- Tablets are killing ebook readers – but nobody cares, right? In November 2007, Amazon launched the Kindle. The first of its kind electronic book reader that was supposed to be the death of printed books. That never quite happened. What has happened though, after four consecutive years of phenomenal growth, sales of ebook readers have finally begun to slump, down 36% in 2012. Tablets, the ebook reader's younger and full-featured sibling, are to blame.
- Is Pottermore a game-changer? Pottermore, an "online reading experience built around the world of Harry Potter", launched in beta yesterday after some delays. As well as becoming a destination where fans of the book series can interact with the brand, Pottermore also includes a digital book store where all seven Harry Potter novels are sold exclusively in digital form - crucially bypassing traditional publisher and online retailers alike.
- Amazon increases Kindle Fire production for the second time to meet pre-order demand Amazon has reportedly increased its Kindle Fire order to five million units by the end of 2011 as pre-orders continue to be stronger than expected. Amazon had already last month increased its order from 3.5 million to four million units.
- Tablet speculation mounts as Amazon schedules media event next week Amazon has scheduled a media event in New York on September 28th, mounting speculation that their forthcoming Amazon tablet will be announced. The tablet is expected to begin retailing in October or November at $299, considerably less than the entry-level Apple iPad.
- Amazon to launch subscription-based book service? Amazon is reportedly in talks with publishers to launch a subscription-based book service, similar to video-streaming service Netflix in the Americas, according to the Wall Street Journal. Amazon would offer nearly unlimited access to its digital library of books for a fixed monthly fee - an offer that would surely delight most bookworms.
- Amazon’s redesign is all about tablet-friendly shopping Amazon has confirmed that it is in the process of testing a "major" redesign of its website, the first such design change since September 2007. From a screenshot that we've seen, it looks like the site version will be cleaner and contain less navigational elements like category hover states, making it more accessible to tablet devices.
- Amazon launches Kindle Cloud Reader to bypass Apple's App Store restrictions Amazon today, Wednesday, unveiled the Kindle Cloud Reader, an HTML5-based version of their Kindle book reader app that works on Chrome for Mac, Windows and Chrome OS, and on Safari for Mac, Windows and most notably the iPad.
- Amazon to demo Kindle for the web later today Things may be set to get very interesting in the world of e-book wars as Amazon is set to demo its Kindle for the web product later today. Google announced the launch of Google eBookstore yesterday, now Amazon is set to demo new competitive features to its Kindle product today.
- Google Editions to launch within weeks? According to an article published in the Wall Street Journal today Google is weeks away from launching its long awaited digital book retail project known as Google Editions. The article states that the service from Google will launch this month in the US, and internationally within the first quarter of 2011.