Barnes & Noble just announced the launch of a WiFi-only version of its Nook e-book reader . This new version of the Nook will retail for $149. In addition, B&N also dropped the price of the 3G-enabled Nook to $199. Besides being WiFi-only, the new version of the Nook is virtually identical to the Nook 3G. It will come with the same set of features as the original Nook , including the ability to lend some e-books to friends and use B&N’s “Read in Store” feature to browse complete books on the Nook while using B&N’s in-store WiFi network. Sponsor The WiFi-only Nook is available for pre-order now and will ship later this week. Thanks to an agreement with AT&T, Nook WiFi owners will receive complimentary access to AT&T’s WiFi network. Will the Kindle Follow? As dedicated e-readers like the Kindle, Sony Reader and the Nook come under strong pressure from tablets like the iPad, chances are that we will see more price drops in the near future. At $259, the cheapest version of the Kindle now looks overpriced compared to the Nook, which also offers a wider range of features. As B&N’s press release notes, at $199, the Nook 3G is now “the market’s first under-$200 dedicated full-featured eBook reader that offers both free 3G wireless and Wi-Fi connectivity.” The Beginning of the End for E-Readers? As Fast Company’s Kit Eaton points out , B&N’s price drop can also be seen as the beginning of the “e-reader’s demise” and the start of a race to the bottom. As manufacturers struggle to bring the price of their devices down to the point where e-readers become attractive to a mainstream audience, they inevitably also have to cut some features. At the same time, tablets offer far more flexibility than dedicated e-readers. According to a recent study by Informa Telecoms & Media, the market for dedicated e-readers will likely peak within the next two years, as consumers flock to tablet computers instead. According to Informa, the only way for e-readers to survive is to strip the devices of their wireless connectivity and make them as cheap as possible (under $99). Discuss

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During today’s iPhone OS 4 event , Apple announced that it plans to bring iBooks and the iBookstore to the iPhone once the new OS becomes available later this year. It is not clear, however, why Apple plans to wait this long to bring its e-reader software and e-book store to the iPhone. After all, being able to sync books between the two devices would put Apple’s feature set close to being on par with Amazon’s Kindle platform. Sponsor Just like the Kindle apps, iBooks will be able to sync pages and bookmarks between the iPad and the iPhone versions. Judging from what we have seen so far, iBooks on the iPhone basically looks like an exact copy of the iPad version – with a few concessions to the smaller screen. Isn’t iBooks Just Another App? At its core, the iBooks application is nothing else but just another iPhone app. As far as we can see, iBooks doesn’t rely on any special abilities that are only available in the iPhone OS 3.2 on the iPad or the newly announced iPhone OS 4. Given that Apple is tying iBooks so closely to the next OS release, chances are that iBooks for the iPhone won’t work on the original iPhone and older iPod touch models and won’t be available as a stand-alone download. Maybe the team behind iBooks was just to preoccupied with developing the iPad app in time to also focus on the iPhone app. Maybe Apple doesn’t want to blur the lines between the iPad as an e-book reader and the iPhone. None of this, however, really explains why Apple plans to wait until the release of the iPhone OS 4 to launch iBooks for the iPhone and forgo all the possible e-book sales it could get from iPhone users. One of Amazon’s big advantages over iBooks and the iBookstore (besides the fact that some people simply prefer the Kindle app and that Amazon has a larger book selection), is that users can easily read and sync their Kindle books between the iPhone, iPad, Kindle and desktop. There is also a good chance that Barnes & Noble will soon release an iPad version of its iPhone e-reader. With this, the company’s e-books will then be available on the B&N Nook, a number of third-party e-readers, the iPhone and the iPad. By not releasing iBooks for the iPhone for another few months, Apple will probably lose quite a few customers to Amazon. After all, Apple has already sold close to 80 million iPhone OS devices and less than 1 million iPads. Image credit: gdgt Discuss

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Sony just announced that it is expanding its selection of newspapers and magazines in its e-book store. Starting today, users of Sony’s e-readers will be able to subscribe to 20 new newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, Boston Globe, San Jose Mercury News, PC Magazine and Foreign Affairs. With the newspaper business in turmoil, it only makes sense for these papers to try to get a better foothold on more devices. Sponsor eInk vs. LCDs For users who don’t own an e-reader yet but are looking into getting one, the question right now is to either wait for the iPad and go with a regular LCD screen for reading books, or to choose a more traditional (and cheaper) e-reader like the Kindle or Sony Reader that feature electronic ink. While some users don’t mind the blacklit LCD screens of their phones to read, others can’t fathom reading any long-form content on these screens. Fighting Off the iPad For Sony, Amazon, B&N and others who are currently betting on electronic ink for their devices, one of the best ways to distinguish themselves from Apple is to offer more content over their free wireless connections and to play up the advantages of eInk. In this context, adding a newspaper like the New York Times (which is also a favorite of Steve Jobs and features heavily in Apple’s iPad ads and other promotional material ) makes a lot of sense. For the newspapers, getting on more devices and selling more subscriptions is simply good business. Sony charges up to $14.99 per month for these subscriptions. Given that all of these papers could sell their own apps and subscriptions on the iPad as well – and that some of them will be available for free – the availability of newspapers may not be a deciding factor for a lot of potential iPad and e-reader buyers. Hopefully, however, we will also see a lot of innovative newspaper and magazine apps on the iPad. Chances are that these new apps will make today’s traditional e-readers seem rather quaint in comparison. The availability of these apps could easily sway a lot of potential e-reader buyers to get an iPad instead. What is your experience? Do you think e-books and newspapers just look better on eInk? Or are you waiting for the innovative newspaper apps on the iPad that will include video and other interactive content? Discuss

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The e-book hype reached its apex just before the holiday season. Now seems like a good time to take a closer look at the e-book market, especially given that this business is heading for another disruption once Apple’s iPad launches. According to the latest stats from the Book Industry Study Group (BISG), e-book usage is growing fast, but continues to represent a very small part of the publishing industry’s bottom line. Currently, only about 2% of American book buyers over 13 are active e-book users. Sponsor E-Books Today: PCs, Kindles & iPhones While 2% is still a very small number, the BISG (which represents numerous large publishing houses) found that e-book usage increased about 25% over the holiday season. Most people still read e-books on their PCs (47%), followed by the Kindle (32%) and the iPhone and iPod Touch (21%). As Michael Mace notes, it’s important to remember that this doesn’t take into account how many e-books these users actually bought. Chances are that Kindle users buy a lot more e-books than those who read e-books on their PCs. According to the BISG, a slight majority of e-book buyers is men (51% compared to 42% for paper books) and, unsurprisingly, these buyers have a higher than average income. How Many Kindles has Amazon Sold? Amazon, sadly, doesn’t give us any hard data about how many Kindles and e-books it has actually sold so far, which makes it rather hard to pinpoint any exact numbers for e-book usage. Based on the BISG’s data, Mace extrapolates that there are currently about 200 million active book buyers in the U.S. – which would mean that Amazon has sold roughly 1.3 million Kindles. What About the iPad? While a lot of (digital) ink has been spilled about Apple’s (and the publishing industry’s) pricing structure for e-books on the iPad, the far more interesting question is how publishers will use the iPad (and similar devices) to adapt their content for this new environment. While traditional e-book readers like the Kindle are great at recreating a book-like reading experience, the iPad, with its color screen and fast processor will be able to do a lot more – and readers will expect iPad e-books to be more interactive because of this. Earlier today, Penguin showed off some of the e-books it plans for the iPad (including DK’s guide to the human body and various travel guides). We can only hope that more publishers will follow Penguin’s lead. We already know that a lot of magazine publishers are planning to launch their own native iPad apps. It’s interesting to see that Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch are already the Kindle’s closest competitors. As Mace notes, iPhone users are probably less active e-book buyers than Kindle users, but Apple has clearly managed to capture a lot of the e-book mindshare thanks to the third-party e-book apps that are currently available for the iPhone and iPod touch.mindshare thanks to the third-party e-book apps that are currently available for the iPhone and iPod touch. Discuss

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