Showing posts with label Sony Reader. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sony Reader. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

E-book Sales Looking Good

I’ve become well attached to my Amazon Kindle and it looks like I’m not alone. Initially Amazon had problems getting displays from their supplier, resulting in some rather long delays between Kindle orders and deliveries. I waited about 6 weeks for mine to arrive after placing my order last January, which was a pretty typical wait back then. Delivery times have shorted significantly, it now looks like Amazon has a good supply of the displays, and the market will continue to grow for e-book readers like the Kindle.

According to an iSuppli study, e-book display shipments will increase at a 161% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the 2007-2012 period. iSuppli predicts sales will move from 150,000 units sold in 2007 to 18.3 million units in 2012. iSuppli also projects global e-book display revenue will grow from $3.5 million in 2007 to $291.2 million in 2012 indicating a CAGR revenue increase of 143%.

How’s the Kindle reader selling overall? The same iSuppli study predicts Amazon will sell 1 million units in 2008.

How is Kindle content selling? Here’s a quote from an article in the New York Times earlier this month:

According to a source at Amazon, "on a title-by-title basis, of the 130,000 titles available on Kindle and in physical form, Kindle sales now make up over 12% of sales for those titles."

The iSuppi study references key e-book markets that include education (textbooks, reading and reference material, electronic dictionaries and organizers), consumer markets (novels, magazines, guides and newspapers), professional segments (trade publications, manuals and product literature) and other areas (government documentation, military maps and religious books and material).

I see several advantages for the classroom including content search, the built in dictionary, the ability to highlight, bookmark, export pieces of content to text files and add the equivalent of margin notes. I also like the ability to move the equivalent of Word and PDF documents around electronically over Amazon Whispernet, which uses the Sprint EVDO wireless network.

ISuppli principal analyst for mobile displays Vinita Jakhanwal is quoted as follows:

It's possible that Amazon's Kindle could do for e-books what Apple's iPod did for MP3 players. Indeed, there are indications that Kindle sales in the first quarter of 2008 surpassed its total sales for the entire year of 2007.

I’m looking forward to hearing (and seeing) traditional academic publishers plans for electronic textbooks on devices like the Kindle and Sony Reader.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

The Kindle and The Sony: A Couple of Electronic Book Readers

[Here's a recent piece I wrote for my monthly technology column in La Prensa, a Western Massachusetts Latino newspaper. To read previous La Prensa technology columns go here.]

Amazon recently released a product called the Kindle, a 10.3 ounce electronic reader with a 6 inch grey-scale screen. The Kindle allows users to connect wirelessly and shop the Amazon Kindle store electronically – a computer is not required. According to Amazon, more than 90,000 books are available including 100 of the 112 current New York Times Best Sellers with most selling for $9.99 each. Newspapers are also available including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post along with top magazines including TIME, Atlantic Monthly, and Forbes. Monthly subscriptions to newspapers cost between $5.99 to $14.99 per month and magazines typically cost from $1.25 to $3.49 per month.

The Kindle uses a cell phone data network and works just about everywhere your cell phone works. There are no monthly wireless bills – wireless charges are included in the cost of the content being downloaded. Users can also email documents and pictures to a Kindle. A Kindle is not cheap at $399 for the device.

Sony also has a product called the Sony Reader. The Sony Reader is a one-half inch thick e-book reader that weighs around 8 ounces. It holds about 80 books worth of content and has a rechargeable battery that lasts approximately 7,500 page turns. It has 64MB of internal memory and an additional memory card slot. The screen is very pleasant on the eyes, using a technology called e Ink® from E Ink Corporation. E Ink uses micro-capsules instead of the glowing LCD cells on computer screens that appear as black or white depending on the charge associated with page content. The Kindle uses the same E Ink screen technology. According to Sony: "The result is a reading experience that’s similar to paper - high contrast, high resolution, viewable in direct sunlight and at a nearly 180-degree angle, and requiring no power to maintain the image."

The Sony Reader requires a computer for book purchases and transferring files (via USB cable) to the Reader. The Sony Reader also displays documents, blogs, newsfeeds, and JPEG file pictures (like the Kindle - just black and white) and plays unsecured MP3 and AAC audio files through an external audio jack. Books are primarily purchased by users using Sony’s ebooks website. The Sony Reader is currently selling for around $300 on Amazon.

Back in September I wrote here about the weight of my two daughters book bags and the Sony Reader. In the September post I calculate both of my daughters Book Bag to Weight Ratio (BBWR).

I see great potential for ebook products, especially in our classrooms. If you also have children (or grandchildren or know children) in school you likely have concerns about the weight of books they are carrying around every day in their bookbags. An electronic reader like the Amazon or Sony products could be a perfect solution. However, I don’t think we’ll see widespread use in our classrooms until the price drops and a color screen is included.

UPDATE (12/6/07, 12:30PM): A buddy, John W., wrote to me this morning. Go to eBay and do a search on Kindle - check out those prices!

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Book Bags and the Sony Reader

I've been meaning to weigh my daughters book bags for a while now. I've got a 16 year old in 11th grade and a 12 year old in 7th grade and each lug a stuffed bag back and forth every day to school. Here's the weigh-in results:

11th grader
Book Bag Weight = 28 lbs
Her Weight = 105 lbs
===============
Book Bag to Weight Ratio (BBWR) = (28 lbs)/(105 lbs) =
.267

7th Grader
Book Bag Weight = 24 lbs
Her Weight = 75 lbs

===============

Book Bag to Weight Ratio (
BBWR) = (24 lbs)/(75 lbs) = .32

So my oldest is lugging a little over one-quarter of her weight around in her book bag and my youngest is lugging almost one-third of her weight!
In addition they are each commonly carrying one or two other books that won't fit in their bags, adding another 5-10 pounds along with a 5-6 pound violin..... imagine if they each played the tuba........

I'm not sure how you feel about this but to me it is unacceptable. We've tried talking each into roller bags but they are not very popular these days in the middle and high schools..... So - what can we do? Get our kids memberships to a local gym in the summer so they can build up their muscles for the school year? Perhaps chiropractor gift certificates for the holidays?

Sony has a better solution that I'm hoping catches on in the academic community. The Sony Reader is one-half inch thick e-book reader that weighs around 8 ounces. It holds about 80 books worth of content and has a rechargeable battery that lasts approximately 7,500 page turns. It has 64MB of internal memory and an additional memory card slot. The screen is very pleasant on the eyes, using a technology called e Ink® from E Ink Corporation. E Ink uses micro-capsules instead of the glowing LCD cells on computer screens that appear as black or white depending on the charge associated with page content. According to Sony:

"The result is a reading experience that’s similar to paper - high contrast, high resolution, viewable in direct sunlight and at a nearly 180-degree angle, and requiring no power to maintain the image."

It also displays Microsoft Word and PDF documents, blogs, newsfeeds, and JPEGs (just black and white) and plays unsecured MP3 and AAC audio files (like Mike Q and my podcasts !) through an external audio jack.

Here's an interesting video from NY1 News on the Sony Reader.


I've spent some time in the Sony Style Store playing with one and an impressed with the contrast - it has a nice text-on-paper feel that I don't get with other readers that use standard computer screens. It's small when compared to academic textbooks at 6.9” by 4.9” with a 6" screen and would probably not work well for textbooks with lots of illustrations - think biology or physics.

In it's current form factor, I think it would have limited use in the classroom but I'd love to give it a try. Sony appears to be directing marketing towards travelers at this time - I've seen a few ads in airports and airline magazines recently. Right now the cost is $279.99 and comes with 100 book's Classics titles.


In addition to Sony, there have been rumors Amazon has their own e-book reader in the works, the result of the purchase of
mobipocket.com a couple of years ago.

I'd love to see these kinds of products directed towards the academic market so my kids could both lower their BBWR!

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Read Show Notes and listen to Mike Q and my latest Podcast titled Micro-blogging linked here.
Podcasts also free on iTunes.
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