Course:ETEC522/sept2011/eBooks

Our Presentation

More on this week's topic can be found at our WordPress site: Reading Redefined

Timeline of Reading

In order to present our discussion of eBooks on the UBC wiki, we have created this timeline to get a sense of the patterns of reading in human history.

View Prezi at: Timeline of Reading

As this very rough sequence of events shows, there have been long periods of human history where the stories that define everything from cultural identity to the human condition were told orally, remembered by storytelling bards like Homer's epics, the Vedic songs or Ainu kamuy yukar. With the advent of writing, whether runes carved onto stone, legends sculpted onto totem poles, glyphs painted onto papyrus scrolls or eventually letters pressed onto sheets of paper, a new form of literacy took hold of the world over the course of centuries. With the relatively rapid pace of computer technology over the past 40 years, reading again is changing into a multimedia hybrid: text and video, audio even hyperlinks. As the timeline suggests, there is a curious regression away from the paper page, with computer screens giving way to handheld devices and immersive virtual reality stories similar to the 'Star Trek' holodeck. Keeping in mind the roots of literature and the potential for a redefined experience with reading, we focus on the current use of eBooks and eReaders and ask our classmates to consider the market possibilities within the field of education.

Exploring eBooks and eReaders

Our analysis of the rapidly changing technology of electronic readers, presently a handheld device which allows for the uploading and displaying of various types of text, has revealed some of the leaders in the competition to find the most effective and least expensive reading experience. As the author Nick Hornby (2008, July 3 - full text found on the the Penguin Blog page) notes, when "millionaire showbusiness entertainers" (para. 3) are driven away by expensive products like the iRex iLiad, it doesn't seem like there will ever be much of a market for these devices. Despite the efforts of innovative companies like E ink to design durable screens which can display text readable in direct sunlight, as well as the financial backing of heavy-hitting companies like Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Sony, the preference for a majority readers remains the paper-bound books. One game-changing strategy by the late Apple innovator Steve Jobs was to reinvent the tablet, based on the successful iPhone handheld computers, that connects to the App Store in order to download books. No longer were eReaders just for reading text, but also for connecting to the Internet, video conferencing, games and countless other purposes. It has only been a year and a half since the iBook App came on the market, and in that time dozens of clever tools have reshaped the public's concept of eBooks.

One concern for this rapid development in handheld technology is what becomes of all the devices that came before, most likely incompatible with current standards of electronic text. While some of us still able to read the eBooks uploaded onto the ten-year old Palm Pilot, the chances of me finding latest bestseller that works for this format are very slim, especially as such devices have already been collecting dust for a few years. Will other outdated reading devices be added to the growing heap of ewaste, or will they be recycled in schools? In an attempt to stem the need for the latest gadgets with the coolest bells and whistles, more people should consider the practicalities and environmental impact of the technology designed to support electronic literacy.

According to our eReader class poll, the Amazon Kindle was the leading device that offered a wide selection of reading material in a slim, lightweight, easy-on-the-eyes format. The only drawbacks were the short running time of the batteries and the difficulty to make annotations or notes. When considered for classroom use, however, multipurpose eReaders such as the iPad iBooks (or the latest version of the Kindle, Fire) give more user-friendly ways of interacting with the text, while also offering a host of other web-based services. One surprising revelation from the class’ discussion of eBooks is that asides from course material and discussion board posts, not many students have time to read for pleasure. Vacation reading on sandy beaches seems to present a particular paradox where it is more convenient to travel with an eReader, yet sand and water are more damaging to the electronic devices than paperbacks. Eventually, the options to enlarge text, use text-to-speech features and connect electronically with other readers, the use of eBooks seem tailor-made for reluctant and emerging readers to engage with literary pursuits, yet the “Trojan horse” issue seems to be that these devices do way more than offer texts to read, what is to stop students from using their eReaders for sending instant messages, checking out Facebook updates, or anything other than reading a book.

Target Market and Offering

eBook Main Market

With the flexibility of eBook and the changing space of the book market, ebook main market is the education sectors. With its potential reach and future demand, every level of the education sector is being targeted. Since there have been complaints that students are regressing in reading using traditional texts, a number of researches have been done so far to see if ebooks can make the difference. This has proven to be the case as it has been seen that ebooks are producing better results when compared to paperbacks. In addition, tertiary students and professors are being targeted too. In this time and age it's only natural that information should be at the fingertips of all involved in tertiary education. To avoid taking around heavy books or being confined to a physical library, this is the perfect market as users can access information anywhere and anytime on the go.

eBook Offering

eBook offers a lot to the public. In essence, eBook is more than just reading. It's more like redefining reading to meet 21st century standards. As of August 2009, there are over 2 million books available for downloading. In addition persons with mobile devices and the necessary data connections are privy to read books without downloading them to the devices. Also, eBooks websites come with the capabilities to transfer information into other languages so that all readers from various geographical locations can benefit from the reading experience. Some of the major book retailers have free eReader applications for the PC and Mac desktops as well as iPad, iPhone, Android, and Blackberry devices to allow reading eBooks without their respective devices (wikipedia). Some of the more popular eBook readers are:

TYPES OF E-READERS

Amazon Kindle

Advantages: Connected to one of the largest on-line book retailers; latest version, Fire, designed by Quanta (same designers as BlackBerry PlayBook)

Sony Reader

Advantages: Supported by both Windows and Mac OS X, able to upload same eBook onto five other Sony devices

Barnes & Noble Nook

Advantages: Largest book retailer in the United States, allows customers at B&N locations to Read in Store, preview books on Nook

Apple iBook

Advantages: Free app on all Apple products, wireless syncing with iCloud

Market Share

With the great potential of eBook and its fast advancement in the book industry, the market is divided among several player. They include:

Quantity Market Shares of e-book sales in US by Goldman Sachs at 2010

Sellers

Amazon: 58.0%

Barnes & Noble: 27.0%

Apple: 9.0%

Others: 6.0%

Marketing Tips

Even though ebooks are designed with mobility in mind, it would be good to have ebook collections as part of local libraries electronic collections. Paper back books will still be around which indicates that the physical libraries will still exist. However, some local libraries do not have access to databases, full-text collections and up-to-date paper-books. Incorporating ebooks in these libraries will be like mini virtual libraries within the physical library space. Students will therefore have the perfect experience rather than merely browsing sites that lack credibility for information. Their information- sourcing experience will be more meaningful which will eventually lead to better writing output.

Even though ebook is dominating the market in the United States as shown at http://productivewriters.com/2011/02/16/book-e-book-sales-data-united-states-2010/ , the same cannot be said in other parts of the world. The expansion of the ebook market is dependent on the resources available in the respective regions and countries. Therefore, if advocates of ebook hope to earn bigger market share on the global front, they need to spread their reach to locations where paper back is still king. In doing so they need to take the physical product to the people where they will establish a joint-venture with local educational bodies. As soon as that relationship is concretized and the necessary training done, members of the local body will in turn launch a major campaign in all the schools at all levels in an attempt to garner support and promote the product. In such a situation, administrators and students will explore the product and given a chance to make their own judgment and assessment.

In addition, thorough examination of the global trend in ebook sales and popularity should be done in developed countries so that similar mistakes are not made and positive trend maintained. The following is a link providing information on the status of ebook in a number of developed countries. http://www.futurebook.net/content/charting-global-e-book-market-exclusive-data

For further marketing tips please visit http://www.plrinternetmarketing.com/internet/how-to-market-your-ebook-tips-on-how-to-market-your-ebook/

Market Analysis

The ebook market growing and is very attractive to investment. Very often a new announcement is made about a new ebook reader and the more people buy e-readers, more e-books will be sold, For example last month (September 2011) Amazon announced an entire line of Kindles, particularly its Kindle Fire tablet, which have sparked lots of conversation and speculation. Today, many leading publishers have recognized the attractiveness of the eBook opportunity, both in terms of volume and margins and have catalysed on the ebook market. As a result, we have seen where they are significantly expanding their eBook portfolio, and most of them publish all new books in printed and digital form. This move creates a boom in ebook industry. A major driving factor in the ebook industry is the fact that businesses are now going green in government, education, health, and other sectors.

However, while retailers Publishers, bookstores, and device manufacturer are all clamouring for a piece of the e-reader market share, they all need to now provide the market with innovative eReading opportunities to suit the needs and wants of today’s digital age readers and learners. They need to convince customers of the value they provide by offering a wide range of products, user-friendly service, and features like videos, reviews and social networking. For instance, an animation of the blood circulation in a medical book can significantly enhance the reader’s understanding of the organism, whereas a video in a novel would be a hindrance to relaxed and in-depth reading. In addition, apps can be developed so customers have options for accessing and shopping ebooks from their smartphone or tablet etcetera.

Who are the buyers?

EBooks are marketed to anyone who reads from the person who loves to read newspaper, magazines science fiction and romance novels to students who want to load all their textbooks for a semester into the reading device and not need to worry about having to carry a lot of extra pounds with them to class daily. However, it is widely speculated that females are the main purchasers of ebooks just as paperbacks with a large concentration on fictions and romance.

What's selling

As it relates to what is selling literary fiction, science fiction and romance lead the way, each with over 20 percent of the market. Overall, eBooks comprise 11 percent of the total book market, with 13 percent of print book buyers also downloading eBooks

Competition

Competition is becoming severe in the ebook industry since leading companies such as Google, Apple, Amazon and others have extended their business models to include sales of electronic books. The Nook (Barnes and Noble), Kindle (Amazon), and Sony Reader (Google), are all examples of how companies are extending beyond their traditional lines of business and redefining themselves in the eReader and eBook environment and they all in contention for market share. For example, Sony challenged Amazon’s Kindle eBook reader which has access to over 245,000 titles, by striking a deal with Google which provided readers with the opportunity to access more than 600,000 titles to users of the Reader via Sony’s eBookstore for free. Since companies are vying for a piece of the ebook action, they must use differention strategies to achieve a competitive edge. For example, Amazon’s Kindle eBooks are available not only for specially designed Kindles, but also on almost every type of computer or gadget a user is likely to own, for example a PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod, Android smartphone, and some of the latest BlackBerry models.

A factor that drives the ebook market is the cost of ereaders. In many instances, it is felt that the costs for purchasing these devices are too high. Any move to reduce the cost of ereaders and constantly keep the price low is a step in the right direction and will increase the use of ebooks and thus give the device manufacturer a competitive edge. It is therefore suggested that retailers, device manufacturers and others design a pricing strategy that appeals to consumers without reducing or undermining the value of content. This strategy will also raise the demand and thereby provide an attractive source of revenue.

Global target

Today, books are big business. People from all around the world spend billions of dollars everyday on books. Ebooks are sold globally. However, at present the United states is the market leader of ebooks as they now have a double-digit market share and is closely followed by the United Kingdom. According to Wischenbart (2011), The US publishing industry and the US public have embraced new reading formats like no other nation. For readers, ebooks came as a natural and permanent choice in addition to printed books. Publishers have effectively responded to consumers’ fast-growing acceptance of new reading devices by constantly redefining and expanding new concepts of books. Another growth factor for the United States is that it thrives on the fact that companies like Amazon (Kindle reader), Google Editions, Apple (iTunes), or Kobo localize their offers with their reading devices and distribution capacities, as well as with the global availability of English-language reading material (Wischenbart, 2011).

The ebook market, though opened to anyone of interest has its sight set on targeted individuals.

• Digital natives and the net-generation

• Travelers who wants to enjoy the convenience of reading their favorite book wherever they are.

• Persons who study online and are noy privy to access physical libraries

• Researchers who need to keep abreast of the latest trend in their fields but are not confined to a permanent location

Pitch

With the advent of the ebook industry, the impossible is now looking very possible. This makes one wonders if our favorite paperback will be a thing of the past. A the rate ebooks are advancing, it's anybody's guess. Check out the link below to get a synopsis of where ebook is headed .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XOiBOtF-iAQ

True cost of ownership

Introduction

Like any other product, the true cost is usually skillfully concealed form the buyer in the fine-print; usually the terms and conditions governing the product. As purchasers, one need to know exactly what they are buying and the true cost so that the respective books can be balanced and consumer-seller conflict avoided.

Purchase cost

Amazon and Apple are strong competitors in the ebook market. As a result, pricing is a big factor. Currently, Amazon is popular for its kindle where three popular models are now for sale. They are as follow; kindle- $79.00, kindle touch- $99.00 and the kindle fire- $199.00. On the other hand, Apple's rates are much cheaper and range from $9.99- $14.99.

Operating cost

The cost producing ebooks is determined by the maker and the publisher. There is a special formula used to maintain a profitable edge as can be seen with Amazon and Macmillan.Whereas currently Amazon caps the retail price of e-books at $9.99, Macmillan proposes to set the price for each book individually at price points between $5.99 and $14.99, starting typically on the high end of the spectrum (between $12.99 and $14.99) and dynamically lowering the price over time.

Never ending consumer cost

Even though at times we focus on the finish product of various gadgets or technologies, the cost factor is sometimes not seen as significant from a production viewpoint. However, technologies really cost a lot to produce and on some occasions the selling price is much cheaper than the production cost. When one considers the raw materials and the shipping of parts from other countries and regions, it makes you wonder if a profit is made at the end of the day. However, with mass production, manufacturers are able to benefit. This however doesn't mean that cost factor is sidelined after purchase. After purchase the user begins to accumulate more cost through electricity bills, spare parts and internet services.

References

Doctorow,C.,(2004). Ebooks: Neither E, Nor Books, O'Reilly Emerging Technologies Conference.

Hornby, N., (2008, July 3). Special guest post - Nick Hornby on ebooks [blog]. The Penguin Blog. Retreived from http://thepenguinblog.typepad.com/the_penguin_blog/2008/07/special-guest-p.html

Langer, M., (2010).Ebook Costs and Pricing, Part II: The Pricing. Retrieved from http://www.aneclecticmind.com/2010/06/28/ebook-costs-and-pricing-part-ii-the-pricing

Wischenbart, B., (2011) The Global eBook Market: Current Conditions & Future Projections. Retrieved from http://www.publishersweekly.com/binary-data/ARTICLE_ATTACHMENT/file/000/000/522-1.pdf