Comments on: The iPad: First Impressions of Its Importance to Publishers

By: A Technology Reality Check — The Fable of the Facebook Login « The Scholarly Kitchen

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:06:34 +0000

[...] tend to talk a lot about new technologies here on the Scholarly Kitchen — new devices, new services, thoughts about often complex tools to create new ways to present information. And [...]

By: Lisa Spangenberg

Lisa Spangenberg — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:54:55 +0000

I am excited in ways I haven’t been for a while about the potential for multimedia rich ebooks. I’m particularly interested in scholarly editions of classic texts, with audio, glosses, annotations, images maps, and yes, video. Waiting to see what sort of content creation tools will work, though if I have to integrate things by hand with ePub via XML/XHTML, I will.

By: thorn

thorn — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:31:34 +0000

eyestrain avoidance, and circadian rhythm disruption avoidance. unless the young people today have evolved into something other than diurnal mammals.

By: David Crotty

David Crotty — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:30:07 +0000

I assume we’ll see something like that, or at least a separate policy for textbooks and the like. The problem with having a separate store is the layer of separation it creates for the user. You can buy mp3′s from Amazon often for better prices than you can from iTunes. Despite Amazon’s better deals, 70% of download buyers go to iTunes, presumably because it’s more convenient.

There’s also the issue of whether one allows for “in-App” purchases, where you’d have to tithe Apple 30% of your revenue, or you do like the Kindle App does and switch the reader over to Safari to buy from your website. It’s clumsy and likely results in some lost sales, but it’s unclear if those losses exceed the 30% Apple tax.

By: Michael Clarke

Michael Clarke — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:23:34 +0000

Couldn’t a 3rd party (Safari Books, Ingram, Baker and Taylor, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, etc.) simply build an online bookstore with an iPad/iPhone app that would deliver electronic books to the iPad/iPhone at whatever price point publishers want to charge for them? I’m unclear on why everyone cares what the iBook pricing policy is. If it isn’t favorable to publishers, someone else will just build an app for that and publishers will go where they are able to get favorable pricing.

By: David Crotty

David Crotty — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:10:44 +0000

More on the pricing deal Apple has struck with its partner publishers here. How will this translate into the store for all publishers? Can an STM publisher for a small technical market survive at $14.99 a book?

By: David Crotty

David Crotty — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:19:03 +0000

Judging from online commentary, you are not alone in this. The question is whether there are enough people who share this desire to make the manufacture and sale of the Kindle a profitable and sustainable venture. One assumes the iPad will steal away a certain percentage of current Kindle users. Will there be enough left over to keep the hardware platform afloat?

By: Chris Grant

Chris Grant — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:09:55 +0000

Yes, the health of my eyes is worth $500 to me, and (since that’s mid-range compensation for, what, about 10 hours of work) it’s worth that much to my employer.

And then there’s aesthetic considerations. I gladly pay $25 for an Everyman’s edition instead of $5 for a mass market paperback, so why would I balk at paying for an e-reader that frees me from staring at glowing LCDs?

By: David Crotty

David Crotty — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:34:39 +0000

For what it's worth, TechCrunch is speculating that 3 million Kindles have been sold, though they don't have any concrete evidence (and I always assume anything TechCrunch says is an attempt to help the sites owner's portfolio).

By: David Crotty

David Crotty — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:25:54 +0000

The entertaining (but oft-profane) Angry Drunk has a good analysis and presents an interesting case for owning one:

In my opinion, an overall good first outing. The key thing to take away from the design and specs of the iPad is that it isn’t intended to be a netbook. It’s Apple’s answer to the use-cases that spawned netbooks. Nor should the iPad be looked at as a laptop replacement. Instead, I think that the iPad should be viewed as a laptop alternative.