Yet, Borders decided to twist things up and expand their market by partnering up with Kobo a Canadian e-bookstore; that contains 1.5 million book titles. Furthermore it established a partnership with Sony for their Reader Pocket Edition and Sony Reader Touch Edition. Through this partnership, by 2011 Borders claims to hold seventeen percent of the e-book market.
Despite this huge lunge forward, Borders is quite behind comparatively speaking with Amazon (Kindle), Apples (iPad), and Barnes & Nobles (Nook). Borders added a new quirk that none of the former acquire which is that "readers can move books around devices freely".
Since this is still a new product on the market, no one is a dominator in the product. With Borders entering the market, customers might shift their demand to Borders since they have the "new" e-book. Not only is this very competitive between the big industries mentioned above, but also this is causing colossal damage to small business that only sell hard or paper copy books. This generation is very focalized on having everything technical. Less and less people are buying cover bound books, making those businesses turn to bankruptcy.
Reference:
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/70367.html
Maria:
ReplyDeleteI first want to say that the rate of these products being produced under the e-book trend is insane! Just wanted to say that.
I am not very optimistic for Borders to release its new "Kindle" (I realize that's not what it is called, but they are all essentially adding to what the Kindle popularized). In order to make your product desired in the telecommunications market, your product needs to bring some form of innovation, but it does not stop there - this form of innovation MUST seem helpful to the consumers. The best that Borders can come up with is that you can switch whatever book the consumer is reading? The consumer is going to ask him/herself why that is important - what does Borders think they will say? I (and I feel that it's the same among many readers) prefer to read one book and stick with it until the end, not switch from one frame of mind and setting in a book to another. This concept does not have to go completely to waste, however - it just has to be used the right way. I would propose to make the Borders version of the e-book more student friendly by getting textbook liscensing. It would be a lot easier if I, as a student, could switch from reading a Biology assignment to reviewing an essential concept in my Math class.
I agree with you Sev, and alot of it has to do with behavioral economics. in October 2009, Oprah presented the Kindle to her fans and instantly the demand for the product increased exponentially (O'Brien, 279). About book switching, it would be excellent if Borders did get a liscensing for textbooks especially to review last materials before an exam for example. However, the book switching is not that bad of an idea. Meaning, that maybe you missed a chapter or would like to revisit it, however you have already started a new book. Instead of checking out the two books you could switch them on your "Kindle".
ReplyDeleteAlso, classes sometimes require readings through novels or books and not textbooks. The Kindle, I feel would be excellent for this type of reading.
As mentioned above about behavioral economics, I wonder if the different e-books are going to become like Pepsi vs Coke where, its not really a difference in product but more who drinks it.