Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and Apple Inc. (AAPL) have been competing in the ereader and tablet market for over a year now, since the iPad was introduced. On Friday, a report from Bloomberg mentioned that Amazon is now looking to introduce its own smartphone to take on the iPhone and some of the leading Android devices in the market.
A smartphone would give Amazon a wider range of low-priced hardware devices that bolster its strategy of making money from digital books, songs and movies. It would help Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos — who made a foray into tablets with the Kindle Fire — carve out a slice of the market for advanced wireless handsets.
Amazon has one of the most popular ereaders out on the market, the Kindle and is also leading the industry with some of its other products, including its cloud services and tablet computer, the Kindle Fire. The report mentions that Amazon is set to acquire a portfolio of patents that would allow the company to take steps in competing directly with some of the top competitors.
The rumored smartphone would likely borrow certain aspects of the Kindle Fire, including features such as purchasing books, magazines, and newspapers from Amazon’s store as well as using Amazon’s Cloud Drive as external storage. Amazon currently operates services that control a considerable portion of the digital content available online. By introducing a smartphone alongside its tablet and pairing with its online content, Amazon could very well present the iPhone with a serious competitor in the smartphone market.
{Via MacRumors}
]]> https://touchreviews.net/amazon-com-inc-amzn-planning-phone-compete-apple-iphone-smartphone-market/feed/ 5Kobo, a global eReading service, today announced the availability of its new iPhone application, built specifically for iPhone 4 and the iOS 4 operating system. The application features additional reading format options, automatic syncing, multiple bookmarking and faster navigation. In addition to iPhone, Kobo is available on iPad, Android, BlackBerry, netbooks, tablets and dedicated eReaders – including the Kobo eReader. All of Kobo’s applications connect to the Kobo eBook store, which features more than two million titles including best sellers, classics, and thousands of free books.
“Our iPhone application has always been one of our most popular apps and we’re excited for our users to see Kobo on iOS 4,” said Michael Serbinis, CEO of Kobo. “Kobo users now have even more flexibility when reading free books and best sellers. It’s all about ensuring that our customers continue to have the best and easiest reading experience on any device.”
The new and improved Kobo iPhone application adds the following new features:
Kobo is a global eReading service with customers in more than 200 countries. In addition to building applications for existing mobile devices, Kobo recently started selling the affordable eInk Kobo eReader, with a goal of making eReading more accessible for consumers. Kobo’s open approach enables consumers to read their content on any device anytime, anyplace – including downloading purchases and reading on popular third-party devices and software. Kobo believes customers should have the freedom of choice, and be able to build their eBook libraries independent of any device or service.
To download the free Kobo app visit www.kobobooks.com or visit the App Store. Customers who currently have Kobo on their iPhone can download the update directly on their device.
About Kobo, Inc.
Kobo is a global eReading service backed by majority shareholder Indigo Books & Music, Borders Group, REDgroup Retail, and Cheung Kong Holdings. Kobo believes consumers should be able to read any eBook on any device. With a catalog of over two million eBooks, and an open platform, Kobo enables retailers, device manufacturers and mobile operators to bring the joy of eReading to customers everywhere. For more information, visit www.kobobooks.com.
]]> https://touchreviews.net/kobo-iphone-4-ereading-app-app-store/feed/ 0Amazon was always going to face competition from other e-Book readers. But they perhaps didn’t expect the paradigm shift that has potentially come with the iPad and Apple’s iBook Store.
Even so, Amazon has just posted earning results which were higher than Wall Street expected. They did, however, follow them up with far more conservative estimates for future earnings for the next quarter. Shares in Amazon fell 6% in after-hours trading. Not a huge surprise there. The markets are fickle and tend to react to future earnings rather than current earnings.
What is interesting to note is that now that Amazon seems to be on the back foot and few industry blogs are starting to rally round their position, and gently taint their commentary with warnings of Apple’s impending dominance. Referring to the control the media savvy tech giant currently wields over the music retail business.
And yet it was only a couple of months ago that Amazon was locked in battles with publishers over royalty terms that those publishers found unacceptable. And some of those same blogs were cleating about how “evil” Amazon were being!
What we need to remember is that Apple re-invented the music business. In many ways rescuing a crippled industry from its own bad management and lack of foresight. And now they seem to have opened up the publishing industry further than Amazon were willing to, and given “new media” a brighter future. Hardly bad things.
Apple, keen to get a foothold in the eBook market has offered more favourable terms to publishers and small authors. Whilst Amazon was busy trying to lock people and companies into its system prior to the iPad hitting. They have obviously been slightly nervous for some time. But do they really need to be?
Amazon have traditionally exceeded the expectations of their shareholders, and don’t seem to be in such bad position really. They have apparently just inked a deal with Target to physically stock the Kindle in their stores. Target will sell the Kindle at the same price as Amazon retails them online. Amazon will be taking a cut in profits on its hardware by selling that way, and kind of contradicting its own corporate strategy of being an online retailer. Consumers will potentially be able to compare the iPad and the Kindle in the real world side by side before buying too.
Overall, Amazon seem to have a good spread of strategies, and healthy market penetration, that should enable them and Apple to keep each other honest, and in the end benefit the consumer.
What we must also remember is that Amazon can still sell its eBooks onto many platforms, including the iPad and the iPhone with its Kindle apps.
All in all it doesn’t seem Amazon have much to worry about, even if the Kindle slowly dies as a platform. Although they are predicting 7 million Kindles will have been sold by the end of the year. Not a small number if it pans out that way. And some say that many avid eBook readers still prefer the easier to read image on the kindles e-ink display to that of the iPad.
For techies the iPad is a much better deal. You can have your cake and read your eBook. But not all readers are looking for a tech bargain, many are more familiar with the Amazon brand, and prefer the more “ink-like” display of the Kindle.
Do you think the Kindle will die? Is Amazon in trouble? Has Apple actually made the eBook market a better place for consumers? Let us know in the comments
]]> https://touchreviews.net/amazon-kindle-worried-apple-ipad/feed/ 1A Beautiful Representation of the Lewis Carroll Classic Novel!
One of the selling points of the iPad was it’s ability to act as an eReader and the iBook Store was released to sell books to be read on the iPad. While the iBook Store is packed to the virtual ceiling with books they are all static text and pictures and with the additional features that the iPad offers it’s nice when an eBook adds value to it’s pages by adding additional features.
To do this the eBook must be made available as an app and that’s exactly what Atomic Antelope has done in it’s animated version of Alice in Wonderland called ‘Alice for the iPad’ a beautifully illustrated abridged version of the Lewis Carroll classic.
The eBook starts as it means to go own with a full page illustration in it’s own unique style. Navigating from this point onwards is via arrows placed at the bottom of the screen. It would have been nice if it was possible to swipe between pages in standard eBooks but that is not the case.
Where additional life is added to this adaptation is the 20 animated pages that act like a virtual pop-up book bringing the pages to life. These pages also make use of the accelerometer too so you find yourself able to swing around the White Rabbit’s pocket watch or make Alice grow and shrink which really adds to the enjoyment of the app. It would be nice if you could also move the pictures about using gestures but that’s not the case.
Because this is an abridged version of the book it’s going to appeal more to the younger reader rather than those who know the full book already.
Despite the few flaws this is a great read for the younger reader and for those looking for an eBook that takes advantage of the iPads additional features
The Good
The Not So Good
Price: $8.99 (iTunes Store Preview)
Updated: Apr 12, 2010
Reviewed Version: 1.0.1
Size: 26.0 MB
Language: English
Seller: Atomic Antelope
© 2010 Atomic Antelope
Rated 4+
Requirements: Compatible with iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.2 or later.
Today Barnes & Noble updated their blog with some information about their upcoming iPad app.
The app will be designed specifically for the iPad and will feature more than one million eBooks, magazines and newspapers in the Barnes & Noble eBookstore.
B&N eReader for iPad is expected to be made available in the first week of April.
Source: B&N Unbound
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Microsoft’s Courier tablet was first mentioned on tech sites a couple of months ago. At the time it was only a concept which existed in the form of a kind of User Interface showcase with cartoon hands controlling a virtual device. But those concept videos were rather impressive and very forward thinking. Of the many UI features that impressed me one really stuck in my mind. It was perhaps the simplest of them all, but it struck me as really nifty. When you want to transfer a picture or note to the clipboard you just slide it to the hinge of the device and it sticks there partly exposed on both screens. You can then flip through pages until you find the one you want. Once there you slide the clipping out onto either screen and paste it. Simple, but so cool I wanted one just so I could try it!
The User Interface of the Courier overall had the same shock and awe effect on me that the iPhone’s did when I first saw it. Before that OS X blew me away similarly.
Because at that stage the Courier was a concept no-one had any idea of the dimensions of the device. Or how much of the hardware was actually real. Or even how close to reality the incredibly impressive conceptual GUI of this thing was. All we did know was that the Courier had two screens, and opened like a traditional book with a hinge in the middle. It also supposedly had a pen, although the UI videos showed both multitouch with fingers and the pen being used. Oh, and it had a camera if the concept videos were accurate. We get to see it taking shots with that, and those snaps being filed away in a scrap book, edited and collated, and used as part of a presentation.
My initial reaction to the hinged device idea was that I wondered how people were going to actually use a device on the move which folded in the middle. How would it stay open on your lap? How would you type, draw or work with it when also having to hold it. Would the hinge be floppy or stiff? It was all the same kind of concerns that people had about how Apple’s take on a Tablet would work for typing and viewing movies etc. But I loved some of the ideas that were being explored with the Courier. Part of the reason that I worried about the folding design was that I envisioned it being around the size of a legal note pad when folded shut. So around the size of a magazine. I am not sure why, but that was my impression. My mind was stuck with the idea of a traditional tablet sized device or something about the size of the iPad, I guess.
Looking at the concept videos again it is fairly clear that this thing is not actually that big. Indeed, pictures that Engadget have today show the device (or at least a mockup) in human hands, and as being much closer to the size of a traditional paperback. For some reason this has made a massive impression on me. Engadet’s information on the device is here.
The videos (which have been around for a while now) are further down the same page. Make sure you watch them. They are obviously not real. By that I mean they are not running on a real device. But there is no reason in this day and age that a User Interface could not do all the things we are seeing there. And if Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 7 interface is anything to go by then the general look and feel all fits. Again though, all we’ve seen of that is flashy web sites and conceptsÉ so far.
Engadget have this to say: “Courier will function as a “digital journal,” and it’s designed to be seriously portable: it’s under an inch thick, weighs a little over a pound, and isn’t much bigger than a 5×7 photo when closed. That’s a lot smaller than we expected.” With reference to that last sentence: Join the club guys!
If, and this is a big if. But if Microsoft can produce this device so that it looks as good as the pictures we have seen to date. And if the User Interface has the functionality detailed in those concept videos, then the Courier is going to be truly remarkable. And I will camp outside a store or travel half way round the world to buy one on day one. And I’ll want to develop for it too.
I am not convinced that this device will be all that the videos and pictures promise. It just seems too good to be true. But if it is then I think we could see a massive shift in power in the mobile market place.
Microsoft could really be making a rather incredible device that people simply must have.
What do you think about the Courier? Is it the iPad slayer or is it promising too much and will it underwhelm in real life?
Microsoft’s Courier: Videos of the interface in action
Images and Video Credit: Engadget
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