Allen Weiner
Research VP
7 years at Gartner
23 years IT industry
Allen Weiner is a research vice president for Gartner's Media IAS service. Mr. Weiner has more than 25 years of experience as an analyst, writer, editor, publisher and broadcaster. He has written about media trends in daily newspapers and magazines as well as serving as a chief analyst and… Read Full Bio
by Allen Weiner | December 6, 2010 | 3 Comments
Google’s entry into the digital publishing space with the launch of its eBookstore, partner program and device neutral distribution scheme is a big deal. On first look, there is the significant impact on rivals in the distribution space (Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple and Amazon) as they face new competition. However, as the first “media in the cloud” provider that has retained full control of the media value chain, the stage is now set for a high-powered battle – one that will separate the true contenders from pretenders.
The eBook story is simple: Google will offer a device agnostic scheme that allows consumers to buy and download content from either Google’s eBokstore (more than three million titles with “hundreds of thousands” for sale) or from one of the search giant’s partners (Powell’s, Albris, etc…). Their digital content on the Google online store will be powered by Google’s eBook infrastructure.
Google will deploy whatever model a publishers selects: agency model with fixed pricing or wholesale retail with suggested pricing and fixed margins. Keep in mind, Google will be competing with its partners, but it also contends its partners can add quite a bit of their own brand and value alongside the bookstore. As both an arms dealer and arms retailer, Google puts itself in the rare position to get a piece of every transaction that flows through its pipes.
Google has licensed Adobe’s ACS4 DRM,which means the content can be read on e-ink based black and white devices aside from Amazon’s Kindle which uses its own proprietary DRM. Google will have an eBook application for the iPad, Android devices (but of course) and presumably ever other flavor of device platform on the horizon that supports a web browser. Consumers can access their books (and presumably later, newspapers and magazines) from any device simply by entering their Google account and download the appropriate app or, in the case of a e-ink reader, side load the content using Adobe Digital Editions.
A few issues to note: books purchased prior to the launch of Google’s eBookstore cannot be transferred to the cloud. So, a book purchased from Barnes and Noble for the Nook cannot be deposited in the Google cloud due to DRM issues which tie content to devices. Books purchased from Google will be paid for using Google Checkout which, while having millions of users has not been a popular payment service when compared to the payment experiences of Paypal or iTunes.
While Google’s pending case over unauthorized use of copyrighted material has an impact on its eBook launch (settlement would add millions of new titles to the content tank), the negative PR Google has suffered from its prolonged battle with publishers will require some marketing and goodwill spin to prove themselves a friend rather than foe.
The big picture: The eBookstore launch and parallel efforts with Google TV must be viewed as companion efforts to establish a cloud-based media storefront. Add in the purchase of Widevine (multiplatform DRM and content optimization platform) and you see the formation of two content services with the ability to share customer behavioral information, advertising targeting and a device agnostic distribution engine. A book purchased by a consumer on the wine regions of France could likely result in the delivery of a TV clip, pushed to a user via Google TV, on a related topic complete with targeted advertising. User behavior data collected and collated across Google’s content services and Google’s search engine creates a scary scenario of cross-media dominance.
The fruition of Google’s media cloud plans likely will lead to positioning of competitors in this rarified space: Apple, Amazon and perhaps Microsoft. A few of the major CE companies who have devices across the content consumption landscape—Sony and Samsung to name a few—will want a piece of the media cloud either through ownership or partnership. It can be profitable to sell a consumer a TV set or e-reader, but far more profitable to have that device owner come back and use your storefront as a content hub.
Certainly a pressing question is how Google’s entry into the eBook distribution space impacts Amazon. Google and the Seattle-based giant etailer have similar positions in that they own large pieces of the e-book value chain. Amazon is in the device business as well, but its proprietary stance seems close to being a major liability. This leads Amazon with some pragmatic choices: move to the ePub/Adobe DRM standard or get out of the device business. With assets that go beyond books (movies, music, shopping) it’s much more reasonable to expect Amazon to remain in the device space, adopt open standards and even come out with a tablet device that has cross-media capabilities and some sort of location-based shopping capabilities.
Possibly, Google’s eBook service will not emerge out of the gate like a bolt of lightning. The market of content supply and consumer demand is unstable, fraught with battles between proprietary stakeholders. Google can patiently sit back and wait for consumers to demand open, portable standards and raise its hand as the device-neutral, consumer-friendly answer. Sounds like a good position in this ever-changing space.
Category: Amazon Apple Cloud Google Tags: Amazon, Android, Apple, ebooks, Google, Google ebooks, iBookstore
by Allen Weiner | November 16, 2010 | 1 Comment
Just when you thought e-reading was all black and white, Barnes & Noble tosses some color into the mix with the release of the NOOKColor, a reading device that expands beyond best sellers to include media that thrives in a color setting, namely children’s books and magazines and newspapers. Just in time for the holiday 2010 season (natch), the new device, boasting a snazzy relatively glare screen seven-inch screen, retails for $249 and uses WiFi as its means of connecting to the B&N marketplace and the internet. The marketplace has been expanded to include a number of newspapers and magazines (which include free trial offers) and, at some point, applications (content and otherwise) built on the Android operating system using Nook’s SDK. At launch, the “marketplace” includes Pandora, a few games and a surprisingly robust web browser. (Check out YouTube and you’ll see what I mean)
First impressions: the hardware design is slick with a little notch type thingie on the bottom left of the device. The navigation is really solid and the built-in social features that allow a user to link his/her Twitter, Facebook and Gmail accounts to the device lead to seamless content sharing. The device is slightly heavier than the original Nook but still has a portable “stick it in your pocket” feel to it unlike a larger tablet device.
And then there’s the content. Best sellers look good on the NOOKColor, but it don’t look any better than they do on the black and white original. Kids’ books look very good and the read-along feature (available on some books) is nice and not overpowering. Newspapers, on the other hand, are a major disappointment as they are rendered much as black and white e-readers display similar content. The look is just a hair north of RSS feeds with limited navigation, no video and only display in portrait mode. Certainly, there must be some leeway for the initial implementation of newspaper on the device, but the limited real estate on a seven-inch screen will make reading your local daily or favorite national newspaper somewhat challenging on the NOOKColor.
Magazines—now that’s an interesting topic since beyond books, magazines are low-hanging fruit for color device manufacturers. After a long dry spell brought about by black and white e-readers, the color device folks are embracing magazines as a content (and hopefully revenue) source. While no one has gotten the magazine thing quite right (replicas provide portability but not much in the way of experience), the NOOKColor’s smallish real estate offers some challenges in terms of visual acuity. B&N’s way around those issues is a clever application called “Article View” which takes individual stories and enlarges them for easier reading. An experienced magazine retailer (they sell periodicals in their more than 700 retail outlets), B&B offers free 14-day trials of both magazines and newspapers. That’s a smart play. While I consider magazines and newspapers a shortcoming on the NOOKColor, publishers in those sectors are struggling to find their digital future regardless of device; if B&N can provide them guidance and a transparent, flexible marketplace (per issue and subscriptions), publishers may respond with content suited to color, content consumption devices.
My overall take on the NOOKColor is positive, not so much for the device I see before me but more on what I see the device becoming over the next 60-90 days. I expect reaction from publishers to be positive and as such we will see book apps that take advantage of the device’s color, sound and video capabilities. Lonely Planet, for one, is working on such apps and taking into account the NOOKColor’s GPS (on board, but not activated yet) travel content could get timely and location aware. The rich media attributes will also spur activities in the kids’ book area, a sector likely to explode in 2011 with the NOOKColor as well as the advent of devices such as The Fable from Isabella Products geared specifically to kids’ books.
As the folks at Google bake future versions of Android suitable for tablets (i.e., the long-awaited Gingerbread), B&N will update the NOOKColor’s OS offering a wider array of application. The OS upgrades, development of book applications using the Nook SDK, in-store signage/promotion, competitive price, strong social commerce functionality and a powerful near-glare-free screen make NOOKColor a strong competitor for the e-reading dollar and a choice for those tablet-hungry shoppers for whom reading is a primary desire. Yes, the purchase of a NOOKColor is somewhat of a bet on the future, but looking at B&N’s track record over the past year (since the launch of the first Nook), it’s a safe bet the book retailer will make good on its promises.
Category: Amazon e-books Tags:
by Allen Weiner | October 28, 2010 | 1 Comment
This past week, a number of announcements in the digital publishing arena provide both promise and confusion over the immediate trajectory of the space overall, but in particular the magazine and book markets.
1. Adobe unveiled the Digital Publishing Suite at MAX, its annual worldwide developer/industry conference. The product/service, built on Adobe Creative Suite and Adobe InDesign CS5, adds cross platform distribution for magazine publishers as well as a hosted service that facilitates a new work flow/collaboration scheme for resource-constrained publishers.
2. As reported in my blog post on Oct. 27: Barnes & Noble, the nation’s largest physical book retailer, is following up its November 2009 release of the Nook, an e-ink e-reader, with the NOOKcolor, a device that uses a 7-inch LCD/LED screen to display books, newspapers, magazines and a few additional services such as Pandora. The device is scheduled to be available on November 19th and will retail for $249. NOOKcolor uses WiFi to harvest content. It will be built on the Android 2.1 platform which means it will not be able to run Flash, but as the device’s OS is updated, Flash support is likely. The device will not have access to the Android Marketplace at launch. NOOKcolor will support Adobe’s DRM which means it’s likely to continue to allow download of e-books from public libraries.
3. Even before Windows 7 Phone has hit the mass market, Amazon has announced a Kindle App for the smart phone, giving it yet another platform for readers who purchase e-boos from Amazon.
I couple these formal announcements with two key take-aways from panels I moderated at MAX.
1. Magazines are still in their earliest days of understanding the digital opportunity as it relates to reading devices such as the iPad. Two fatal flaws that seem to be a common occurrence are taking published magazine content and created what I’d call “enhanced replicas.” Some are even proud that there’s minor incremental content cost by re-purposing print content for the tablet.
2. The more erudite book design world agrees that interactivity for the sake of interactivity is lost on most consumers as it only causes confusion. Publishers view interactivity as a “bright shiny object” (my words) and have yet to find its proper place in their respective internal hype cycles.
Piecing together these data points, consider the following:
1. Magazines may have a powerful trajectory ahead, but liftoff will not take place until they redefine the term periodical (why publish weekly when new efficiencies allows you to publish in real time if need be) as well as view the digital channel and device capability as a new publishing paradigm as opposed to a channel for somewhat dressed-up recycled. It will be a pity if publishers don’t view services such as Adobe’s hosted publishing suite as a mean to build collaborative efforts with new visionaries.
2. Magazines cannot get by much longer by ignoring or stating that the lack of advertising solutions for new digital channels is “uncharted.” It’s understandable that warring stakeholders in the device world stand in the way of scalable open solutions, but it’s time for publishers to demand open platforms to capitalize on bringing new, measurable ad experiences to the tablet and other similar devices.
3. Being a Libra gives me the excuse of looking at multiple sides of any issue. I now believe Amazon may not rush into the tablet market because it believes the digital magazine and newspaper opportunity isn’t close enough to build a hardware solution for an unproven market. As the world’s largest bookseller, why not continue to do what you do best.
Category: Uncategorized Tags: Adobe, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Creative Suite, InDesign, Kindle, Nook
by Allen Weiner | October 26, 2010 | 2 Comments
Barnes & Noble, the nation’s largest physical book retailer, is following up its November 2009 release of the Nook, an e-ink e-reader, with the NOOKcolor, a device that uses a 7-inch LCD/LED screen to display books, newspapers, magazines and a few additional services such as Pandora. The device is scheduled to be available on November 19th and will retail for $249. NOOKcolor uses WiFi to harvest content. It will be built on the Android 2.1 platform which means it will not be able to run Flash, but as the device’s OS is updated, Flash support is likely. The device will not have access to the Android Marketplace at launch. NOOKcolor will support Adobe’s DRM which means it’s likely to continue to allow download of e-books from public libraries.
William Lynch, Barnes & Noble CEO calls the NOOKcolor “a reader’s tablet,” and from advanced word, he appears to have nailed it. From its description, the device aims for all three reading segments: book, newspapers and magazines. It adds periodicals to the mix by offering color and browser support and overcomes the tablet-reading shortcoming of excessive glare. As Martha Stewart said at Adobe Max, reading Martha Stewart Living on the iPad is great on an airplane “when they dim the lights.” Lynch says B&N has invested in screen technology that reduces device glare.
Other notable features is 8GB of onboard memory and a built-in social experience that extends B&N’s booking lending capabilities to a richer platform that integrates with popular social networks. This comes at a time when the publishing industry is intently focused on social commerce—the role of book recommendation’s from one’s social graph leading to transactions. Nook Color will also offer Quickoffice, a mobile productivity suite. It will not support e-mail clients but obviously will allow consumers to utilize webmail services.
B&N is also offering a Nook Developer SDK with the intent of inspiring developers to create enhanced book application such as adding video to cookbooks and travel books. Enhanced books, to date, has been an elusive, poorly defined category for publishers hoping to bring to market differentiated reading experience for which they can charge a premium. An area of low-hanging fruit for value add is children’s books, to wit B&N is launching Nook Kids, a platform aimed at facilitating value-added features of children’s books such as animation, “read to me” applications and games.
Many, myself included, questioned a retailer’s entry into the e-reading device scrum believing it would not have the technology chops to build and stay ahead of the digital reading device space. Not only is the Nook one of the best (if not the best) e-ink devices on the market, by expanding its offering to include a tablet reader with broader publishing distribution opportunities, Barnes & Noble may have elevated themselves to the head of the class. The NOOKcolor, based on its specs, offers the color and rich flexibility of a tablet blended with the reading experience of the gen one e-ink readers. Let’s not forget that B&N operates a large number of college bookstore as well as Nook Study, a platform for e-textbook reading which could make the Nook Color the go-to device for e-textbooks
So what’s the market impact? I would say that Apple’s iPad suffers a blow as a digital publishing distributor competing head-to-head with a tablet reading device from a major bookseller. Apple has not exactly endeared themselves to publishers with its lack of Flash support (although NOOKcolor won’t support Flash at launch) as well as its policy of not sharing consumer data with publishers and its reported entry price to be part of the iAds program.
The newer tablets en route such as the Samsung Galaxy and Blackberry Playbook will be scrambling to capitalize on their publishing opportunities and the Kindle…well… Amazon’s not saying but it’s safe to say, the company has something up its sleeve and the smart money is on a color tablet device. When? What will be the cool features? Amazon may know, but mums the word
Category: Amazon Apple e-books Newspapers Publishing Tags: B&N, Barnes and Noble, Blackberry, devices, Nook, samsung
by Allen Weiner | October 17, 2010 | Comments Off
The news story has received national attention: Some 3 million Cablevision subscribers in New York and New Jersey are being deprived of Fox Network programming because Cablevision, the local cable MSO, and Fox cannot agree to terms on retransmission fees. Fox is looking for $150 million for the coming year for the 12 stations in play (including local stations such as broadcast home of the NFL and MLB) which is a boost of nearly $80 million over the previous contract.
Skirmishes over retransmission agreements are not out of the ordinary, neither is it unusual for both sides to take their issues public with full page newspaper ads and other PR campaigns. It’s generally rather humorous and transparent finger pointing with deals being signed at the 11th hours. In a world of programmers looking at other-than-cable-delivery options and a decline in cable subs, there’s a lot here to examine.
First off, there are some options for those afflicted in the Tri-State Area (well, at least two states are impacted). For Fox programming, if you can live with the thrill of appointment TV, there’s Hulu, Fox.com and other web distribution partners who provide webcasts of Fox shows as soon as the following day in some cases. If you really want to watch live, thanks to the FCC, we have this handy thing called local digital broadcasts, aka Over the Air. Just point your rabbit ears (metaphorically speaking) at Channel 5 in New York, and you’re good to go. This works for all local stations in your geographic area, topographic issues notwithstanding.
Local OTA protects the NFL and MLB from losing audience in the nation’s top TV market, but can they convince advertisers that viewers will seek out alternative means of viewing to avoid ad drop outs? MLB, which is webcasting its games, also can point New York/New Jersey fans to mlb.tv. If the league is smart, they will drop the premium charge for fans in that area in a show of good will.
If you are to fast forward a month or so, depending on whether Hulu’s content clients give them the green light, disenfranchised Fox viewers could go to their Roku boxes or Sony IP-enabled TVs and go “over the top” to watch Hulu Plus, a premium service that would give them next-day access to Fox programming but instead of watching on their PCs, smartphone or tablets, Hulu Plus becomes a lean-back living-room plasma experience.
This is a topic that demands closer scrutiny, but battle lines in these retrans deals are different than a few years back as today consumers have a growing number of service alternatives…choices that go beyond merely changing TVSPs. In fact, given the issues Dish Network is having with programmers, changing TVSPs may not be a viable option. With options, programmers can hold MSOs and other TVSP’s collective feet to the fire—“pay us or we’ll go direct to consumer.” Even in that scenario, both sides ma not come out ahead as MSOs can rel on their ISP businesses and programmers have to compete in an ever-growing content marketplace. The sports leagues, each of which has been looking at and even experimenting with going over the top, will not stand for service interruptions; in a season of 16 games, one missed broadcast can cost the league dearly. As solutions to bypass cable or satellite becomes easier for average consumers to deploy (Apple TV, Google TV, Roku, Sezmi), cable and satellite providers are feeling the heat.
Despite some short-term inconveniences, consumers stand to be the winners in this fight for eyeballs. More choices, better service, even perhaps more affordable programming packages. Sounds good to me.
Category: Applications broadcasting Tags: Cablevision, Fox TV, Hulu, Hulu Plus, New York, News Corp, Sezmi, TV
by Allen Weiner | July 21, 2010 | Comments Off
I hate to spoil the party, but I am not enthralled by Flipboard, the new venture-backed content play that purports to be an application that creates personalized magazines based on what my social circle is reading/recommending. Assuming it was working (the buzz has caused a complete meltdown so neither I nor the socialsphere at large can attach our Twitter & Facebook accounts) I imagine I’d see the content that my friends find amusing, entertaining and informative. I suppose that includes some friends who I haven’t seen since seventh grade who may currently have nasty interests and are die-hard members of the Tea Bag clan. At last check, I have no friends who are expert content curators (read: professional editors) who add a lot of value to my long-form new consumption. I say long form as Flipboard is a magazine as opposed to a content snacking app.
I am in the midst of an actual research note pondering the future of magazines. I do believe there is some degree of elasticity in the definition of a magazine, but my take is it must include content assets created for or licensed for a specific content vehicle. By the way, that takes real editors who have that intermediary skill of identifying strong content and having a sense that the intended target audience would find it worth consuming. The job of editors has somehow morphed from that guy who took delight in red-lining my copy to people who use keyword magic to “curate” media.
As I point out in my research, magazine brands that have a print heritage have an opportunity that revolves around their ability to understand the attributes that will allow them to be successful in the digital world. They need to be: personal, interactive, portable, distinctive, accountable (metrics for advertisers and auditors, interactive and monetizable. Based on that, is Flipboard a magazine? Not so much.
Category: Apple magazines Tags: iPad, Kleiner Perkins, magazines
by Allen Weiner | July 6, 2010 | Comments Off
True to its word, Yahoo is making good on two of its promises: 1) the company said it would take a new view of its role in search and 2) begin to create new content opportunities. Called into evidence is Upshot a news page on which a team of editors (two) and reporters (six) look at topical search results (as in what topics are top of zeitgeist at any moment in time) and offer editorial context for those stories. I call it a news page rather than a blog for while it uses a blog publishing style, my sense is over time it will morph into something more substantial in form/format (not to say blogs can’t be substantial).
From its new search mantra, Yahoo aims to take algo results from Microsoft/Bing and add value. In this case, the value is filtering the firehouse with a sense of style and perspective. And then there’s the matter of voice. I wonder aloud whether Upshot will have a voice (Huff Post snarky, Onion blasphemous). Maybe Upshot will have several voices representing a cross-section of views or maybe it will attempt to be as neutral as possible leaving commentary to its regular blogger contributors.
I have a few nits, day one. I’d like to see bios of the reporters so I know that so-and-so actually has a news background. Also, I’d like to see the recco/sharing tools at the blurb level, not forcing me to click through to the entire story in order to share. I also suspect that the folks who give us Shine and OMG will offer a better look than we see at launch. And while we’re on the topics of reporters, I’d caution the regular Upshot staff to avoid citing bloggers as sources. I may not be Woodward or Bernstein, but shaky sources make for bad reporting.
Yahoo is taking dead aim at building a new vision for creating and distributing content. Certainly acquiring Associated Content was a major part of that mission. Yahoo must be careful to deploy a master plan on how its varied efforts will hang together so that its news brand actually becomes…well..a brand.
Category: Yahoo Tags: news, Upshot, Yahoo
by Allen Weiner | June 14, 2010 | 1 Comment
After lighting up the pundits with some impressive demos and strategic vision as CES 2010, Skiff has been reduced to becoming yet another element in Rupert Murdoch’s puzzling alchemy that masquerades as a digital media strategy. The purchase, along with an investment in news paywall provider Journalism Online, underscores the company’s posture that content should not be free.
Skiff, at launch, was a device and a platform for “content.” While somewhat nebulous in its position, given the company was part of the Hearst Corporation, the emphasis was on magazines and newspapers in that order. News Corp, with no magazine holding, will clearly be using Skiff for its global newspaper assets as a platform for distribution across myriad devices, none of which will likely be a Skiff.
While the news releases are somewhat ambiguous, it appears the Skiff device is not part of the Hearst-News Corp deal. The smart money says that Hearst is giving up on the device space especially since e-ink-based devices appear to be on a slippery slope with the advent of multimedia e-readers and tablets which offer color, video and web surfing in addition to a “good enough” reading experience. The somewhat sad irony is that Hearst was one of the prime forces behind the development of e-ink at the MIT Media Lab. Also feeling the pain on the possible shelving of the Skiff is Sprint, the hard luck telco, dumped by Amazon in favor of AT&T, looking for its niche in the new content ecosystem.
That takes us to News Corp and its deployment of Skiff. The biggest challenge for the global media giant is where best to house and deploy Skiff to leverage its capabilities. News Corp has struggled with leadership and direction in its digital strategy much of which has resulted in a series of soiled assets (Fox TV/films, newspapers, sports league relationships, MySpace) that are not able to play in the same sandbox not because of technology limitations but rather a common vision. Unless News Corp has a plan—and a good one at that—Skiff will go down as one of those e-publishing pioneers that seemed like a good idea at the time and nothing more.
Category: e-books magazines Newspapers Publishing Tags: Amazon, AT&T, Hearst, News Corp, Skiff, Sprint
by Allen Weiner | June 7, 2010 | 4 Comments
At the Apple World Wide Developers Conference, CEO Steve Jobs announced that in 65 days, five million e-books have been downloaded for the iPad. Using some sort of voodoo algorithm, he claims that amounts to 22% of all e-book sales. I am not sure how he calculated that given many of the e-book retailers are private and publishers are loathe to share those sorts of figures. Nonetheless, the take-away is that Apple is selling lots of e-books for the iPad.
This is important for a number of reasons, the most apparent one being that reading books on mobile, digital devices are real. The other notable revelation could be that consumers are OK with reading e-books on an LCD screen (iPad) even though it offers a less optimal (read, harder on the eyes) reading experience than e-paper devices such as the Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader, etc.. This early in the e-reader evolution, perhaps consumers are willing to trade a less optimal e-reading experience for the added bonus of video, games and other applications available for the iPad.
While this is a topic worthy of deeper discussion, a few points to consider:
The segmentation of mobile content consumption devices for e-reading is beginning to take shape. Well, at least for now. Based on the assumption that e-paper displays (e-ink and others) will not be able to support color or effectively render web browsers, e-readers will come in three flavors (take note, holiday shoppers): black and white e-readers with e-ink displays priced $149 and below (I am guessing a $99 price point by Q4); multimedia e-readers that offer e-reading (as well as video and Android application support) on smallish 7-inch LCD screen (as in the Pandigital Novel) priced at $199 and then all matter of tablets that offer e-reading, video, some productivity apps supported by Apple’s OS or Android or… some other platform (WebOS, Windows…).
And then there’s the interesting ubiquity approach multiplatform providers such as Kobo, Amazon and Barnes & Noble are taking. The strategy of having your reading platform’s interface/app on as many devices as possible as well as some in OEM deals (such as B&N on the Pandigital Novel) seems to be picking up steam. Making money from sales of your own device, books sold on your own device, and books sold on other devices may define not only the e-book retailing space but also begin to reveal who is in the hardware space for the long haul and who is just looking for a means to showcase their platform.
And then there’s Google Editions. That’s a story for another post or report. Stay tuned.
Lastly, as someone who has the privilege of testing e-reading experiences on new devices, here are the results of sample size one:
Alex: I find the two screens confusing and its lack of integrated support for Adobe Digital Editions (to allow me to easily add library books) makes it a tough sell. Downloading books from Kobo using the small LCD window with a web browser is a non starter.
Kobo: At its $149 price point, a winner. Good e-ink reading experience on a 6-inch black and white screen. Some say it’s “de-featured,” but I am among those who don’t need WiFi or 3G on a device suited only for e-reading. Also, it has great integration with Adobe Digital Editions so I can easily add digital books from the local library
Among the iPad application space, I think the apps for Kobo, B&N and Kindle are fairly equal, except the ones for Kobo and B&N allow me to read the library books I have saved in their clouds. I am still waiting for all three to support newspapers and magazines in their tablet apps. The color and video capability gives these providers much more to work with than on their own one-dimensional readers.
Category: Amazon Apple e-books Publishing Tags:
by Allen Weiner | May 11, 2010 | Comments Off
Google has dropped a few hints about the upcoming release of Google Editions, its megasized e-book marketplace that aims to take on other e-book platform providers. What makes that scenario a bit complicated is that some e-book distribution platforms are operated by device companies (i.e. Barnes and Noble, Amazon and Sony, with whom Google wants to partner) while others are operated by publishers with whom Google wants to fully embrace.
That’s just the start–it gets more complicated. It is Google’s desire to offer books via web browsers as the reading interface. Google would prefer Chrome as the browser of choice, but its e-book reader will no doubt work with any popular browser. That said, the current crop of e-ink based e-readers (Nook, Kindle, Sony) either don’t support web browsers or do a terrible job in rendering browsers. Even the Alex, which has both an e-reading screen and a smaller LCD screen, does a poor job in displaying web browsers. So, unless e-ink, e-reading devices, which offer a more comfortable e-reading experience embrace new LCD technology that offers color, faster refresh rate and a low-glare display that comes close to e-ink, Google’s plan will have to focus on tablets and other similar devices. New suitable LCD displays from Qualcomm’s Mirasol and Liquidvista shows great promise, but have no public roadmap for e-reading deployment.
There’s more. It’s unclear whether Apple will allow Google’s Chrome browser on the iPad. Yes, Google Editions will work with any browser (including Safari) but there may be features in Chrome that can optimize content. From a precedent standpoint, can Apple keep Chrome off of the iPad when, in 1998, the U.S. courts forced Microsoft to allow Netscape’s browser in its OS alongside Explorer?
And just how will Google Editions render e-books in its browser? Anyone who has read an e-book in a web browser would agree it’s a poor substitute for an e-ink, e-reading device. Google Editions will probably rely on HTML 5’s ability to create browser-like containers for e-book applications. How long will it take Google (and possibly developers) to create nifty value-added e-books for that platform?
And yes, there’s even more. There are issues around DRM, support of ePub, whether or not Google plans a device to support Google Editions and how Apple will maneuver to head Google off at the pass. The e-book/e-reader wars are still in pre-game mode. Look for a number of announcements to come from the upcoming Book Expo America show in New York.
Category: e-books magazines Microsoft Publishing Tags: Amazon, Apple, Chrome, E Ink, e-books, e-readers, Google, Google Editions, iPad, LCD, Sony
