Post Tagged with: "ebook reader"

A new software update has been introduced for the Kindle ebook reading device from Amazon, currently the top selling device of its kind in the UK, across Europe and around the world.

The British retailer Waterstones has announced plans to redesign its bookstores in the UK partly with a view to integrating what it calls “enhanced e-reading services” and to sell Amazon Kindles at its outlets nationwide.

Google is set to release a tablet computer at some point in the first six months of this year but the latest reports have suggested the device will ultimately aim to take market share from Amazon’s Kindle Fire rather than the Apple iPad.

The world’s leading search engine giant has moved well beyond its initial stomping ground in recent years and there is plenty of expectation surrounding Google’s play for a share of the slate PC sector.

The relatively low price of Amazon’s first tablet PC has seen it prove popular with consumers in the US where it was launched just before the Christmas holiday period, a famously crucial time for retailers of all types.

Kindle Fire’s aren’t yet available in the UK but speculation at least suggests Brits wont have to wait too long before they can get their hands on one. Meanwhile, the devices are steadily winning an increased share of network activity in the US, with the mobile advertising company Jumptap convinced the price point has much to do with its early success.

Amazon’s Russ Grandinetti is hoping to see “every book ever written, in any language” made available on his ebook reading devices.

Russ Grandinetti, head of content at Amazon’s Kindle business, has defended his company’s ebook policies against criticism from established publishing houses and suggested that Kindles are making it easier than ever for consumers to read the books they’re interested in.

Hundreds of thousands of texts are electronically available via Amazon and Mr Grandinetti reckons that the day when the website sells more ebooks than traditional equivilents is “not too far off”.

Amazon are heading for sales of close to eight million the Kindle eBook reader out-selling the Sony Reader and Nook from Barnes & Noble.

Analysts had estimated that the e-commerce giant would be able to shift somewhere in the region of five million ebook readers this year but those projections are now being revised upwards.

Last minute sales among online retailers in the US are being driven in large part by demand for various laptops and ebook readers, and particularly by Apple’s market-leading tablet PC the iPad.

The research firm ComScore has noted something of a surge toward computer hardware in recent days as online consumers throughout the States look to get their final few gifts of the festive season.