App Store Coming to Kindle

It'll be a competitor, but Apple has little to fear

(NEWSER) - Amazon’s new Kindle Fire has been getting a lot of hype as an “iPad killer,” but Apple shouldn’t exactly be quaking in its boots, opines John Paul Titlow of ReadWriteWeb . “As far as hardware is concerned, the Kindle Fire looks more like a cross between the Nook and the BlackBerry Playbook than an iPad copycat.” It’s got no camera, no 3G, no microphone, no accelerometer, and it’s smaller to boot. More»

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»

Microsoft, HP, Amazon, Lenovo launch preemptive strike

(NEWSER) - Denizens of the non-Apple world—Microsoft, HP, Lenovo, etc.—appear to be starting competition with the Mac-daddy’s rumored tablet computer before its expected unveiling later this month with a preemptive strike at the Consumer Electronics Show. But whatever the CES reveals, Apple is keeping mum. A look at what's out there:

• Microsoft, of course, has its own rumored “Courier” tablet—which the New York Times notes is a collaboration with HP—that may see the light of day tonight during Steve Ballmer’s keynote speech.

Publishers in charge of iBookstore prices: firm

(NEWSER) - The Justice Department's allegations of an e-book pricing conspiracy at Apple are "simply not true," the tech giant says, according to Reuters . "The launch of the iBookstore in 2010 fostered innovation and competition, breaking Amazon's monopolistic grip on the publishing industry," an Apple rep tells the Wall Street Journal . "Just as we have allowed developers to set prices on the App Store, publishers set prices on the iBookstore." The case appears to be great news for Amazon , analysts say. More»

Amazon's lower prices might make the difference: report

(NEWSER) - Priced well below the iPad at $200, Amazon's Kindle Fire could help its fellow Android tablets outsell Apple's devices by 2016, says research firm IDC in a report picked up by Wired . In the fourth quarter of last year, Apple accounted for 54.7% of tablet shipments, compared to the Kindle Fire's 16.8%. But that's still a healthy figure. "Not only did (Amazon) ship a lot of units at a very aggressive price, but they actually helped broaden the market in general," says an analyst. More»