E Ink capacity to expand to fill orders
19 May 2022 (Taipei Times)
“Reading is still the most affordable leisure activity that people have,” E Ink CEO Johnson Lee told an online investors’ conference in Taipei. As e-books are less expensive than paper books, “we have so far not seen a slowdown in demand,” Lee said. “We are seeing quite robust demand.”
E-book sales fell in 2021 to lowest point since 2012
19 May-2022 (The Bookseller)
According to Nielsen’s UK Book Market in Review 2021 report, 80 million e-books were downloaded in 2021.
E-textbook service Perlego to make Mondadori Group titles available on platform
18 May 2022 (The Bookseller)
Non-fiction, science and fiction e-books will become accessible to university students who use the Perlego service.
Student Spending on Course Materials Fell 22% in 2021–22
18 May 2022 (Inside Higher Ed)
Students spent an average of $97 on e-textbooks.
Apple rumored to be developing foldable iPhone with an external E Ink display
17 May 2022 (Good E-Reader)
Apple has long been rumored to be working on a foldable iPhone device, one that would serve as a smartphone in its folded state and a tablet when unfolded. Now there are reports of Apple including a color E Ink display on the outer surface…
Conservative parents take aim at library apps meant to expand access to books
12 May 2022 (NBC News)
In several [US] states, apps [Like Overdrive and Epic] — and the companies that run them — have been targeted by conservative parents who have pushed schools and public libraries to shut down their digital programs, which let users download and read books on their smartphones, tablets and laptops.
Storytel: Streaming Revenue Up 35 Percent in Q1 Year Over Year
13 May 2022 (Publishing Perspectives)
Storytel’s first quarter reflects the reorganization of the company underway. Streaming revenue was up 35 percent in Q1 2022 over Q1 2021 to 699 million Swedish kronor (US$69.7 million).
Norway’s Beat Technology is behind Fluister
11 May 2022 (Publishing Perspectives)
They’re working in partnership with the Veronica media group and the Libris.nl chain of independent bookstores to open subscription service offering audiobooks, ebooks, and podcasts at a monthly flat rate of €12.99 (US$13.68).
Dutch streaming platform Fluister to launch in June with audiobooks, e-books, podcasts
11 May 2022 (Telecompaper)
Publishers Singel Uitgevers, WPG Uitgevers and VBK Uitgevers have announced a new streaming platform called Fluister (Whisper). The Fluister streaming service offers unlimited access to a huge amount of audiobooks, e-books and podcasts.
Amazon to half-heartedly support ePub on Kindles
5 May 2022 (Input Mag)
Any ePub file you send to your Kindle using Amazon’s service is actually getting converted to a proprietary KF8 file, which isn’t exactly the same thing as the e-reader “supporting” ePub files; in fact, it’s totally different. There are advantages to KF8 files — they’re designed for the Kindle, and fully-support the e-reader’s specific ways of displaying footnotes, fonts, and typesetting. But the major disadvantage of Amazon’s half-step remains: There’s still an annoying digital middleman keeping .epub files from working like the books they are.
Kobo has made improvements to Store, Apps and Web Reader
2 May 2022 (Good E-Reader)
This Spring, Kobo has made a number of improvements to their shopping experience, their reading apps and the new Web Reader, which allows you to read ebooks in your internet browser. They have also made significant improvements to their software on various Kobo e-readers, such as the Elipsa and Sage. If you want to find out the latest new enhancements fixes and new features, we have their entire change log.
Public Library Turns To E-books In Nationwide Fight Against GOP-Led Book Bans
1 May 2022 (Youtube)
As an unprecedented wave of GOP-led book bans and challenges sweep through school libraries nationwide, one library is turning to technology to help teen readers overcome censorship in their local communities. For a limited time, the Brooklyn Public Library’s “Books UnBanned” campaign
Digital book readership in China exceeds 500m in 2021
24 April 2022 (Shine.cn)
The overall scale of China’s digital reading market reached 41.57 billion yuan (US$6.4 billion), marking a year-on-year growth of 18.23 percent, according to the China digital readership report 2021. Over 70 percent of these readers are under the age of 25, stated the report mainly compiled by the China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association, adding that more and more readers are willing to pay for digital content.
Nextory’s 69% subscriber growth in Q1 may not be as impressive as at first appears
21 April 2022 (The New Publishing Standard)
Prior to this all Nextory’s growth had been organic – open in a new market (a proven market where others had set the pace, not a virgin market), and with a successful marketing push bring on board new subscribers, typically with high double-figure percentage results, although per many past TNPS discussions on this topic, percentages without baselines do not tell us much. But in 2021 the Nextory acquisitions era began, first with the buy-out of Spain’s Nubico.
Public libraries unwittingly offered ‘hate’ books through a private service
20 April 2022 (The Verge)
An ebook subscription platform used by thousands of public libraries in the US and elsewhere is offering Holocaust denial, COVID disinformation, LGBTQ conversion therapy, and other conspiracy theory books, according to a report by Motherboard.
More Ebook Industry News (back to Aug 2017)
