iPad

BusinessWeek has a good article on future of eBook for Apple platforms and in general (link below). Here is the blurb on iPad vs Kindle positioning:

The popularity of book-related apps on Apple devices may be especially disruptive for existing makers of e-readers. While sales of standalone e-readers may double to 5 million units in 2010, they may rise only 30% next year, in part because of the iPad’s introduction, says Susan Kevorkian, a program director at consultant IDC. “Content providers have a much richer platform on the iPad” than on the Kindle, says Charlie Wolf, senior analyst at Needham & Co.

As far as the impact on Apple’s bottom line it’s amazing to find out that eBooks are largest content category in the App store – here is the excerpt from the article:

…electronic books are now the largest content category at the App Store, which features apps for the iPhone, iPod touch, and forthcoming iPad, a tablet-style computer due to go on sale Apr. 3. The store boasts 26,976 e-books, compared with 25,330 games, Mobclix says. The surge in popularity is a boon for book publishers as well as software developers such as Oceanhouse.

(emphasis added)

Read the full article here: BusinessWeek on iPad/ebooks

Crain’s has a quite good article on the “space race” among publishers to embrace the new sales channel:

In what might be the media equivalent of the space race, upscale magazine giant Condé Nast is putting the pieces in place to become the first publisher to produce tablet e-reader editions of its titles. Wired, Vanity Fair and GQ are expected to roll out the digital versions with their June issues. Glamour and The New Yorker are likely choices to appear a month later, industry sources say.

…

Other publishers, including Time Inc., Hearst Magazines, Rodale and Bonnier, are also at work on tablet editions. But only Condé Nast has been meeting with advertisers and making concrete plans for specific issues.

Executives from S.I. Newhouse’s magazine empire have spent recent weeks pitching the ad community, including sending out a media kit entitled, “The Wired Slate Experience: June 2010…”

The full article can be found here: http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20100228/SUB/302289980

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