Amazon Says Sorry for Deleting E-books on Kindles

July 27, 2009 · Filed Under News · Comment

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos issued an apology on Thursday after the company deleted copies of e-books on customers’ Kindles last week.

In the apology posted on company site, Bezos admitted that the move by Amazon was “stupid, thoughtless and painfully out of line with our principles.” Amazon had removed copies of e-books from its customers’ Kindles in an attempt to control illegally sold works on Kindles. However the step resulted in a huge outcry of protest from customers and a barrage of criticism on the way Amazon had handled the issue.

Among the novels deleted from customers’ Kindles reader were Animal Farm and 1984 both works of mid-twentieth century British novelist George Orwell. The fact of Amazon arbitrarily deleting e-books which were themselves based on the evils of repressive societies added a further irony to the whole issue. Some customers also complained that Amazon had deleted copies of other novels as well from their Kindles like those by Ayn Rand and some of the Harry Potter series.

Close on the heels of its public relations mess, Amazon also released its second quarterly earnings which fell far below Wall Street expectations and consequently suffered a 7% drop in share value on the stock market.

Tags: Amazon, Kindles

Google to sell new e-books online

June 4, 2009 · Filed Under News · Comment

Google Inc. is planning to begin selling electronic versions of new books (e-books) online this year. This is being understood as a potential competition to the market leader Amazon.

According to Gabriel Stricker, A spokesperson from Google, “We’ve consistently maintained that we’re committed to helping our partners find more ways to make their books accessible and available for purchase. By end of this year, we hope to give publisher partners an additional way to sell their books by allowing users to purchase access to Partner Program books online.”

“We want to build and support a digital book ecosystem to allow our partner publishers to make their books available for purchase from any Web-enabled device,” he added in a statement on Monday.

This project undertaken by the Search engine giant is expected to be different from the Google’s controversial book-scanning program. The latest project from Google Inc will enable the book publishers to sell digital/electronic versions of their newest books directly to consumers through Google, placing the internet giant in a direct competition with Amazon.com. Amazon has been selling e-books for its electronic book reader, Kindle.

Tags: Amazon, books, digital version, e-bboks, Google, Google Inc, Kindle, online, publishers, search engine

Amazon unveils Kindle Application for iPhone

March 4, 2009 · Filed Under Business, News · Comment

Amazon on Wednesday unveiled its plan to develop an application that would allow the iPod and iPhone users to access the same content as on the USD 359 Kindle, electronic book reader from Amazon.com.

This is the first time that Kindle’s content would be available on a cell phone. The leading online retailer, Amazon.com plans to roll out this new application which could be downloaded from Apple’s online application store. It would enable the Apple device users to read the same electronic books, magazines and newspapers that Kindle owners can buy on the website, Amazon.com. Similarly to the Kindle book reader, the application will allow the users to change the text size on the screen, and add bookmarks, notes and highlight.

However, the Apple application does not connect to the Kindle store and hence the users must have an access to the Web browser on their iPhone, iPod or computer to buy the content.

Amazon’s vice president for the Kindle, Ian Freed said that Amazon has been working on the application for several months. Freed said that the company sees the software as a way to introduce non-Kindle owners to the device, potentially turning them into Kindle buyers.

“It also gives Kindle owners an additional way to read their content while on the go,” he added further.

However the application for mobile users will not include the recently included text-to-speech feature Amazon built into the latest Kindle, Kindle 2.

Tags: Amazon, Apple, application, iPhone, iPod, Kindle

Amazon modifies Kindle 2 ‘text-to-speech’ feature

March 2, 2009 · Filed Under News · Comment

Amazon.com is now developing features to let copyright holders opt out of having their books read aloud on the company’s new Kindle 2 book reader.

The U.S. Authors Guild had earlier alerted the members that Kindle’s new text-to-speech feature could pose a “significant challenge” to the publishing industry. It also hinted at possible legal action stating that they were studying the issue closely.

In an online statement posted on Friday by Amazon, the company asserted, “Kindle 2’s experimental text-to-speech feature is legal: no copy is made, no derivative work is created, and no performance is being given. Nevertheless, we strongly believe many rightsholders will be more comfortable with the text-to-speech feature if they are in the driver’s seat.”

Amazon also said that it has started in making the necessary technical modifications needed to allow these settings as per the user’s requirements.

“With this new level of control, publishers and authors will be able to decide for themselves whether it is in their commercial interests to leave text-to-speech enabled. We believe many will decide that it is,” said the company in the written statement.

Tags: Amazon, Amazon.com, Kindle 2