Barnes&Noble

Apple hiring marketing manager for iBookstore

Perhaps signaling that it's getting more serious about selling e-books, Apple is in the process of hiring a U.S. marketing manager for its iBookstore.

The position is based in Cupertino and according to the job posting, "It will be this Manager's responsibility to drive awareness and sales of iBooks through co-marketing programs with publishers and authors, strategic partnerships, and via online and direct marketing tactics."

Apple is very specific about the type of person it wants. It says that, "The role requires an entrepreneurial self-starter with the creativity and enthusiasm to deliver innovative, impactful, … Read more

Amazon: We have 70-80 percent of e-book market

Recently, I sat down with Ian Freed, an Amazon vice president in charge of the Kindle, to get a sneak peek at the new Kindles and discuss e-books and the Kindle business in general. Naturally, a good portion of the conversation centered on the design and features of Amazon's new e-readers, which you can read about here. But we also chatted about the e-book industry and Amazon's Kindle business in general. Here's a look at some of the more interesting parts of the conversation. Feel free to post your own analysis in the comments section.

CNET: You've been talking a lot lately about the growth rate of Kindle sales. You said it tripled...

Freed: There's actually two triplings. One is the number of e-books sold in the first quarter of 2009 versus the first quarter of 2010. And then the other is after we dropped the price of the Kindle to $189, we saw a tripling of the growth rate year over year [of the device itself].

CNET: How much of the rate of growth on the e-book side is attributable to the iPad and getting your app on these other devices like the iPhone and iPad?

Freed: Excellent question. Some numbers we haven't released before...80 percent of Kindle books we sell are sold to Kindle owners. They may have a Kindle app on a phone or an iPad or Mac or PC, but they at least have a Kindle. So 20 percent do not. I think it's a combination of the health of both businesses. The device business continues to grow with a device [the second-generation Kindle] that's over a year old, and then the content is growing both with the device sales and independently with the apps. We see a lot of customers start with apps and buy a Kindle later.

We see others who've had a Kindle for a year and half and have an Android phone and they've started using the Android phone for Kindle in the last month or so.

CNET: Now that most publishers have shifted to the "agency model" and are setting their own prices, how have the higher prices on many e-books impacted sales?

Freed: Happy to answer that. We have definitely seen a shift. We have data for the last 15 years on books. And since some of the publishers have decided to price their e-book above $9.99, we've definitely seen a shift of customers going to e-books that are $9.99 or less. The good news for them is that the selection of those books is very dramatic. We have about 630,000 books that are not public domain titles and of those 510,000 are sold for $9.99 or less. Of The New York Times best-sellers, 80 of them are $9.99 or less. So customers are voting with their pocketbook... … Read more

Easy iPhone jailbreak

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded:

Easier way to jailbreak an iPhone? Windows Phone 7 devices shipping soon Pocket Camcorder includes 3D webcam, no glasses required AT&T, Verizon & T-Mobile team up to challenge Visa and Mastercard Barnes & Noble's new store experience will include Nook E-readers for demo display

B&N launches Nook for Android, changes branding strategy

Barnes & Noble has been saying it would soon be launching an Android version of its eBookstore app and now it has done so. But what's interesting about the announcement is that Barnes & Noble has decided to move away from its BN branding and go with Nook as the name of choice for its digital reading platform.

The company says the new Android app is the "first eReader software to feature Barnes & Noble's new Nook-centric branding, leveraging the strength of the company's Nook brand across its entire eReading offering. Nook for Android will soon … Read more

What Amazon didn't say about e-books

In case you missed it, Amazon told the world yesterday that for the last three months it was selling more e-books than hardcover books and in the last month it sold 180 digital books for every 100 hardcover copies. It was one of those great self-serving press releases that had a terrific headline and all the blogs and major newspapers jumped on it.

Well played, Amazon. As your CEO Jeff Bezos succinctly put it, "We've reached a tipping point with the new price of Kindle--the growth rate of Kindle device unit sales has tripled since we lowered the price from $259 to $189.&… Read more

Borders opens e-book store

Borders' new e-book store is now open for business.

The bookstore chain officially unveiled its new e-book store on Wednesday, with a million and a half electronic books, both paid and free, in a variety of formats, including ePub, mobile, and PDF.

Customers can read the e-books using free software powered by Kobo and designed for different devices, according to Borders. The lineup includes existing applications for the PC, Mac, iPhone, and iPad, and new apps just launched for Android and BlackBerry phones, all of which are available at Borders' Web site. In addition to reading the books through the … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1254: BOL: The college years (podcast)

Buzz Out Loud: the podcast that carries you through your formative years and even into college. We've got a great email about it, in fact. Also, we were totally right about the e-book price war--Kindle is now down to $189. Also, Apple will now collect your precise geographic information and share it with its partners. You can't opt out or anything, but hey, at least they let you know. Also: a Molly rant. Like, a real one. It's at the end. Enjoy!

Buzz Out Loud 1253: Google has an honesty problem (podcast)

Here's the thing: Google keeps insisting that the data it snared from open WiFi hotspots isn't a big deal, it's useless, it was an accident, and so on. But now, some French investigators discovered that the "useless data" contains obvious passwords and recognizable snippets of email. Which isn't as "useless" as Google suggested, you know? Also, Apple iOS 4 is here; the Nook is, hopefully, resetting e-book reader prices to somewhere they should be; and you decide: Toshiba folding tablet, awesome or DOA? Or both?

Amazon drops Kindle price to $189

Amazon's response to Barnes & Noble's Nook price drop earlier Monday?

We can do that, too--only slightly better.

Yes, the e-reader pricing wars are in full swing as Amazon has trimmed the price of the Kindle from $259 to $189. In case you're keeping score, that number is a whole $10 less than what Barnes & Noble is charging for the Nook 3G (with Wi-Fi). That said, Barnes & Noble can still claim a certain victory in the affordability department with the just announced Wi-Fi-only Nook, which is available for preorder at $149 and will be out … Read more

B&N adds $149 Wi-Fi-only Nook, cuts Nook 3G to $199

We've been waiting to see which company--Amazon or Barnes & Noble--would blink first when it came to price cuts for its e-readers, and now we get the answer.

Barnes & Noble not only introduced on Monday a new Wi-Fi-only Nook for $149, but also cut the price of the original Wi-Fi and 3G-enabled Nook from $259 to $199. The new model will be available later this week and can be preordered now.

Barnes & Noble is also upgrading the software for its Nook e-readers to version 1.4 and offering "complimentary" access to all AT&T … Read more