[LINK] Google e-bookstores
stephen at melbpc.org.au
stephen at melbpc.org.au
Fri Oct 16 01:06:44 AEDT 2009
Google to launch online electronic book store
Thu Oct 15, 2009 8:46am By Georgina Prodhan
<http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE59E28H20091015>
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Google plans to launch an online store to deliver
electronic books to any device with a Web browser, threatening to upset a
burgeoning market for dedicated e-readers dominated by Amazon's Kindle.
The Web search giant said on Thursday it would launch Google Editions in
the first half of next year, initially offering about half a million e-
books in partnership with publishers with whom it already cooperates
where they have digital rights.
Readers will be able to buy e-books either from Google directly or from
other online stores such as Amazon.com or Barnesandnoble.com. Google will
host the e-books and make them searchable.
"We're not focused on a dedicated e-reader or device of any kind," Tom
Turvey, Google's director of strategic partnerships, told journalists at
the Frankfurt Book Fair.
The announcement comes a week after Amazon said it would introduce the
Kindle into 100 countries outside the United States, pushing its leading
position in a small but fast-growing market in which its competitors
include Sony's Reader.
Technology research firm Forrester expects about 3 million e-readers to
be sold in the United States this year, from a previous base of about 1
million, helped by lower prices, more content and better distribution.
Top U.S. bookseller Barnes & Noble has been reported to be planning an
entry into the e-reader market to complement a large online bookstore it
launched in July.
Microsoft had also been rumoured to be planning a reading device, but
Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said last week it had no need, since it
already supplied the software that runs the most popular device for
electronic reading, the PC.
Google Editions will allow Google to make money for the first time out of
one of its book ventures -- which also include a controversial project to
scan and index tens of millions of books through partnerships with
libraries.
Google will share revenue with publishers, and also with online retailers
in cases where readers buy Google-hosted books through a retailer's site.
It already partners with publishers to make their physical books
searchable and available for sale.
Turvey said Google would give publishers 63 percent of revenues and keep
37 percent for itself where it sold e-books directly to consumers.
In cases where e-books were bought through other online retailers,
publishers would get 45 percent and most of the remaining 55 percent
would go to the retailer, with a small share for Google, he said.
Readers will be able to access e-books they have bought through Google on
any device including PCs, laptops, netbooks and smartphones like Apple's
iPhone through their gmail account, Google said.
The device need not be connected in order to read the book, after it has
been accessed once, and payment can be made to Google through its online
payment processing system Google Checkout, which stores users' details in
a personal account
--
And, elsewhere .. http://www.ondemandbooks.com/home.htm
Harvard Book Store cleared out space behind its History, Politics, and
Religion sections to make room for the three-foot-by-six-foot-by-four-
foot robot retailer, called the Espresso Book Machine.
In a public unveiling slated for September 29, the Harvard Book Store
will become only the second US merchant to install such an apparatus,
which prints, binds, and trims perfect-bound books -- complete with full-
color covers and black-and-white guts -- in about four minutes.
"Books will be produced on a massively decentralized way," promises Dane
Neller, CEO of On Demand Books, the manufacturer of the machines that
will let customers select from millions of titles in less time than it
takes to comb the teetering stacks of a used bookstore. "The life of the
book will be infinite."
--
Cheers,
Stephen
Message sent using MelbPC WebMail Server
More information about the Link
mailing list