Online Sales
July 8, 2012
With sales of the first-generation Kindle Fire petering out, Amazon is gearing up to launch its successor, a tablet that seeks to improve on the original while retaining a similar form factor.
Sources familiar with Amazon’s plans tell AllThingsD that the company hopes to debut the next iteration of the Kindle Fire in the second half of this year; the current launch window is late in the third quarter. To do so, Amazon has been approaching developers to bring them up to speed on the new hardware.
June 14, 2012
June is Audiobook Month, and leading digital distributor OverDrive announced today that it will update its popular audiobook download services to include new options for readers to instantly “See Book—Hear Book.”
June 13, 2012
The great Internet name rush has begun. By this time next year, more than a thousand new top-level domains—such as .blog, .cloud, .lol, and .foo—could be added to the Internet’s name space. And companies and individuals could be rushing to snap up domain names to either extend their Web presence or—in the case of domain names like .lol and .sucks—prevent themselves from ridicule. Today, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers—the governing body of the Internet’s domain name system—revealed the 1,930 applications in the first flight of generic top-level domains (gTLDs) approved under ICANN’s long-debated
May 15, 2012
National Geographic Learning (NGL), part of Cengage Learning and a provider of quality educational materials for the K‐12, higher education, adult education and ELT markets, today announced its entrance into the academic higher education and career markets with the release of a new series of educational readers. The National Geographic Learning Reader Series was created by experienced subject matter experts using the distinguished, multimedia-rich content of the National Geographic Society.
May 11, 2012
At the BISG ninth annual Making Information Pay Conference, held at the McGraw Hill auditorium on May 3, seven expert presenters took the assembled 200 industry professionals through a fast-paced three-and-a-half-hour session slicing Big Data down to manageable bites.
Not for the faint of heart, the event was focused on the message that Angela Bole, BISG Deputy Executive Director opened with. Citing a McKinsey Institute study’s warning of a critical shortage of expert analytical information workers she said that “It’s our belief that, as an industry, we need to harness the awesomeness of ‘deep analytical expertise’ in order to create the kind of book industry that’s truly capable of the innovation necessary to stay relevant over the coming years.”
Big Data, she said, “refers to the act of ‘taming’ the volume, variety and velocity of massive datasets.” It is what takes us to a place where we’re now able to develop holistic approaches to full-scale strategies that are analytical in the deepest sense of the term.”
May 1, 2012
Fragile Earth
Produced by: HarperCollins UK, Collins Geo and Aimer Media
Not tied to a specific title, this app is a project of HarperCollins' Collins Geo, which is best known for "The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World" but also offers data solutions to the likes of National Geographic, the United Nations and the defense sector. Fragile Earth employs stunning photography and satellite images to depict a world in flux. The interface allows users to swipe multiple layers across the screen to illustrate, for instance, how irrigation projects have all but dried up the once-massive Aral Sea (juxtaposing images from 1973, 1986, 2001 and 2009) or the effects of last year's earthquake and tsunami on Japan.
May 1, 2012
About 17 years ago or so, digital media folk were asking an important question: Would consumers buy online? Would consumers take the leap and actually enter their credit card information on a seller's website? More specific questions also arose about the growth rate of online commerce.
May 1, 2012
As the digital deluge continues, book publishers will either embrace data and technology, or drown in it. Organizations must either chart a course or get swept up in the current.
It is for this reason that Book Business magazine named as 2012's Publishing Innovator of the Year in book publishing the Hachette Book Group.
April 5, 2012
On Tuesday representatives of Google contacted the American Booksellers Association and Powell’s Books to announce that it will end its Google eBooks reseller program worldwide. In February, it had seemed as if independent booksellers were getting a reprieve when Google reinstated some affiliate stores that had low sales. But in yet another sign of industry consolidation, Google will start selling e-books solely through its recently launched Google Play beginning January 31, 2013.
March 8, 2012
Sources close to the anti-trust investigation told the Wall Street Journal that the government is ready to sue Apple and the publishers for price-fixing. What this means is that the Justice Department, which has been investigating e-book pricing since last year, has decided the parties violated the Sherman Act.
