Erich Stauffer

Tag: eReaders

  • Cost Publishing Media Group Crazy about eReaders

    Cost Publishing’s media group, which consists of over sixty blogs, has just under 10% of it’s web sites devoted to the ereader market, which consists of electronic readers, or read pads and their corresponding ebooks, covers, and accessories. Some are specific to particular brands such as Barnes & Noble’s Nook and Amazon’s Kindle. Both cover the ereader devices and accessories to protect them, but one focuses on Nook covers mostly.

    It’s no wonder that Cost Publishing has decided to focus so much on the ereader market. 2010 seemed to be the year of the ereader as new models seemed to come out almost every month. Both major big-box, brick-and-mortar book stores (Borders and Amazon.com) started selling ereaders along with Target and Wal-Mart. Amazon.com reports that its Kindle is their number one selling item and it sold more in Christmas 2010 than any year before that. All of that leaves people craving information about where to buy ereaders, what they will do, and how to protect them, which is what Cost Publishing provides.

    Cost Publishing also publishes about food, health, politics, and news. According to their website, “Cost Publishing was founded in August 2008 by Erich Stauffer and Jason Cobb. The word ‘Cost’ is a contraction or portmanteau which uses the first two letters of Cobb and Stauffer’s last names. We value innovation, entrepreneurism, and intelligent design.” If their goal is to add value to the Internet community by providing guides to those seeking products and services, then they have succeeded.

  • Students and Commuters: Hooray for eBooks!

    Students and commuters have something to look forward to both in class and on the bus, train, or plane because of the ereader revolution.

    The first digital nomads, students and freelance entrepreneurs have been mobile computing at Starbucks and other WiFi hotspots for years using first laptops, then smartphones like the iPhone, and now tablet computers, slates, and ereaders. Ereaders are primarily for reading books, but can read magazines and newspapers too, some free, some by subscription, and some by one-time purchases. Some ebook readers like Barne’s and Noble’s nook let you share ebooks using a feature called LendMe. Publishers have not been as willing to sign up for LendMe as much as users would hope, but that trend may change in the future. And now ereaders are starting to be able to do more than just read ebooks. For example, the Nook just got an upgrade to allow it to play games and surf the web, but Apple’s iPad is a computer with an ebook reader.

    Student Life

    One can imagine that students going back to school this fall may have a completely different experience, one which may be missing one heavy staple from the past: textbooks. Instead of carrying large books around in a book bag, one could see students carrying nooks wrapped in their nook covers containing their nook ebooks. This would be quite a contrast, but will publishers buy into it and publish their textbooks in ebook form? Will students buy enough ebook readers to support it? Will schools and teachers allow the ebook readers in their classrooms? We won’t know for sure until later on this year.

    Commuting: More Green Benefits

    Not only do commuters help the environment and their wallet by sharing rides or riding public transportation, but they also help reduce the amount of paper and distribution cost of that paper when they choose an ebook over a traditional paper book. Car drivers everywhere, while they can come and go as they please, have higher costs from maintaining an automobile, create more pollution, and don’t get to relax with a newspaper, whether that newspaper be in paper form or as an ebook. Will subway trains be full of ebook readers in the future? What will people hide behind when they don’t want to look at the person across from them on the train, plane, or bus? Maybe they’ll all just get along a little better, and maybe share an ebook too.

  • The eReader Revolution

    How eReaders (also written e-Readers), which are digital readers for eBooks (also written e-Books) have taken over the tech news and gadget landscape? From Amazon’s Kindle™ which was first released on November 19, 2007 to Barnes and Noble’s nook™ which was first released November 30, 2009 to Apple’s iPad which was released April 3, 2010, there clearly is a revolution going on in how books are read, purchased, stored, and shared.

    The first chart shows the dramatic rise in news articles related to ereaders starting in 2009. This chart also highlights the differences in spelling of the different terms for ebook readers. While there is no official way of spelling it (both ereader and e-reader are acceptable), Google Trends clearly shows that “ereader” is used more often or is more popular. In general I think that if hyphens can be avoided, they will be, just as in “e-mail” is more often written as “email.”

    The second chart shows the steady rise of Amazon’s Kindle, followed by the nearly identical rise of Barnes and Noble’s Nook an Sony’s Reader. Other ebook readers like the Que and Alex don’t yet register in comparison to the traffic of these other major players, but if you compare Apple’s iPad against this chart, it makes the Kindle look pathetic in comparison.

    Now these are mostly news trends and not necessarily a reflection of popularity or quality, but it does highlight a tipping point in the use of ebook readers that happened at the end of 2009, about a year after the market crash in 2008. Despite a recession and a bad world-wide economic situation, consumers have still went out and purchased not just ebooks and ereaders, but e-reader accessories, which can sometimes equal or cost more than the ereader itself. Nook covers, for example, average around $25 each.

    How about you? Do you own an ereader or plan on purchasing one in 2010? Answer in the comments below.