During his bleak forecast of the publishing industry at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, novelist Ewan Morrison suggested the rise of the e-book will mean the end of writers as a profession, as piracy and a demand for steep discounts take over the book industry as it has with music, newspapers, games, porn, photography, telecommunications and home video.
Publishers will no longer be able to provide advances to enable writers to make a decent living and writers will increasingly depend on the “long tail” which cannot support them. Morrison adds that only established writers will prosper.
In 10 to 15 years, he believes the largest “publishers” will be Google, Amazon and Apple.
“The writer will become an entrepreneur with a short shelf life, in a world without publishers or even shelves,” predicts Morrison.
Apple claims there are more than 600 U.S. school districts that have at least one classroom where each student is receiving an iPad to use throughout the school day.
The popular tablets feature interactive programs in math, note-taking apps, videos and tutorials on everything from history to foreign languages.
The tablets are reportedly very popular in special education and for those who learn visually.
Textbook publishers are racing to develop curriculum specifically for iPads. Moreover, digital programs are less costly than textbooks and have interactivity and videos as well.
“I don’t want to generalize because I don’t want to insult people who are working hard to make those resources,” says Burlington High (Massachusetts) principal Patrick Larkin of textbooks, “but they’re pretty much outdated the minute they’re printed and certainly by the time they’re delivered. The bottom line is that the iPads will give our kids a chance to use much more relevant materials.”
It looks like HP’s TouchPad is not the only tablet to face a challenging market.
Best Buy has placed RIM’s PlayBook on sale, discounting the 64GB model by $150, while the 16GB and 32GB versions have been marked down by $50.
“Research In Motion’s PlayBook has had something of a rough ride since its launch in April this year,” reports Digital Trends. “Reviews have been mixed, while just a month after appearing on shelves, almost 1,000 of the tablets had to be recalled due to unspecified faulty hardware issues.”
Additionally, Sprint announced last month that it was dropping its plan to bring the 4G PlayBook to its network, leaving the device without a major U.S. carrier.
Amazon is reportedly close to production on its long-rumored tablet device. TechCrunch provides a fascinating first-person report on the Android-based Kindle (but sorry, no pictures yet).
The device will initially feature a 7-inch color touchscreen with a 10-inch model coming next year. The interface is Amazon’s and the main screen resembles iTunes Cover Flow with a carousel of books, apps, movies. It is built on top of pre 2.2 Android. It will NOT be getting Honeycomb or Ice Cream Sandwich.
It will be integrated with Amazon’s content store, which is one-click away. Apps will be available though Amazon’s Android App Store (and not Google’s Android Market). Additionally, the book reader is the Kindle app, the music player is Amazon’s Cloud Player and the movie player is Amazon’s Instant Video player. There is no camera.
The device is expected to include a free subscription to Amazon Prime, which will provide access to Amazon Instant Video.
TechCrunch anticipates an end of November launch at a cost of $250. There are many more details in the article…
Engineers at UCLA have created the first fully stretchable organic light-emitting diode (OLED), taking the development of bendable devices to the next level.
“Stretchable electronics promise video displays that could be rolled up and tucked into a shirt pocket, or cell phones that could swell or shrink,” reports MIT’s Technology Review. “Electronic sheets that could be draped like cloth would be a boon for robotic skin and embedded medical devices.”
In order to create the stretchable OLED display, UCLA’s team “sandwiched two layers of the carbon nanotube electrode around a plastic that emits light when a current runs through it. The team used an office laminating device to press the final, layered device together tightly, pushing out any air bubbles and ensuring that the circuit would be complete when electricity was applied.” The result is a small polymer that can stretch up to 45 percent on one axis while emitting a colored light.
The two-centimeter square proof-of-concept unit is a ways off from making it into CE devices, but is a significant breakthrough. “We are still some ways off from having high-performance, really robust, intrinsically stretchable devices,” says Stanford professor of chemical engineering Zhenan Bao who works on stretchable solar cells, but “with this work and those from others, we are getting closer and closer to realizing this kind of sophisticated and multifunctional electronic skin.”
The HTC Jetstream tablet (formerly named Puccini), will be available through AT&T beginning this Sunday.
Notable features include: a Snapdragon 1.5 GHz dual core processor, front-facing camera, 8-megapixel rear camera, and HTC scribe stylus pen.
The Jetstream runs Android 3.1 Honeycomb on a 10.1-inch screen and will be AT&T’s first tablet with real 4G LTE.
According to the company press release: “HTC Jetstream is AT&T’s first tablet to showcase the Android 3.1 OS. The brand new operating system was designed from the ground up for devices with larger screens. It improves on Android favorites with new interactive and resizeable widgets plus improved multi-tasking, browsing, notifications, and customization.”
However, the $700 price tag, “discounted” with a 2-year contract (and $35/month data plan), may prove off-putting to some consumers.
In a price comparison of Apple’s iPad and 42-inch LCD TVs, Bloomberg has included a compelling chart from research firm DisplaySearch that illustrates how the average price of a large screen TV is expected to soon drop below that of the popular tablet.
According to DisplaySearch, the average cost of a 42-inch LCD TV in the U.S. is expected to drop to $578 by the end of this year and continue to fall through 2015.
Apple’s iPad tablets sell for $499 to $829 in the U.S., with the Wi-Fi only, 32-gigabyte version priced at $599.
“The value consumers ascribe to a TV set is lower than most manufacturers’ costs,” says Macquarie Group analyst Jeff Loff. “Even incremental features like 3D, Internet connectivity and enhanced motion processing do not generate enough of a price lift to turn TV sets profitable.”
MasterImage 3D is developing a 3D screen for smartphones and tablets that doesn’t require special glasses.
The screen uses what the company calls “cell matrix parallax barrier” technology, which it claims is more sophisticated than the autostereoscopic technology currently available.
GamesBeat lead writer Dean Takahashi points out that the viewing experience is vastly improved as compared to disappointments such as the Nintendo 3DS: “But the glasses-free experience MasterImage 3D has developed is something altogether different. From what I’ve seen so far, it’s going to offer an outstanding 3D experience on smartphones and tablets.”
Roy Taylor, executive vice president and general manager for MasterImage 3D, demonstrated a working prototype for Takahashi, who was very impressed: “The quality blew me away. On a 4.3-inch WVGA screen, Taylor showed a 3D movie running in stereoscopic 3D. I didn’t need to wear glasses to see the sharp 3D imagery. When I moved my head, it didn’t get blurry. And if I moved my head too far to the side, it gracefully transitioned to a two-dimensional image.”
Amazon’s tablet PC is widely expected to be ready for release this fall and, according to Forrester Research, will “completely disrupt the status quo.”
Forrester analysts predict the tablet will provide competition for Apple’s iPad and could sell as many as 5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011.
The report suggests Amazon’s success will depend on pricing the device below $300 (paidContent points out that Amazon has yet to officially confirm it will even release a tablet).
Forrester believes an Amazon tablet will prove popular based on the company’s “willingness to sell hardware at a loss combined with the strength of its brand, content, cloud infrastructure, and commerce assets.”
If successful, an Amazon tablet could significantly boost the competitive profile of Google’s Android operating system.
MagAppZine is a DIY app-publishing platform designed to lower the cost for publishers looking to create an application for the Apple App Store.
Starting next month, the 2.0 version will offer PDF uploads, website viewing and in-app sales of multiple issues (at a significant price drop).
“Co-founder Paul Canetti spent three years at Apple before leaving to launch a series of iOS training and development businesses,” reports ReadWriteWeb. “Then he started MagAppZine last July. It’s a simple looking publishing platform that democratizes access to publishing online — a little like blogging but for an App Store world.”
“Our most basic app package launched in April of this year,” explains Canetti, “but in September we are re-launching MagAppZine 2.0, which will include the new links and multimedia, an InDesign tool, and integration with Apple’s upcoming Newsstand feature. We’re also rolling out a new tiered monthly pricing structure that has plans starting at $99 a month.”
Joining other airlines in similar efforts, British Airways will trial the use of iPads with its cabin crews to improve customer service, increase efficiency and cut back on paper. (ETCentric reported in May that Alaskan Airlines became the first U.S. carrier to replace its flight manuals with Apple’s popular tablet.)
If the British Airways trial proves successful, senior crew members will be given tablets in the coming months.
“It gives the cabin crew a whole library of information at their fingertips including timetables, safety manuals and customer service updates,” explains the press release. “It also means any issues can be logged with ground-based colleagues around the network prior to departure so solutions can be delivered while the flight is airborne.”
In related news, United Continental has issued iPads to 11,000 of its pilots in its efforts to convert to paperless cockpits.
According to MarketWatch: “…the move saves 16 million sheets of paper and 326,000 gallons in fuel because of the lighter weight.”
Will we see tablets used for automated publishing systems in other professions?
ReadWriteWeb journalist Dan Rowinski posted an interesting op-ed piece this week: “HP’s $99 TouchPad Fire Sale Can Teach Everybody A Lesson.”
“Tablets priced at $99 flying off the shelves and what had been a significant headline on Tuesday (Best Buy has 250,000 unsold TouchPads) had completely turned around on Sunday (Good Luck Finding a $99 TouchPad),” writes Rowinski. “It got me to thinking. As much as consumers love their Apple products and the iPad is a terrific device, consumers want something that is price efficient, even if it is a touch flawed. With literally hundreds of thousands of TouchPads sold over the weekend, a significant note should be playing in retailers’ and manufacturers’ heads — opportunities await for those willing to make a sacrifice.”
Rowinski speculates that an iPad killer is not in our immediate future. He also suggests that major changes are in the making with the browser-based mobile apps enabled by HTML5. He discusses tablets by Motorola, Samsung, HTC and Research In Motion and how price point may become as significant a factor as available apps. He addresses how Amazon learned valuable lessons with its Kindle and could possibly “recreate the Kindle furor by introducing a tablet into the market at $200 or less.”
“The great equalizer will be price,” writes Rowinski. “Amazon and to a certain extent Microsoft with Windows 8 have actually benefited from waiting to enter the tablet wars. They now see the battlefield in front of them and what it will take to make an impact. Quality devices with reasonable prices. Then turn and make money through value-added services.”
The Wall Street Journal reports that “Apple is advising software developers to stop using a feature in software for its iPhones and iPads that has been linked to privacy concerns, a move that would also take away a widely used tool for tracking users and their behavior.”
Developers have been using a unique identifier for each device (known as UDID or Unique Device Identifier) to gather personal data about users, but the company has requested that developers not use the UDID with a new version of the operating system expected in coming weeks.
“The company set no specific deadline for the change,” reports WSJ. “But it stated on a website for developers that the feature ‘has been superseded and may become unsupported in the future.'”
Although privacy advocates reportedly embrace the change, it could potentially create “widespread repercussions for apps, advertising networks, social game networks, analytics firms and others because it removes a way for them to easily offer their services.”
Developers say that alternative solutions are being discussed privately (due to non-disclosure agreements with Apple).
HP has decided to end its recently launched TouchPad tablet and will take a $100 million loss on unsold inventory. (Interestingly, tech columnist Andy Ihnatko was getting ready to write a mixed but generally positive review of the TouchPad for the Chicago Sun-Times.)
Additionally, on the heels of the company announcing it would be integrating its webOS with smart appliances and other devices, HP now says there will be no more webOS phones. It did apparently leave the option open to licensing webOS to third parties.
In related news, AllThingsD reports that HP’s recent decision to stop the development of its webOS puts it’s personal computer business in a perilous position, and rumors are spreading as to what the company’s next step will be.
The most likely option involves a spin-off PC business as a separate company, much like Motorola did at the beginning of the year.
If HP decides to sell instead, it is likely that an Asian company will step forward to make the purchase — and the front-runner seems to be Samsung. The predicted price if a sale were to occur is placed at around $20 billion.
Despite the TouchPad’s dismal retail performance, HP is forging ahead with webOS.
HP is in talks to license webOS for use in smart appliances, cars, gadgets “and just about anything else that has a screen,” reports Digital Trends.
The company is taking a similar stance to that of Google with Android in terms of integrating the OS in smart appliances and other devices. HP plans to integrate webOS into all of its computers by next year.
“I happen to believe that webOS is a uniquely outstanding operating system,” said HP CEO Leo Apotheker during the D9 conference. “It’s not correct to believe that it should only be on HP devices. There are all kinds of other people who want to make whatever kind of hardware they make and would like to connect them to the Internet.”
“We are fans of webOS,” explains Digital Trends, “but if HP hopes to expand the platform, it will have to deal with the performance issues we’ve seen on the TouchPad and Palm Pre devices and work to drum up more interest from the developer community.”
