Amazon Battle Barnes And Noble For Ebook Reader Dominance

The market for dedicated ebook readers appears to have turned into a bit of a head to head confrontation between Amazon and Barnes and Noble at the moment. It's true that Barnes and Noble have been a distant second for some time now, but the recently launched updated Nook reader might allow them to make up ground on Amazon's almost ubiquitous Kindle in the near future.

It has a touch screen e-ink technology display, which some people will definitely prefer and which allows the QWERTY keypad to be dispensed with. The end result is a reader which is both smaller and lighter.

There was an element of controversy regarding the battery life of the new Nook reader. A span of two months between battery charges was claimed by B&N - double the Kindle's published one month battery life. However, it should be noted that this figure assumes half an hour's worth of reading on a daily basis. Amazon claimed one month between charges - but this was based upon one hour's worth of reading a day.

The published Kindle battery life has now been increased to two months between charges - but Amazon has also made it clear exactly how that figure is derived.

In reality, it's probably a bit of a fuss over nothing. E-ink technology screens only use power when the display is being changed - when you are "turning the page" in other words. Which means that the time between battery charges depends on how often you turn a page rather than the amount of time that you spend reading. However, unless you are a particularly fast or slow reader, it probably won't make a great deal of difference to you.

In a similar vein, whether or not your reader will last for a month, or for two months, on a single charge is probably not a big deal for most people. It's long enough either way. You can set off on a long journey secure in the knowledge that your reader won't die on you half way to your destination. You don't have to pack your charger before setting off on vacation or on a business trip. Those are the types of things that people tend to think about when choosing an e-reader, or any other portable electronic device for that matter.

On the other hand, such minor, and relatively inconsequential, fine details are enormously important to both Barnes and Noble and Amazon and we may see further tiffs provoked in the Kindle vs Nook ebook reader sweepstakes during the upcoming months.

The Kindle is the best selling product on the Amazon website. Sales of Kindle readers and books are forecast to net Amazon something in the region of $ 4 billion by the end of the year. Sales of Kindle related items are expected to generate over 10% of Amazon's income by 2012. Not bad for a product which first launched just three and a half years ago.

It's a similar story for Barnes and Noble. At a time when sales from their traditional bricks and mortar outlets are in decline, digital sales are up by 50%. B&N are now selling three times as many ebooks as they are physical books - so the Nook is every bit as important to them as the Kindle is to Amazon.

Lighten Your Load With An E-Book Reader

Summer is just around the corner and many people will already be looking forward to their yearly break. For a large number of people that will entail a fortnight or so of sunbathing, at the beach or by the pool, possibly taking the opportunity to catch up on some of the books they’ve been intending to read but haven't found the time for so far this year. Thanks to the emergence of tablet computers and e-book readers, it's no longer necessary to set off on holiday with your hand luggage stuffed with paperback novels this year.

The two big players in the market are the Amazon Kindle ebook reader and the Apple iPad - and the Sony readers are also worth considering, for reasons which will become clear later. However, there's no shortage of alternative e-book readers and tablet computers on the market for you to choose from if you prefer something different.

Whilst each of these devices may be used to read e-books, some major differences exist between tablet computers such as the iPad and e-book readers such as Amazon’s Kindle 3. Apple's iPad tablet computer is an excellent choice if you want to have the ability to watch video, surf the web and possibly check your e-mail from time to time. There is also a growing selection of Android powered tablet computers available on the market which offer similar functionality.

However, all of that power and versatility comes at a price. The iPad costs around $ 580, and that’s the entry level model - higher specs can go up to $ 800. Battery life is also rather short - somewhere around about 10 hours between charges - and screen glare can make it difficult to read in direct sunlight.

The e-ink technology display used in e-book readers like the Amazon Kindle doesn’t suffer from screen glare to anything like the same degree (as was demonstrated in a recent Amazon TV commercial), so it’s a good choice if you reading whilst sunbathing at the side of the pool or on the beach is on your list of things to do. It also has a much longer battery life. Three or four weeks between charges is quite achievable if you keep the Wi-Fi turned off when you don't actually need it. E-ink displays are also very much easier on the eyes than back-lit computer screens, especially for prolonged reading sessions.

The price of the Kindle reader is less than a third of the iPad price. The entry level “Kindle with Special Offers” can be yours for just $ 114, and it has no monthly connection or download fees associated with it. There is also a large choice of Kindle books to select from on Amazon's website. At the moment, there are more than 900,000 titles available for customers to choose from - and that number is being added to daily.

If you don’t wish to be “tied” to Amazon's proprietary Kindle books, then the Sony reader is another alternative that you might like to consider. There are a variety of different Sony reader models, all of which use e-ink technology displays similar to the Kindle. Some of them use touch screen technology, which some people may find more intuitive to use - although it's probably worth mentioning that current touch screen displays tend to be more susceptible to screen glare when used in conditions of bright ambient light.

Whichever device you opt for, your hand luggage should weigh quite a bit less this year. The Kindle, for example, weighs less than a typical paperback - but it can easily store up to 3,500 books in its memory. With that kind of capacity, there's not much chance that you will run out of something to read. And, in the unlikely event that you do, it takes just a matter of minutes to choose and download a new book, as long as you can find a Wi-Fi hot spot.

Get more info on e-readers and books here: http://indiespaces.com/

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Is Amazon's Latest Kindle The Future Of Reading?

Amazon's new “Kindle with Special Offers” is the latest version of the hugely successful Kindle e-book reader - and it allows customers to get a $ 25 discount off the price of the standard Wi-Fi only Kindle. The latest Kindle, which will start shipping on May 3, does more than let you get a Kindle for just $ 114 - it underlines some of the reasons why the Kindle is such a big hit for Amazon and prompts some questions about the method of pricing e-book readers whilst simultaneously hinting at other products which Amazon may see fit to release in future.

The Kindle with Special Offers replaces the pictures of famous authors on the screen saver pages with adverts and special offers (hence the name). Ads will also be displayed at the bottom of the home page menu screen. The actual reading experience is, according to Amazon, not affected, Amazon will earn money thanks to ad revenue and extra sales, which means that consumers can get their hardware at a reduced price. It’s a win-win all round.

Some purists will be unhappy about the thought of adverts on the Kindle, but some people dislike the very idea of e-book readers pretty much on a point of principle. It's a matter of personal preference in the end. In any event, anyone who is uncomfortable with adverts on the Kindle can pay a little extra and get the standard, ad-free, model.

Amazon are said to have a number of companies with Kindle ad campaigns ready to launch. Chase, Procter and Gamble, Visa and General Motors are a selection of the companies who want to see adverts for their products on the Kindle. However, it seems reasonable to suppose that a large percentage of the ads will be for special offers which will be available direct from the Amazon website.

In some respects, you have to wonder why Amazon hasn't done this sooner. It’s the perfect platform for advertising virtually any product available from Amazon's online store.

Aside from the fact that anyone who owns a Kindle is going to be in the target demographic for Kindle books, and probably any personal electronic device as well, Amazon are highly skilled at crafting personalised offers to customers based upon both their buying and browsing history. Targeted adverts, and the ability to make a purchase at the press of a button, make advertising on the Kindle a very lucrative proposition for Amazon.

It’s yet another advantage which Amazon enjoys in the ebook reader market which is not available to many of their competitors. However, it's debatable as to whether or not a discount of just $ 25 is an accurate reflection of the true worth of Kindle advertising to Amazon. Some industry watchers are already speculating that we could very well see a free Kindle reader in the near future. If the “Kindle with Special Offers” proves to be a success, then a free Kindle, possibly with some strings attached - such as a minimum number of Kindle book purchases per annum - may not only be a possibility, but might be here faster than you think.

And, as exciting as the opportunity to get a free Kindle reader may be, the success of Amazon’s sponsorship efforts has even more wide reaching implications. The prospect that Amazon will release their own tablet computer has moved beyond the realms of speculation and rumor to an event that seems to carry an air of inevitability about it. ZDNet's James Kendrick is quoted as saying that “Amazon would be remiss in not producing its own tablet.".

By closely coupling a new Amazon tablet computer with the Amazon web-store, Amazon would be able to set the selling price at a considerably lower level than their competition. It's a scenario which has a lot of potential for Amazon.

Click here for more info on Amazon's latest Kindle reader.

What To Look For When Choosing Your First E-Book Reader

It's been over three years since Amazon launched their first Kindle reader (November 2007 to be precise). The Kindle has had a huge influence on the development of the ebook reader and ebook market - but it's worth remembering that it wasn't the first ebook reader to hit the market. That would have been the Franklyn eBookMan, which launched in 1999. Even the Sony PRS beat the Kindle to market, launching in 2006.

However, ebooks are now becoming accepted by the public - primarily as a result of the Kindle. Whether traditional printed books could eventually become obsolete or not is debatable - but it certainly seems as if ebooks are here to stay.

More and more people seem to be getting themselves an ebook reader. The recent ebook reader price cuts from Sony, Amazon and Barnes and Noble has made ebook readers a much more affordable option for many consumers. The Kindle is definitely the market leader, but it's far from the only option available. So, if you're thinking about getting your first ebook reader, what are the key points to look for?

One of the most important factors that you need to consider is the quality of the display. Special e-ink technology displays are used in most ebook readers. This gives a reading experience that is surprisingly similar to reading text printed on paper. It's considerably easier on your eyes than reading on a back-lit computer screen. It is also easy to read in direct sunlight or even glare from fluorescent lighting. A further advantage of e-ink technology displays is that they use power only when "turning the page" - so battery life is extended.

It's tempting to go for the largest display possible. Obviously readers with larger screens have a higher ticket price than those with smaller displays. They are also physically larger of course - and they weigh more. This will impact upon the portability of the device. That may not represent a problem for you if it's your intent to read mainly at home. However, a larger reader will be harder to operate with one hand - something which many users like to do.

One of the key factors in the success of the Kindle was its ability to browse for, buy and download books in less than sixty seconds from practically anywhere. Nevertheless, both Amazon and Barnes and Noble have now launched Wi-Fi only entry level models of their readers. These cost a little less than the 3G readers and could be a good option for anyone who doesn't anticipate having any requirement to download books without using a computer or connecting via a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Obviously there's not a great deal of sense in having an ebook reader unless there's a good selection of books to read on it. At the moment, no standard format for ebooks has been agreed. Google uses the ePub format - but Kindle books are in a format which is proprietary to the Kindle. However, Amazon has made free apps - which allow users to read Kindle books on a variety of different devices (e.g. the Windows PC, the Apple Mac, the iPhone, the iPad) - freely available.

The cost of exactly the same ebook can be quite a bit different from one reader to another. If you read a book a week, then making the right choice of reader could save you enough money on ebooks to make the reader pay for itself in a matter of months. It's well worth your while to check before you come to a decisions as to which reader to choose.

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