It is reported by the Wall Street Journal that Amazon is in preliminary talks with book publishers to launch a digital book rental service, though Amazon has not yet commented on the development in public. The service to be called Amazon Prime which is expected to roll out initially in the USA, will be for an annual fee for a library of ebooks. The figure of $79 per annum has been mentioned, which would be cheaper than Netflix’s similar offering for movies.
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Waterstone’s has announced that it will launch its own e-reader to compete with Amazon’s Kindle next year. James Daunt announced the move on BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours. The rise of ebooks, and the selling of physical books online, has given bricks-and-mortar bookshops the same problems that iTunes gave high street CD-sellers. The bookselling business is undergoing dramatic restructuring. Borders has gone. Books etc has gone. Inevitably Waterstone’s is struggling to keep up with Amazon.
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Forrester Research believes that Amazon could pose a threat to Apple’s total dominance in the tablet market. If anyone can do it, then Amazon can, thinks analyst Sarah Rotman Epps in a research report published yesterday. “Amazon taking on Apple is a bit like David taking on Goliath,” she says, but if Amazon is willing to sell its much anticipated device cheaply, and leverage its brand and huge online content, then it could become a major player to challenge Apple’s hegemony.
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Fresh from taking on Facebook with Google+, the search engine giant now has Amazon clearly in its sights with the news that Google has launched its own e-book reader. Google’s Story HD will line up against Apple’s iBook, Barnes & Noble’s Nook and of course the market runaway leader Amazon’s Kindle. The Google e-book reader is to be launched this weekend in the USA becoming available in stores from Sunday 17th July.
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