Friday, September 16, 2011

The L.A.Times on Ebooks: An Amazon Tablet, Push into Interactivity


E-books push deeper into interactive territory. (Los Angeles Times, 9/18/2011)

Excerpt: If there's already a tablet in your house — an iPad or an Android-driven one — then this fall, e-books will be all about interactivity. If you don't have a tablet yet, keep your eye on Amazon.

Industry watchers have been predicting that Amazon will introduce a tablet later this year — if so, it stands to be a big hit. In August, the technology and market analysis firm Forrester Research said that Amazon could sell between 3 million and 5 million tablets in the last quarter of this year, if the company prices the (not-yet-announced) device at $300 or less.

Amazon proved it could transform the publishing landscape by introducing its Kindle e-reader in November 2007. Before that, e-books were an oddity, and e-readers strange, unloved creatures. After Amazon put the Kindle in front of book buyers, everything changed; readers embraced the device. Last summer, the online bookseller saw e-book sales overtake its print book sales. During the first half of this year, Random House, the world's biggest publisher, saw more than 20% of its U.S. revenue come from e-book
s.

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