RSSGoogle to open e-book shop: Does it matter yet?
By Tim Conneally | Published October 15, 2009, 6:37 PM
Today, Google said it will launch its own e-book store in the first half of 2010 called "Google Editions." This store will sell in-print books in addition to its archive of public domain titles, and will be accessible to "any device with a Web browser," not just for the dedicated e-readers that have gained so much notoriety in the past few years. Users will reportedly need to be connected to the Web to initially obtain their books, but they are then cached for offline consumption.
Google has long been expected to enter this space, and did not mention this week with whom it intends to partner in the hardware space. But reading headlines today, you'd think this was the first melee in a full-scale war between Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Google. Some have called it an "e-book fight," some an "eReader war," and then there was the inexplicably silly "Google wants you dead, Amazon!"
The funny thing is, without any e-reader or e-book sales data to go on, the notion that there's even a healthy market for the products is pure speculation at this point. The market is building in anticipation of the eventual demand for e-books.
Amazon, which leads the market for both e-readers and downloadable e-books, does not disclose its sales figures. In-Stat estimated that 2008 worldwide e-reader sales were only around 1 million, but predicted that by 2013, it will be up to 29 million. Similarly, iSuppli estimated that around 18 million e-reader units will be sold in 2012.
That's really not that big, considering that halfway through next year, there will be well over a dozen manufacturers with multiple e-reader products on the market: Amazon, Sony, iRex, LG, Samsung, Asus, Toshiba, Plastic Logic, Endless Ideas, Astak, Bookeen, Elonex, Foxit, Interead, and many more names you may have never heard of.
While increasing the competition and selection does stimulate consumption, it also dilutes the market.
In terms of content, the Association of American Publishers said e-book sales have risen 214% in the last two years. Of course, the largest percentage of growth usually takes place when a service is at its smallest; and even after this substantial growth, e-books still only accounted for 1% of books sold by major publishers. This does not take into account the increasing number of DIY publishers, public domain downloads, and converted/non-e-book texts.
Google Editions is expected to be made up of three of these disparate distribution methods: Users will be able to buy e-books digitized in Google's library, from the publisher directly, or from a partner third-party book site.
Esop-bag is a low-cost fashion designer of luxury shopping platform. Here are your dream brand-name bags, shoes, sunglasses, wallets and other accessories. Such as Chanel handbag cheap, christian louboutin shoes, Louis Vuitton?Christian Louboutin, Gucci,Prada, Miu Miu, Hermes, Chloe, Coach, Fendi, Manolo blahnik,Jimmy Choo,YSL,etc. Now we can offer all these famous brand-name bags at much lower price?
Top quality
Eshop-bag of products are top quality, made from high quality leather and material, all pictures on our website are of the actual products you will receive.For example,chanel handbag cheap,Christian louboutin shoes,etc. We know that you want to know exactly what you are going to get when you place an order, so we have our photographer take pictures of every new product before it is put up for sale on our website.
The Best Price
You can get them at the best price available in the market now; Eshop-bag guarantee your satisfaction, if you are not happy with your purchase, return it to us and get the full refund.
chanel handbag cheap christian louboutin shoes
Score: 0
|This seems to be Google's new business but I don't think it can beat Amazon since Amazon has long in book business and also they have the customers, experience and knowledge while Google is new. Just like Google Checkout, it doesn't bring much negative effect to PayPal. PayPal is still widely used. Everytime when you shop online, you'll find you have the PayPal payment option but no Google Checkout.
Score: 0
|Google checkout finds the lowest prices for me, and IME is accepted at more merchants than Paypal.
I have a Paypal keyfob, so it's an extra level of security I appreciate.
I (personally) use Google Checkout much more than Paypal.
Score: 0
|The future isn't eBooks, it's Audio Books. It will only be eBooks if they include decent text-to-speech.
Score: -1
|It will be interesting to see whether Google can do anything about the impossibly high prices being asked for scholarly books. The academic publishers are milking the university libraries by over-pricing, but as a result nobody except university libraries, and not all of them, buy the books. So a user who does not have easy access to a university library goes without. There are many books for which I might pay $25 for online access which I cannot afford at the $150 asking price. I don't know about textbooks - the same comment might apply to them.
Score: 0
|I think I'll be sticking to buying my books in their original text from Amazon rather than in a digital format. I spend enough time working on my websites to constantly glare at the screen reading an ebook, I just dont seem to be able to respond the same to an EBook than I do with a paperback. Still, a positive idea from Google, seems they are trying to corner yet another online industry. I like the name 'Editions' too...
Score: 0
|