Why the Kindle Stinks

War with Kindle to transform business

(NEWSER) - Book publishers were locked in last-minute talks with Apple ahead of today's unveiling of the tablet, which has been touted as promising to change the publishing industry as radically as the iPod did the music industry. The tablet's model for books, which puts it in direct competition with the Amazon Kindle, moves away from the heavy e-book discounting the Kindle has brought, asking publishers to price books at $12.99 or $14.99, rather than the $9.99 Amazon favors. More»

...if an Apple e-reader doesn't kill the Kindle first

(NEWSER) - With the Kindle, Amazon's Jeff Bezos may be poised “ to do to book publishers what Steve Jobs did to the music industry,” writes Adam Penenberg in Fast Company: rapidly create a market from nothing and use it to rule over publishers with an iron fist, perhaps even “phasing them out completely.” Amazon’s e-book revenue should reach $1.2 billion by next year, an analyst says, but to rule, Bezos needs to "nail down distribution of e-books, turn them into a mass-market phenomenon," and set e-book prices low enough—and Apple could spell trouble. More»

But DoJ suit expected to be bad news for readers in long run

(NEWSER) - Just after the Department of Justice launched its antitrust lawsuit against Apple and five major publishers , Amazon announced plans to slash e-book prices. But while the move is expected to cut the prices of major titles from $14.99 to $9.99 or less, analysts believe the benefit to consumers will be short-lived. Amazon, which already controls around 60% of the e-book market, can afford to sell books at a loss to boost Kindle sales and the price-fixing lawsuit is expected to give it an overwhelming advantage, allowing it to drive competitors out of the market and start dictating its own terms to publishers. More»

Flash lovers, rejoice!

(NEWSER) - Surely you’ve heard by know that Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet isn’t an iPad killer . But it does have a few desirable traits that the iPad doesn’t. The Huffington Post lists six of them:

• It supports Flash: Many iPad and iPhone users wish that Apple would take a page from Amazon’s playbook when it comes to this.
• It’s cheaper: A Kindle Fire (which does not offer 3G) will run you $199. For the cheapest iPad 2 model, which also does not offer 3G, you’ll shell out $499.

App works similarly to popular iPhone version, but no annotations

(NEWSER) - BlackBerry users no longer have to look longingly at others reading e-books on their Kindles or iPhones, as Amazon today released an e-reader app for their device. After the iPhone app launched last year, an exec tells CNET , “customers have been asking us to bring a similar experience to the BlackBerry.” The company has plans to offer a Kindle app for the Apple iPad soon, but no word on one for Android devices. More»