisher who believes in the WePad’s success. Neofonie CEO Helmut Hoffer von Ankershoffen is “happy about the first big advance orders from companies”, he wrote on the WePad Facebook site (5,709 fans). Gruner + Jahr has officially announced a plan to license the WePad’s epaper software, that Neofonie developed on their behalf, to other publishers. The WeMagazine publishing software is platform independent and apparently works with several devices or user interfaces, including the iPad and normal computers.

The underlying strategy is clear: “We insist on our sovereignity of products and contents”, Buchholz said in his Thursday’s speech, clearly hinting at recent problems. Apple removed the Stern iPhone app in November without warning from the App Store due to objections over photo galleries featuring too much nakedness. The Association of German Magazine Publishers (VDZ) warned that such intrusions might represent a move towards censorship.

German publishers are also disgruntled with Apple’s pricing policy. Buchholz said they need to “get in charge of pricing”. Apple’s regulations have the absurd side effect that an iPhone version of Germany’s most important news magazine, Der Spiegel, will cost more than the print version. Its price will soon jump to €3.99, after the €2.99 introductory offer is over, while the paper sells for €3.80.

Therefore Gruner + Jahr appears to be at the helm of establishing a totally competing platform to the iPad. “We are in talks with nearly all big and small German publishers, also with [our big competitors] Springer and Burda”, Buchholz said in a press conference after his speech.

Oddly, Gruner + Jahr has jumped the gun before the official April 12 event, and the WePad’s hardware spec is now getting out there. Gadget geeks have posted interesting links, such a possible WePad prototype running Windows. It also appears that the WePad will be made by OEM Pegatron, a company connected to the iPhone, ironically.

So far Neofonie isn’t very helpful on what ebooks formats will be supported. Its latest product sheet says again that the iPad uses a “proprietary Apple format for iBooks store” while, they claim, the WePad is better for supporting “all open formats, additionally premium formats”. This repeats their statement which was criticised after our latest TechCrunch post.

What’s So Hard To Understand About Random House’s Strategy?

Does Random House (RH) have the right approach to establishing digital content pricing, especially eBooks? RH is successfully moving the digital pricing needle from the retailer to the publisher...where it probably belongs and will be more beneficial to writers and other creative people...Just this bloggers opinion.

Mike Shatzkin, The Shatzkin Files, has his usual intelligent analysis on this subject:

Since Apple made its iPad announcement last January, five of the Big Six publishers have been featured participatants. That not only means they’re making content available for the iPad “form factor” (color and connectivity like the iPhone, screen size like the Kindle) but also that they’re buying into the new “agency model” for sales. As anybody who cares about this stuff already knows, under the agency model the control of pricing to the consumer moves from the retail point of contact to the publisher.

In return for that control, the publisher lowers the “established retail price” and, although the stated margin to the retailer is reduced from 50% to 30%, the effective margin rises because the retailer sells at that publisher price, not something substantially less. And the publishers going to agency are happily accepting less for each book sold to gain that pricing control and price stability across all retailers.

Random House has been prominent by its absence from the group. And some people, including some who are really well-informed about publishing, wonder “why?”

I wonder why they wonder.

Although it is certainly possible that iPad book sales will be startling right out of the box, that’s not really likely. Unlike the Kindle, which is purchased by consumers solely for the purpose of reading books, the iPad will attract customers for all manner of reasons and, actually, reading books would be pretty far down the list for most people. Although there are pockets of skeptics, I’m sure most publishing people accept that the iPad can grow into a very robust bookselling channel but it isn’t clear how long that will take or whether narrative text will be as much a beneficiary of the device as books that are more complex presentations of words and pictures.

In the short run, which from this seat looks like some months, if not a year, Kindle and Amazon are still likely to be the leader in ebook sales, and other established ereader platforms that are optimized for text (Nook, Sony Reader, the new ereader from Kobo) will remain important. By holding themselves out of the new channels, continuing the current policies of “wholesale” discounting, and allowing the retailers to set prices, Random House will be maximizing their short-term sales and profits. Assuming they maintain their publisher-established prices near their current levels (and why would they not?), Random House will collect more money for each ebook sold than their competitors do while the public will will pay less for each Random House ebook they buy than for comparable titles from other publishers.

That’s a pretty significant short term advantage. Why wonder why somebody would do that?

Of course, most publishers hope — if not believe — that the proliferation of new devices and platforms combined with the more widespread use of the agency model setting retail prices will disperse the ebook market among many more players. Will Apple or any other player hold it against Random that they were slow to make the change if they decide to join the party after it really gets going? My hunch is “no.”

And that may be Random House’s hunch too. They may be making a perfectly conscious and rational gamble that the sales they’ll lose in the short run by not being on the iPad will be more than compensated for by margin they’ll make through higher wholesale prices and greater sales through lower retail prices than any of their Big Six competition in the still-dominant Kindle channel.

And if Amazon is willing to retaliate against a publisher’s print business over dislike of their ebook policies, wouldn’t they also be likely to favor the books of a big publisher that cooperates with them when everybody else doesn’t? Couldn’t that add a further incremental edge to Random House in the short run while the iPad book-reading audience is still ramping up?

I have read nothing to tell me whether Apple would or wouldn’t accept Random House books on the wholesale model. (The other publishers embraced the agency model; they didn’t need to be talked into it.) If they do, Random House could persist with this strategy for a long time, even when they start putting books on the iPad. Even though their “listed” ebook prices would be considerably higher than their competitors’, the prices at which they’d be offered to the public could be lower.

If this all works the way the agency publishers envision, we’ll have a multi-platform, multi-retailer, price-stable ebook market before too long. If that happens, Amazon may tire of paying more for Random House books, whether they sell them for less or not, and the wholesale model with retail price reductions is not a palatable combination for publishers. But that’s not imminent and for the foreseeable future, all the Random House position means to them is more revenue per copy and lower prices to the consumer.

There is a school of thought that ebook consumers are very sensitive to price. Starting with the appearance of the agency model next week, ebook prices to the consumer for (usually author-) branded frontlist titles are going to rise. It will be interesting to see if the IDPF (International Digital Publishers Forum) reports of sales show any change in the trend line starting with the reports of sales in April.

Apple’s Prices for E-Books May Be Lower Than Expected

More intrigue and drama coming from inside the meetings between Apple and publishers re eBook pricing. Motoko Rich, New York Times, reports:

Maybe e-book prices won’t be rising so much after all.

Since Apple announced plans to sell digital books on its forthcoming iPad, it has been cast as something of a savior of the publishing industry for allowing e-book prices to go above the $9.99 that Amazon charges for e-books on its Kindle device, a price that publishers say is too low to sustain their business.

But as more details come to light of the actual negotiations between Apple and publishers, it appears that Apple left room to sell some of the most popular books at a discount.

When Steven P. Jobs showed off the iPad last month, he announced agreements with five of the six largest publishers to offer their content through a new iBooks application. Those publishers — the Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan, the Penguin Group and Simon & Schuster — agreed to terms under which they would set e-book prices and Apple would serve as an agent to sell the books to consumers. Apple would take 30 percent of each sale, leaving 70 percent for publishers to split with authors.

Publishers indicated that e-book editions of most newly released adult general fiction and nonfiction would sell in a range from $12.99 to $14.99, under a complicated formula that pegs e-book prices to the list prices of comparable print editions. Publishers liked Apple’s deal because it resulted in a marked increase above Amazon’s $9.99 price for most new releases.

But according to at least three people with knowledge of the discussions, who spoke anonymously because of the confidentiality of the talks, Apple inserted provisions requiring publishers to discount e-book prices on best sellers — so that $12.99-to-$14.99 range was merely a ceiling; prices for some titles could be lower, even as low as Amazon’s $9.99. Essentially, Apple wants the flexibility to offer lower prices for the hottest books, those on one of the New York Times best-seller lists, which are heavily discounted in bookstores and on rival retail sites. So, for example, a book that started at $14.99 would drop to $12.99 or less once it hit the best-seller lists.

Moreover, for books where publishers offer comparable hardcover editions at a price below the typical $26, Apple wanted e-book prices to reflect the cheaper hardcover prices. These books might be priced much lower than $12.99, even if they did not hit the best-seller list.

Tom Neumayr, an Apple spokesman, declined comment.

While e-books still represent a relatively small proportion of total book sales, they are the fastest-growing part of the industry. How they are sold and priced has become a matter of fierce debate within the publishing industry.

For Amazon, the $9.99 price on new and best-selling e-books helped it market the Kindle device — which now sells for $259 — and build market share quickly. But Amazon has effectively lost money on each sale at that price because it buys and resells e-books as it purchases printed books, by paying publishers a wholesale price generally equivalent to half the list price of a print edition. That means that on a $26 hardcover book, Amazon would typically pay the publisher $13, losing just over $3 on a digital edition it sells for $9.99.

Under the agreements with Apple, both the publishers and Apple should make money on each book sale.

Before The iPad, IBM Had The ThinkPad

Todays post reveals a little history about the technology (not as new as the uninitiated may have thought) behind Apple's iPad.

Brooke Crothers, writing for CNET News, gives us the lowdown...going back to IBM in 1990.

The ThinkPad came long before the Apple iPad. Lenovo makes this clear in a video showing the genesis of the ThinkPad brand name, though the clip raises some pesky questions.

As some quick background--and as many readers probably know--a line of laptops using the same ThinkPad brand name ultimately became a hit for IBM, though the PC business overall didn't pan out financially for Big Blue, which sold it to Lenovo in 2004.



IBM was first: In the video, the Lenovo marketing executive (originally an IBM employee) talks about how IBM, in 1990, designed the ThinkPad 700T slate computer with a cutting-edge (at that time) magnesium case; how it used an "integrated heatsink" to obviate the need for a fan; and used a flash drive instead of a hard disk drive. Again, all of this way back in 1990.

While certainly an enlightening video, it still leaves one wondering why Lenovo is talking about this in the past tense. In other words, if IBM had such a head start in 1990, why is everyone fixated on Apple's tablet and why aren't we drooling over some highly evolved Lenovo Pad today? (Note: the Lenovo U1, though compelling, is a little late.)

I'm sure there are hundreds of reasons why IBM, and later Lenovo, didn't have a commercially successful consumer slate device (no, I'm not talking about a convertible laptop), but it seems odd that consumers have to wait for Apple to bring out a tablet before anyone takes serious notice of the slate computer.

So, what happened? Here's one facile answer. In the intervening 20 years, IBM sold off its PC business while Apple actually made a commercial success of innovative consumer designs and ballooned into one of the largest and most successful consumer device makers in the world.

What Does iPad and Kindle Mean for the Future of the Publishing Industry?

Amazon introduced the Kindle THEN Apple introduced the iPad to fight the Kindle and BOOM we have new business models that have drastically overhauled the way publishing will make money and who will get what share of the booty.

This from the iPad News Tracker:

“Publishing executives have an unprecedented opportunity to grow the industry. Yet, what they are doing is defending their old business model – which, frankly, is now antiquated”

NYU Stern Professor Vasant Dhar, an expert in the strategic implications of information technology, warns that the publishing industry will be the next “carcass” if it doesn’t embrace a new business model, and he proposes what this new model should look like.

Professor Dhar, who conducted the first study to quantify the economic impact of user-generated content for the music business, cites the music trade as a perfect example of an industry that failed because it was unprepared and resistant to adopting new technologies. Instead of focusing on providing their customers value and reasonable rights of usage, they became obsessed with preventing piracy, and it cost them dearly.

He argues that publishers should adopt a more market-back-focused business model that welcomes technological innovation. “Executives are disconnected from their rising consumer base. They underestimate the power of and the cultural shift that has been brought on by emerging technologies.”

Professor Dhar explains the drivers behind the technological shift:

Moore’s Law – which states that raw computing power doubles every 18 months, making general purpose devices capable of rendering content at high quality The increasing level of digitization of virtually all types of content and the explosion of user-generated content: data on the Internet doubles every three months, and roughly 20 hours of new content is currently uploaded every hour on YouTube The modularity of software, which makes it easy to build new applications: while software productivity languished for decades, it has now kicked into high gear as object-oriented software makes it easy to plug-and-play self-contained modules into high-quality systems very quickly Taken together, the three drivers are powerful disruptors of existing business models.

He suggests the publishing industry implement a digital strategy based on simple pricing and digital rights aimed at growing the market of readers. “Increasingly, consumers prefer electronic delivery of their content. Publishers should tap this market and see it for what it is – growth,” said Professor Dhar. “Would you rather have a piece of a growing market even if it’s a smaller percentage than before, or try and hold onto a larger piece of one that is crumbling?” he asks. All the evidence to date suggests that defending obsolete business models isn’t a good idea, he says.

Publishers, Amazon Inch Toward Truce In Post-iPad World

More insider opinion Re e-book pricing and battles between Amazon and publishers. Who is going to make more money under the new materializing business model? Who is offering olive branches to get on the new book media distribution bandwagen?

Dan Gallagher of the Wall Street Journal reported thusly:

Since Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) debuted its first Kindle e-book reader late in 2007, the reaction within the book industry has been some mix of welcome and scorn.

Welcome because of the potential to tap an entirely new market--before a wave of digital piracy similar to the one that decimated the music business. Scorn because of fears that the online retail giant, which already has a commanding share of the market for physical books, might use its leverage to seize control of the new market and push down prices even further.

Publishers have been fighting back, and seemed to score an important victory over the last week, with Amazon reportedly agreeing to a model that would let them set higher prices for e-books sold for the Kindle.

Analysts say a truce is likely but won't do much harm to Amazon even if the company loses the $9.99 price tag for e-books that has helped make the Kindle a major hit.

The company discloses little data for its Kindle business, but it is widely estimated that Seattle-based Amazon loses money on most e-books that it sells for that price. Higher prices would mean a better margin for the business even if sales take a small hit in terms of volume, experts say.

But concerns persist about whether publishers will give any ground at all on e-book prices. In theory, the companies should still make good profits on e-books at lower prices, because they are saving on the costs of printing, binding and distribution that make up an estimated 10% to 12% of a hardcover book's total price.

"Publishers seems to be fighting a rear-guard action against Amazon," Stephen Windwalker, a small book publisher and author of the Kindle Nation Daily blog, said on a conference call hosted by the brokerage Collins Stewart on Monday.

"I'm not seeing a lot to be excited for," he added.


Turning Off The 'Buy Button'

Ironically, the company that has thrown the biggest wrench into Amazon's plans for the e-book market is the very company that Amazon was trying to emulate--Apple Inc. (AAPL).

Apple, with the launch of the iPod and its iTunes online music store, turned the music industry on its ear.

The store sold single tracks for 99 cents and kept most full albums under the $10 mark. The music industry had already seen its profits socked by digital piracy, so it begrudgingly accepted a model that allowed for some revenue--even if it was less than what the industry was accustomed to.

Amazon tried the same simplified pricing scheme for e-books, pushing publishers to keep the prices below $10.

But last month, Apple introduced the iPad tablet device and with it, announced a new service called iBookstore. No prices were announced for the store, but the company said it would let publishers set their own rather than force them to accept a set price.

Six major publishers announced support of the iPad and have been pushing Amazon to allow them to set higher prices. Things came to a head last week when Amazon removed the titles of one publisher--Macmillan--from its site in protest of its new e-book prices, even as the company admitted that it had "capitulated" to Macmillan's demands to set higher prices.

Macmillan's books are back for sale on Amazon this week, and neither company will say what sort of deal they reached.

"It's fair to say that no one in the book industry wants to see a major channel of distribution shut down, and that's what happened when Amazon turned off the buy button on Macmillan's books," said Al Greco, a professor of business at Fordham University who studies the book market.

An Olive Branch?

In an op-ed column in The Wall Street Journal on Monday, the head of a major publishing house noted the changes rippling through the book business and offered what some considered to be an olive branch in the battle over pricing e-books.

John Makinson, chairman and chief executive of the Penguin Group, wrote that publishers need to understand that "it's fruitless to stand between the reader and his choice." But he also noted that the physical cost of a book is roughly on par with the average margin of the consumer book-publishing industry, "and what's needed to keep investing in new writing and new ideas." (John's editorial note: The last part of the last sentence makes absolutely NO sense to this author)

"So there's some room for discussion but not that much," he wrote.

Greco called Makinson's piece "an attempt to calm the waters." He noted that five of the six major publishers have entered into what is called an "agency agreement" with Apple to allow the company to sell e-books for its iPad, but it gives publishers control over pricing.

Such a model "will become the norm for all sales of e-books in the future," Greco said.

"Ironically, while Amazon seems to not like that agency approach, they lost money on every transaction under their current model," he said. "From a financial point of view, Amazon will make more money this way."

He noted the risk, however, that consumers have now become used to a $9.99 price tag for e-books, which may make some resistant to the idea of paying higher prices.

"Will consumers walk away? I don't think so," Greco said.

Windwalker, the Kindle Nation Daily blogger, agrees that Amazon will likely do well financially even under higher prices. But he added that consumers will likely resist the higher prices--providing an incentive to publishers who break from the pack to keep prices low.

He also noted that publishers may be ignoring Amazon's key strengths--at their own peril.

"There are two things that Amazon knows more about more than anyone else in the world: Price elasticity and their own customers," he said. "If higher prices begin to suppress sales and profits, then I think it's fair to assume they [publishers] will not march in lockstep."