iPad

Financial Times reports that Random House is cautiously assessing the market shifts that are being introduced by the iPad release. In short, Random House fears that the iPad/iBookstore represents a potential risk for their profit marings as it is likely going to bring prices down which may cut into profits.

The publishing executives are well aware of the impact that iTunes had on music industry and are fearing that the iBookstore may affect publishing in a similar way (Random is owned by Bertelsmann which also used to own BMG, a music powerhouse that still suffers financial shocks due to sales erosion and decreasing profit margins).

You can find the source article here (free registration is required though).

Random House, the world’s largest book publisher by sales, could keep its books from Apple’s iPad when it goes on sale next month, Appleas the Bertelsmann unit fears the effects of the tablet device on the pricing of electronic books.

Random House’s five big rivals – Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, Harper-Collins and Penguin – are understood to have signed up to iBookstore, the retail website where e-books will be sold for the iPad.

But the absence of the book market leader would prove a blow to Apple. Markus Dohle, Random House chief executive, did not exclude the possibility of reaching a deal before the iPad goes on sale on April 3, but said he was treading carefully, as Apple’s pricing regime could erode established publishing practices.

Apple continues to expand the iBookstore offering – NYT is reporting today that Pegasus and Workman Publishing groups have singed a distribution deal with Apple. The two will be joining Hachette, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins and Penguin Group in the rapidly growing iBookstore shelfspace.

(Apple)… has just signed a deal with two more independent publishers to sell electronic versions of their books on the new device.

Perseus Books Group, a large independent publisher that also distributes works from 330 other smaller presses including Grove/Atlantic, Harvard Business School Press and Zagat, signed a deal last week with Apple, following five of the six biggest publishers that have already signed such agreements.

Separately, Workman Publishing Company, responsible for the “What to Expect” series, novels like “Water for Elephants” and the Silver Palate cookbooks, also signed a deal with Apple.

Over next couple of weeks we’ll probably see a slew of iPad app and iBook announcements – I’ll kick off the season here by posting a link to mogeneration’s site and their announcement about release of Carter’s Encyclopaedia of Health and Medicine for iPad.

About mogeneration:

mogeneration is Australia’s leading iPhone, iPad and Smart Phone design, development & consultancy company. We help leading local and international companies and government with research, product roadmaps, business models, design and development. site: mogenerationcom

See the links above for more screenshots.

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

This one comes as a bit of surprise – Barnes&Noble has announced today that they will release an App for the iPad – essentially it’ll be an eReader that will allow you to view digital books sold through BN. I am not sure how this will jive with the concept of iBookstore, i reckon the two will not be competitors (they recently announced an alliance) yet it’ll be interesting to see how Apple is going to react to this. Another interesting point would be to hypothesize about possible sale of magazines (and other content) via RSS reader type devices (e.g., just announced Google Reader for iPad – another potential challenger to the Apple store/iBookstore concept.

Back to BN, here is blurb from what’s posted on the company’s blog:

We’ve been getting lots of questions from customers, so we wanted to confirm that we will soon be adding a new B&N eReader for iPad – continuing to fulfill our promise of providing consumers any book, any time, any where.
Designed specifically for the iPad, our new B&N eReader will give our customers access to more than one million eBooks, magazines and newspapers in the Barnes & Noble eBookstore, as well as the existing content in their Barnes & Noble digital library. (That includes eBooks and content customers have downloaded to their nook eBook reader.)

There you go – it’s the official Apple iPad video introducing the device.
Video is around 8 minutes long.
Specs, screenshots, demo, iBookstore, multitouch, you name it.