Commercial tablets and readers have taken the market by storm. In the tablet category, the iPad certainly set the pace for what’s shaping up to be a hot sector. Electronics manufacturers have accordingly sought to capitalize on this trend by creating a range of new devices to access these media, which in some cases have further influenced and altered consumer behavior. Here’s a quick snapshot of some of the most exciting trends of the eReaders and Tablet market.

Demand for e-book readers remained strong in first-quarter 2011, with global shipments soaring 236% on year to 4.8 million units. Global e-book reader shipments will reach 27 million units in 2011. Among the brand-name vendors, Amazon will continue to be the market leader with 60% share of global shipments in 2011. Barnes & Noble may hold on to second place, but its gap with third-place Sony will narrow. In just a couple of years e-book readers have turned from devices for the big pockets to machines almost anyone can afford, with recent price cuts having led to a strong competition in the $149 to $199 category.

North America will remain the biggest market for e-book readers, accounting for 72% of global shipments, but growth in the area is slowing down. E-book reader vendors are now aggressively expanding their presence in the Europe market, which is registering higher-than-average growths. Monotone e-book readers will remain the mainstream in the next three years, during which no breakthrough in developing color devices can be expected. Global e-book reader shipments will reach 63 million units by 2014.

Market Dimensions

The starting of 2011 saw a sale upsurge of estimated 10.3 million tablets and 6.7 million eReaders. As far as eReaders are concerned, the Kindle remains the most popular unit, followed by Barnes & Noble’s Nook.

Strong sales of Amazon’s Kindle, which was refreshed in August and priced more aggressively, as well as significant gains from competitors such as Pan digital, Barnes & Noble, Hanvon, and Sony among others, contributed to market growth. Apparently, people whose households net is $150,000 annually or more are more than twice as likely to report owning a tablet or eReaders.

Competitive Landscape

The competitive landscape has more or less stayed intact the way it was for FY 2010, with Apple taking a clear lead in the Tablet market. Samsung, Motorola, and perhaps now Sony all have entrants in the field, and time will tell whether the android-based devices will offer Apple as much competition on the tablet front as on the mobile phone front.

For single-use, high-price devices such as the higher-end eReaders, growth is certain to slow in the coming years as tablets and the larger smartphone gain popularity as reading devices, as well.

The Online-Reading Pie

In addition to facing competition from these traditional print publications and tablets with eReading capabilities, eReaders must also contend with PCs and smart phones, which are also popular among respondents for ebook-reading capabilities.

E-Readers and E-commerce

Shopping via tablets has become so popular that a new term has been coined — “t-commerce.” While only 9% of online shoppers own tablets, their behavior is encouraging for retailers. Consumers tend to spend more time on the Web after buying a tablet, and nearly half shop from the device, according to a survey of more than 2,300 consumers.

Tablet owners tend to be wealthier, which gives retailers a self-selected audience of their best customers. They may also be encouraged to spend by less tangible attributes: large touch screens that draw users into the content, and a portability that helps users get more comfortable than when surfing on PCs. While some eCommerce professionals may want to lump together tablets and smart phones as “mobile devices”, the data above on usage could revise this train of thought. Retailers may want to look at their industry and their own web analytics to determine what plan of action is necessary for portable devices.

Source:  CBS Interactive, IDC, Nielsen, Forrester

This article was featured in the iPublishCentral Newsletter. To subscribe to our newsletters, write to us at marketing@impelsys.com

There are many reasons that eReaders and eBooks are changing the publishing landscape. As with any technology, early generations of software and hardware have led to continuous improvement over time. The technology behind eBooks is no exception.

The new ePub3 standard reveals the scope of ePub in the current technology trend with a move to HTML5 based content and key emerging technological advancements in all means. The ePub3 with HTML5 support provides rich media experience & interactivity, layout enhancements, global languages support and accessibility improvements.  So we hope to see all the features like video & audio embedding, metadata, linking, navigation, multimedia, font, scripting, text to speech, dynamic layouts, semantic mark-ups, etc., in an ePub with help of ePub3. This also provides opportunities for application developers to create eBook readers for web and mobile platforms.

While enthusiasts were analysing and trying to understand the specifications, I had an opportunity to work on a sample for the ePub3.  As a team, we have been working on all of the ePub3 features currently supported by the iPad. Below are the listings of the samples we have created using the latest ePub3 standards.

Video: Video can now be embedded in eBooks. Video spec: H.264 (a way of encoding video that’s free to use, but not public domain) is video standard right now, but there is a possibility of open standard by end of this year, that may change to another encoding which might be WebM, which is royalty-free.

Audio: Audio passages can also be embedded in eBooks, and ePub3 is better at adopting the current DAISY accessibility standards, making eReaders more useful to visually challenged users.

Interactivity:  An interactive ePub can act more like an app than a document, and can include features like pop-ups for images, tables, bibliography references, etc activated by clicking on words in the text.

Global language support:  Includes vertical writing, and writing from left-to-right and right-to-left.

Multi-column layout: A feature that will greatly enhance cookbooks and coffee table books.

Hyphenation: This helps page formatting, particularly in justified text, and avoids very tight or very loose lines of text.

Embedded fonts: This provides lot of opportunities to use any fonts in an eBook.

Improved accessibility:  The new NAV formats supersedes the NCX format (ePub2) by providing enhanced navigation within the eBook, improving the reader’s ability to jump to specific chapters, pages, and passages.

MathML: A mathematical specification that provides greater opportunities for textbook publishers to convert and publish texts as eBooks and also provides 100% searchable content which was not there in ePub2 where all maths are coded as images.

Compatibility

ePub3 readers will be backward compatible, meaning they will be able to read eBooks created in the ePub2 format. But ePub2 readers will not be able to read ePub3 documents, as there are structural, non-compatible changes between ePub2 and ePub3.

Would like to hear your thoughts on this emerging standard and your experiences that made things work better with ePub3. Please do share your experiences by writing to us at info@ipublishcentral.com

source: www.businessinsider.com

The iPad hit homes in the beginning of April and users have been going berserk playing with their sleek and shiny new toy. One single beautiful looking machine, gives them a host of entertainment options, starting from online web surfing, gaming, and most importantly reading and information consumption.

With the launch of the iPad, reader expectations seem to have skyrocketed. Readers now expect so much more from a book than just plain text. The iPad changes the way in which content is created and consumed owing to its video streaming, audio and interactive media capabilities.

The publishing industry for one is abuzz with predictions, hopes and, ambiguity. Many wonder, if the iPad will indeed define the future of books. Will print books eventually die out? Will publishing houses perish or evolve, the questions are endless and the predications aboundless.

Opinions are varied. Quoting Mr. Ulrich Hegge, Managing Director Burda Media Innovation Lab,

“We have to take readers’ view and expectations in regard to start telling stories in a way that suits the new possibilities. We have that potential and we already proved that in the printed publications department. We believe a new era has begun.”

Jim McGregor, who is Chief Technology Strategist at In-Stat believes the significance of the iPad for publishers will be much smaller than some seem to hope for:

“Although the iPad and other tablets are being positioned as next generation e-readers, their value really extends to more multimedia rich content. This may be a boost for audio and video, but it is unlikely to change the fate of the publishing industry which has to adapt to a digital world driven by the Internet. Devices like the iPad will probably accelerate the move to digital content, especially in areas that are traditionally tied to printed material, such as education.”

While both industry leaders question the extent of impact that the iPad will have on publishing they are the first to admit that the iPad cannot be ignored. They both endorse that publishers have recognized the need to adapt to the digitally skewed changes engulfing the industry. Many publishers are migrating towards the ePub format, thus making their content iPad ready. Yet, despite uncertainties, the iPad does open up a market of over 10 million users that publishers can target opening up a whole new business model that could be centered on selling through apps.

Publishers such as Condé Nast announced they were working on an iPad version even before the device became official, and according to a leaked memo will have GQ ready for the April launch, followed soon afterwards by Wired, Vanity Fair, New York and Glamour magazines.

Some publishers have even released demos of their iPad versions already, including the New York Times and Sports Illustrated, while Children’s novels such as the Toy Story and Alice in Wonderland are already on the iPad. In approximately two months, school textbooks will be available on the iPad in the form of highly interactive applications. TSTC Publishing is adding the first e-books to its inventory.

Yet questions still loom, will the iPad really transform publishing – boosting circulation numbers and opening up new audiences? Will selling content through apps and the iPad actually bring in additional revenues from end users?

With over 700000 introductory versions of the iPad already in homes, and thousands of people still awaiting their orders, one thing is clear - the iPad is here to stay. The rising number of apps also suggests that users are enthusiastic about milking this device to its full potential. iPad competitors such as Germany’s WePad, the Google tablet and more such devices, prove that this trend is here to stay, and publishers now have unlimited possibilities when it comes to creating interactive content.

While a huge problem is the investment required to optimize this platform, the sooner publishers realize the need to convert to ePub, (which is emerging as the industry standard, and whose open source features make it the ideal platform, accepted by a wide range of devices) the more return on investment in the long run. With the popularizing and acceptance of the value of e-based consumption of content, it is likely that content publishers will actually leverage interactive media to the fullest. Dynamic links and multimedia content will readily be embraced and supported by those that provide content.

The electronic age has changed the way we explore, access and consume information. Today much of our information needs are fulfilled through the internet, for absolutely no cost. Much of professional and scholarly research is done through data collected from the internet, and through networking with other researchers. Yet, many argue about the perils of free content, as well the authenticity of content. The magnitude of free information, even throws up the argument of the need for books, or data that has a price tag attached to it. What is it about some content, that you can charge a premium for it? How do you get people to buy content rather than rely on free information sought through the internet?

Readers are given the option to search within the book and ensure that they are getting exactly what they are paying for. Up-to date research reports and full volumes of encyclopedias usually only allow for free book previews, through online readers. Access of an entire volume costs the reader, and if the preview shows content that is worthy, readers are indeed wiling to pay a price for it. The new system that is emerging is of “mixed bundling” - offering a product and its components in different permutations to satisfy different consumer needs. In a manner of speaking, your content is no longer just a product, i.e. a book. Today readers are demanding that there are no restrictions on structure and in a way turning your traditional ‘product’ into a service that requires more than just the physical version. Consumers are demanding specifics, and well, today they are getting what they want. Today, content providers give their readers content in the way they wish to consume it. They give them the option of buying part of the content, add supplementary material to the content, allow them to rent content and many more such options. Thus, to some extent curbing the attitude of, “why should I have to pay for something I don’t need/can get free”.

In a way, content, especially e-content, is looked on as an experience. Today, readers want to envision rather than imagine, they want to participate rather than watch. eBooks give them this experience. You can read an ebook, add notes, share notes with friends, discuss with experts, watch videos, take tests, play games, listen to audio and more, with the added advantage of consuming this content, anywhere and at anytime.

The trend of cloud computing, or saving of data on the cloud/internet, enables portability of content from device to device which represents the future of media and content consumption. The device market is constantly evolving, due to changing consumer preferences and the developing electronics landscape. Device manufacturers, marketers and publishers alike are challenged to make content available where, when and how their readers want to consume it—and that is anywhere, anytime and on any device. Multiple devices, numerous access modes and shifting consumer preferences mean, marketers and content owners cannot afford to choose any one single method. Until formats and device platforms get more established, multi-mode, multi-device support remains a must. So the overall expectations have increased and is more about convenience of accessing the content, choice of formats and price. In a nutshell, it’s about enhanced reading experience, and accessibility to needed resources.

The question of revenues for publishing is on top of everyone’s mind. In studying industry trends, and knowing that readers are not willing to pay for content that they can already access for free, the problem needs to be looked at from another angle. The real opportunity could lie in what we have been calling ‘the reading experience’. Publishers need to take on the role of service providers rather than sellers of a product. Real opportunity could lie in options such as is in selling access to repositories of content or in a constant stream of value adds, such as updates, buying in chunks, renting, links, audio, video, networking, gaming, sharing, participation and engagement and giving readers what they are looking for.

It’s been a month since the conference, and I still haven’t gotten over the whole “TOC experience”. My mind keeps going back to all the discussions we had, and I find myself constantly pondering over opinions expressed, predictions made and in general, visualizing what the outlook of our industry might look like few years down the line.

Having worked closely with the publishing industry for over a decade, it was both inspiring and exciting to see publishers from all around the world come together with the realization that change is here to stay. Encouraging, was to note how earnest publishers were towards understanding this change and the focus they have towards preparing themselves for the future.

In this blog, I would like to share a few anecdotes, and what I thought was especially interesting and defining for the future of our industry.  For the past ten years we have studied the dynamics of the publishing industry, its trends, changing reader habits and one session that struck an instant chord with me was by Peter Collingridge from Enhanced Editions. He describes the work he does as “tailor-making books for the iPhone, and the challenge that they set, on how to translate a book to a device in a way that creates a valuable new user experience and adds to the content. He highlighted the fact that the app was being offered as an ‘optional experience’. To quote him, “You don’t have to listen, or read and listen, or watch. Its how the reader wants it to be. We can build stuff around it and online – but the reading should be left between the reader and the content. The app is all about engagement with the content.” The key to their success here is their understanding and empathy towards the reader. His insight into reader behavior is an important lesson for all of us in the content business. The sure win sales strategy is to give your readers the content that they want.

Over the past couple of years we have seen the lightening quick pace at which the industry is evolving and this experience has helped us build innovative solutions such as reporting and data analytical tools that are helping publishers the world over take their publishing to a whole new level. As Tim O’Reilly mentioned in his session, today publishers have a better understanding of their markets with the help of data analytical tools and are building direct relationships with their readers. These tools enable publishers to put reader habits under the microscope, and use this information to tailor make content to suit the readers need. This and the ease through which they can convert their content into digital formats and deliver it through custom built platforms enable them to cash in on the opportunities that the web offers.

This year at TOC, I too had the opportunity to share my thoughts on ‘The new dynamics of publishing’ at the keynote and at a focused session on the ‘Next generation of ebooks’. Publishing has evolved, and now more than ever publishers need to focus on their core area of expertise - Content. Yet, understanding and exploiting the advancements in technology and reader demand and consumption habits could very well be the key factor that defines success. My belief is that in choosing the right strategic partners, publishers can remain focused on their core business, while still being able to implement the right technological strategies that keeps them at the top of their game.

Like many of us in the publishing industry, I have been closely monitoring the recent wave of e-book coverage in the consumer media. We have seen powerful headlines such as “B&N Launches Kindle Killer” (Wall Street Journal) and “Is Amazon Taking Over the Book Business” (Time Magazine) and questions abound: Are we nearing Malcolm Gladwell’s proverbial tipping point? Will e-books sales capture a substantial share of the overall market in the next few years? Are Jeff Bezos and Steve Riggio going to rumble? Possibly.

Amazon and Barnes & Noble certainly continue to move the needle by developing new technologies, engaging new partners and driving consumer awareness. But I would like to offer a slightly less “sexy” story angle. Perhaps this isn’t a race for inter-stellar domination between two massive companies. Perhaps the story is not about one viewer or one “e-book megacenter” as the NY Times so eloquently described it. Perhaps this isn’t even about Amazon or B&N or Google, Apple, Sony or whoever comes next.

In my opinion, this is not an “either/or” proposition. This is about how publishers can learn from each other; how we all benefit from technological advancements; and, what we can discover from the new business models that are currently being tested.

Beyond the technology, the alliances and the giant marketing budgets of Amazon and B&N, the key to success for publishers of all sizes is building platforms that connect them with their end-users in meaningful ways. Publishers need to harness that data and produce strong, lasting consumer relationships. The publishers who best understand their consumers and grasp what they really want will lead the way.

The future is bright for the Davids and the Goliaths.

A million dollar question, quite literally. Ebooks that are out there now, are priced anywhere from a couple of dollars to a few thousands, the most common price point being $9.99 of the Amazon Kindle. Amazon, in its model, allows publishers to set a selling price and reconciles 30% of that amount, irrespective of the selling price being at $9.99. Having more or less taken up a loss-leader position in this for all popular titles,  their model focuses on gaining market share.  They do charge higher for the less popular and niche books. They are making sure that people get habituated to buying and reading ebooks, though their reconciliation to the publisher may be higher than the selling price of the book – at least in some cases (http://www.teleread.org/2009/05/13/amazon-losing-money-on-999-e-books/).

One other interesting case study to look at would be that of O’Reilly, probably one of the most innovative and early-adopting publisher in the market today. They offer a deeply discounted model of selling most books in DRM-free ePub and PDF versions at $4.99. They have experimented constantly and arrived at a model that covers the marginal cost of an electronic version. The fixed costs still remain in getting a book out. The marginal cost of going from print to electronic is what O’Reilly is focusing on. They are, as always, experimenting with different models and trying to figure out the expectations of the market. In fact, today they sell more ebooks than print books from their own site! (http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/02/state-of-the-computer-book-mar-24.html)

The recent boycott of books on the Kindle, priced over $9.99, provides an interesting comparison on how much the market expects an electronic edition of a book to be priced at.

• Are people right in demanding that all books be sold at the same price, irrespective of the nature of the book?
• Can a different model be explored that offers better choice than a high priced ebook?

“I’d charge fifty cents for an online rental. It would immediately hammer the rental stores (which is fine with Hollywood) and DVD replicators (also fine with Hollywood) but would instantly teach people a new habit. Then, once the new habit is set and you’ve earned permission, sure, charge more for new movies and for blockbusters. 300 million movie theatres, all selling tickets every single night–you don’t need to charge $10 a seat when you have access to everyone.

It’s important to charge something, because the act of paying fundamentally changes the dynamics of the relationship. The question is this: at the start, is your goal to maximize profit or to build a platform that scales? The fact is that the market is too small right now for the price to matter. What matters is whether you can build an audience that is in the habit of paying you, an audience that wants to hear from you, an audience that you can build a business on.

At fifty cents a rental, all desire for piracy goes out the window, replaced by convenience, ease of use and a clear conscience. More important, entire new services show up, habits are built and the studios end up with a direct relationship with consumers who want to hear from them. If they don’t get greedy at the start.”

(http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/01/how-much-for-di.html)

This was written almost 17 months ago by Seth Godin when he was pondering over on how much movie studios should be charging for digital downloads. Probably, the answers lie in Seth’s quote above. Micro-payments and micro-subscriptions, broadly put as rentals, is one model that has rarely been explored in electronic books.

• Can publishers look at a market segment that is willing to pay a small price for a limited time access to content?

“But isn’t this very similar to our real-world or electronic libraries?” - one might ask. It is, to some extent. Yet, it is not a membership-based cover fee to access multiple titles. That particular model already exists for electronic book sales to institutions.

For single users, though, one can look at a model where access is limited to a particular title of choice, for a restricted period of time and has a small attached fee. This model will also be easier to reconcile in terms of royalties, compared to electronic library models, as the payments are for specific titles. A sale can be easily broken down into the royalty percentages and reconciled with authors and content creators.

The market segment that we are talking about here, would probably not buy the print book at all. They are on the fringe. They are consumers, but not buyers, of the print book. This segment of the market is price sensitive and will not buy beyond a price point. However, they will buy in great numbers - if the price is right. There seems to be a good elasticity at lower prices for ebooks. The consumer wants access to read, if it is legal and within their expected price-point - they will go for it. Otherwise, they will look at alternatives. If the price is too high for them, they will explore an alternative Wiki text or risk pirated sources of access on torrents or YouTube-like user uploaded websites for books. We are talking about:

• Students who refrain from buying that ‘important, but non-prescribed book’ needed for their examination.
• Researchers who would rather refer at a library than buy books required to prepare a report.
• Professionals who would not buy all the books that cover a topic.
• Readers who want to check out the book by an author before making the buy decision.

If you look at it closely, everyone benefits from this ‘fringe market’ sale; from the publishers to the authors and more importantly the readers. Will this model work for all segments in publishing? Maybe not. Will it work for popular paperbacks? Again, maybe not. However some early experiments by Harper Collins and Random House indicates that giving easy access to books in the electronic format does have a positive effect on people buying the print edition. (http://www.idpf.org/events/presentations/digitalbook08/lHulse08.pdf

The micro-subscription models will encourage people to explore more books and may result in driving more print sales. What it does warrant though, is experimenting. With technology and tools available now to actively experiment, it is just a question of trying.

Some more links on this topic..

• Joe Wikert’s Publishing 2020 Blog
• Lance Ulanoff’s take on the PC Mag
• Glenn’s take on the BenBella Blog