Hey, did you hear? Barnes and Noble launched a new ereader! Then again, it was kind of hard to avoid Barnes and Noble’s official launch of its new ereader, nook (and no, I didn’t screw up the capitalization – B&N’s marketing team has gone all e.e. cummings on us). It was the worst kept secret ever, leading to every tech reporter and his brother scrambling to be the first one to deliver the deliciousdevicedetails.
Built-in WiFi: The nook not only has a 3G wireless connection, it also has WiFi, which will allow nook users to tap into the free WiFi at Barnes and Noble locations. An interesting attempt to leverage B&N’s major differentiator from Amazon.com – physical stores.
Person-to-person lending: The nook’s LendMe feature allows a user to share a book with another nook user. While this feature overcomes one of the challenges with ebooks, it appears this capability will be publisher-controllable. One has to wonder how many publishers will choose to enable this feature, and whether lack of LendMe support will be visible to customers prior to purchasing titles.
SD slot: In addition to the 2GB of built-in memory, the nook also has an SD slot to allow the user to add additional memory. I’m not sure this is a real advantage, given the relatively small size of ebooks.
LCD touchscreen: A nice way to enable input (via a virtual keyboard), and browse titles. Otherwise, I’m not sure this is really an advance – I have to wonder about the ramification on the device’s battery life.
Android-based: As previously rumoured, the nook is build on Google’s Android operating system. This is hardly a compelling purchase criteria; however, it’s interesting to see Google’s new operating system branch out beyond mobile phones.
These advances may add a few more reasons to love ebooks, leading to the predicted e-reader Christmas-season showdown. It’s clear that (regardless of what Barnes and Noble may say) Barnes and Noble is still the follower in the market, behind Amazon.com. It will be interesting to see if this move allows Barnes and Noble to vault ahead of Sony, who’s still busy picking Amazon’s arrows out of its back.
I spent this weekend at the excellent BookCamp Vancouver 2009 unconference, where I moderated a group discussion on “The State of the Electronic Book”. The session description:
Devices such as the Amazon Kindle, the Sony Reader, the Stanza iPhone application, and many others are changing how people access books and (more importantly) how authors reach readers. This session will provide a brief background on the current state of the market, an introduction to the technology, and a guided discussion on the ramifications of this disruptive development for publishers, authors, and readers alike.
For those of you that missed the session, I’ve recorded a version for your enjoyment:
Leave it to the New York Times to step back from the gadget-lust surrounding new e-reader devices to ask a truly important question: does the brain like e-books? Each of the NYT’s commentators brings a unique perspective, but I noticed a common thread connecting them all in one way or another: the unspoken belief that e-books aren’t books at all.
While the commentators’ perspectives on this issue are varied (we don’t process information on a screen the same way, the additional capabilities of the devices may lead to easier reader distraction), the bottom line is the same: new capabilities of e-books may redefine what is considered a “book”, the experience of reading, and ultimately what is even considered “reading”.
The result may be an entirely new category of media and media consumption.
Valleywag has a nice article today summarizing the major e-reader devices and players in the evolving e-book space, complete with pretty pictures. For readers of this blog, it’ll be nothing new, but it’s a nice summary nonetheless.
Barnes and Noble’s has been building the anticipation of its impending e-reader device for quite some time now, but Gizmodo has released some of that tension today with pictures of the new device.
Bottom line: it’s still a black-and-white screen device, but has a multitouch screen, and runs on Google’s Android platform. See the Gizmodo article for more pictures.
Fellow Vancouverite Ian Bell has a short post on the reasons behind the omission of Canada from Amazon.com recent expansion of the Kindle into over 100 countries. The short version? The lack of telecommunications competition in Canada:
No, the politics involved in preventing the Kindle from reaching the grubby hands of Canadian consumers is probably the same old culprits we always pick on around here: Canada’s wireless carriers. This article reveals a bit of a crack in the story. While the Domestic US Kindle is using the SprintEVDO network, Amazon is not working with local wireless partners in each individual country for the International version… the company has done a single deal with AT&T Global Networks, which in turn has gone out and negotiated low-cost data roaming agreements with carrier partners all over the world.
To add insult to injury, Bezos joked about countries missing out on the international release in the original Reuters release:
“There is a big demand for English language books all over the world,” said Bezos, adding that it would be available in every continent except Antarctica.
“We apologize for that omission. We’ll work on that.”
Amazon has been quick to offer that it is working on a Canadian version, but has not yet specified when Canucks might see such a device.
Amazon must be feeling the heat as Sony, Barnes & Noble, and the numerous other players horn in on their territory – not only is it expanding into over 100 countries, it’s cutting the price of the US version of the Kindle 2 to $259, a $100 decrease from its price a year ago.
Our holiday projections should be seen for what they are: An acknowledgement that 2009 has been and will be a year of breakout success for eReaders, tempered by realism that retailers, despite their best intentions, are still learning how to sell these products to curious but uninformed consumers.
The plethora of new devices and the trend of booksellers pursuing e-book device partners appears to be making the dream of electronic books a market reality. Forrester predicts US sales of e-reader devices to hit 3 million in 2009, up 50% from past predictions, with 30% of those sales occurring during the Christmas shopping season.
Amazon.com dystopian nightmare has come to a close. Today, the company settled the class action suit brought against it for deleting copies of “1984″ from users’ Kindles. The cost? A mere $150,000.
The real victory in this settlement is the stipulations Amazon made, stipulations which may go a long way to address users’ concerns over the company’s apparent ability to remotely delete books from Kindle devices. Specifically Amazon stipulated it will not remove books in the future, unless:
the consumer requests it or fails to pay;
it is required by a court or regulator to do so; or
it’s necessary to protect to Kindle or the network.
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the gadget-lust surrounding new e-reader devices to ask a truly important question: 
Valleywag has a nice article today 
Fellow Vancouverite Ian Bell has a short post on the reasons behind the omission of Canada from Amazon.com recent expansion of the Kindle into over 100 countries. The short version? The 
Amazon must be feeling the heat as Sony, Barnes & Noble, and the 
