Group items tagged

Yet another take on e-book readers, this time looking at the impact on magazine publishers, whose business model is likely to be impacted more than for book publishers.

Another article on e-book readers and related business models. Will the dominant player be a distributor such as Amazon or Apple? If so, what will be best distribution agreement be? Or will neutral devices emerge, allowing a greater share to publishers? And, most of all, what will the role of a publisher be, if printing and distribution become a non-issue due to electronic delivery?

An interesting comment on the future of reading and publishing, and on the dominant design of the devices that will allow this revolution

An article on the way with which electronic publishing is challenging traditional paper-based books. It is interesting to notice how the outcome will depend on the way with which the market will values the ratio between fixed and variable costs of each medium - besides obvious differences in functionality.

Attention on e-books is growing. However, there still are uncertainties on the future business model for publishers, and on the way they will be forced to shed part of their assets. Another doubt is related to the "dominant design" of the reader (specialized e-book reader or general-purpose tablet?).

When dealing with e-books, the reader is not everything, of course, since you need content too. The problem is that with digital goods there is a huge risk of commoditization and of consumers feeling entitled to "free" content ("marginal cost is nil, so why shouldn't I get it for free"?). This explains the reason publishers are pushing to retain control over pricing decisions instead of leaving it to distributors.

e-book sales are growing fast. Is it likely that in a not-so-far-away future paper-based books will be little used, if not in niches? It sounds impossible, given the centuries-old technology, but it might come. One key question arises: what will the business model of publishing become then?

Amazon's 1-Click has come under a lot of fire over the years from critics who question whether such a broad technology should be patented at all. It refers to the process by which online shoppers make purchases with a single click, having previously entered their payment and shipping information. Amazon's patent on one-click shopping has survived the scrutiny of the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In an official notice published this month, the USPTO declared its intent to issue a reexamination certificate affirming the validity of Amazon's amended version of the patent. The amended version has a slightly smaller scope, limiting the patent's coverage to online shopping cart systems rather than all one-click e-commerce. In its statement today, the USPTO declared that the new version of the patent is valid, despite the fact that it has no functional difference from the original version. This outcome, which took four years to reach, reflects the deficiencies of the reexamination process.