Archive for the ‘cloud publishing’ tag
Lots of Press Releases Today, Timed to Steal Thunder from Amazon’s Launch of Kindle International no comments
Today there were several press releases, some of which did not contain a lot of new information and seemed timed more to distract from Amazon’s launch of the International version of the Kindle rather than to provide us with much new material.
Plastic Logic announced that its upcoming ereader will be named the Que and will debut at the CES this coming January 7th in Las Vegas. They released more photos, but nothing really new: only side views, no views of the actual display. In fact we see more of the hand model in the photo than we do of the Que.
The Que will have a screen size of 8.5 x 11 inches and will be mainly aimed at business users. It will have an e-ink based touchscreen that will be shatterproof. Supported formats include PDF, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. AT&T will provide 3G connectivity, and Barnes and Noble will provide books for Plastic Logic’s upcoming ereader. Wi-Fi is also indicated.
Irex also put out another press release about their upcoming DR800SG, which was supposed to become available at Best Buy Stores later this month. The press release now says “later this fall”, so not sure if it will still be this month or not.
The DR800SG will also have a larger 8” screen and will be priced at $399. AT&T will also provide the 3G connection for this ereader, and Barnes and Noble is providing the ebookstore.
A new ereader from Spring Design named Alex was also introduced today. 
This ebook reader also sports a smaller LCD screen below the e-ink display similar to that shown in leaked photos of Barnes and Noble’s Athena which is expected to be unveiled at B & N’s press conference tomorrow. There is some speculation in fact that this is B & N’s new ereader, although the pictures look different.
Spring Design’s new ereader will feature a 6” e-ink screen and a 3.5” color LCD display. Not exactly pocket-sized. There is an SD card slot for added storage. Spring Design says that the Alex will release to “selected strategic partners” by the end of this year.
The Alex is based on Google’s Android and will have full browser capabilities, so this ereader should work well with Google Editions. It is more of a multimedia device though than current ereaders like the Kindle or Sony. I can imagine it being very easy to get distracted from reading with this device.
“This is the start of a whole new experience of reading content on e-books, potentially igniting a whole new industry in multimedia e-book publishing for secondary authors to create supplementary content that is hyper linked to the text. We are bringing life to books with audio, video, and annotations,” said Dr. Priscilla Lu, CEO of Spring Design. “This gives readers the ability to fully leverage the resources on the Web, and the tools available in search engines to augment the reading experience.”
Meanwhile, back at the launching of the Amazon Kindle with US and International Wireless, it seems like more of a tempest in a teapot with little enough thunder to go around. Looking at Amazon’s websites outside of the US it would be hard to know that something “groundbreaking” was taking place. The Kindle is not displayed on Amazon UK’s homepage, nor can it be found on the electronics or books category main pages. It was also MIA at other Amazon international sites I looked at until I finally found it in Japan. I guess if you are big in Japan……
It is increasingly looking as though the launch of Kindle International is aimed primarily at Americans travelling abroad. It also seems as though the international release was a rushed job because of the competition from all of the recently announced new ereaders which will be coming to market soon.
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Google’s Cloud Publishing Plans no comments
Google has announced that it will launch an online bookstore called Google Editions in the first part of next year. Any web-enabled device should be able to access the 400,000 to 600,000 titles Google will offer.
Google Editions purchases will be stored in the cloud, with purchasers also being able to store a local version in their device’s browser for temporary offline reading. Essentially you will be paying for online access to a book that you wish to read, but you will not physically own a copy.
Possible Google book cloud sighting over Moscow.
Publishers will get 55 percent of ebook sales revenue, while Google will keep 37 percent. Google plans also to sell Editions books through other brick and mortar and online retail outlets, possibly including Amazon. In these cases the online retailer would receive 55 percent of the sale less a small fee to go to Google. Publishers would receive the remaining 45 percent of each sale.
Google Editions represents perhaps the first serious challenge to the Kindle Store in terms of content. As fast as the Kindle store is growing however, I wouldn’t be surprised if it can boast having well over 400,000 titles by the time Google Editions launches. Also, since web browsing ability is required, Editions seems aimed more at netbooks, smartphones, etc. Reading a lot of books on a backlit LCD screen is not fun for your eyes, though it is fine for casual reading. Most ereaders coming out with a wireless connection do not include web browsing like the Kindle does. Perhaps we’ll be seeing a whole new generation of ereaders with access to the cloud as part of their feature set.
Recommended Reading: For an interesting and in-depth article about cloud publishing and Google see Blackplasticglasses.com’s post.
Photo from Youtube.
