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Amazon Offers an Opt-Out Option for Kindle Fire ads

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Image representing Amazon as depicted in Crunc...

When Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, unveiled the new Kindle models that will go on sale in a few months, everyone got excited. These are products that will shake up both the e-book reader and tablet markets. But then one bit of information suddenly dawned on them – the Kindle Fire tablets will all be ad-supported, with no option to buy a model that doesn’t support ads.

The reactions to having ads forced on you without the option to opt out of it has rubbed many people the wrong way – and it may have been a significant enough number because Amazon has announced belatedly that Kindle Fire buyers who want to have the ads removed can now have it removed by paying a $15 fee. [Read more…]

Originally posted on September 10, 2012 @ 11:00 pm

Target Pulls out Amazon Kindle From Its Stores

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Target, one of the biggest retailers in the US, has decided to remove the Amazon Kindle from its online stores and final shipments of the league-leading e-reader will also happen by the middle of the month – effectively ending the presence of Amazon in Target stores all across the country.

Target’s decision to remove Amazon’s Kindle reader from its stores is a huge move that has definitely caught the media’s attention. According to various sources it was a conflict of interest that made Target decide to drop the Kindle from its stores. But the official statement of Target says otherwise: [Read more…]

Originally posted on May 3, 2012 @ 12:35 pm

Amazon Removes 5000 Books From Kindle Store Over Contract Dispute

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Amazon recently removed about 5,000 ebooks from the Kindle store as a result of not being able to forge an agreement with Independent Publishers Group about over a new contract. The 41 year old IPG was founded in Chicago and officially went into the ebook business in 2001. The group is the second largest independent book distributor in the United States.

Amazon began to remove IPG titles from the Kindle Store at the beginning of the week when the two entities could not agree on terms on a new contract. The pullout is only for the ebooks, the printed editions of the same titles are still available at Amazon. [Read more…]

Originally posted on February 24, 2012 @ 8:35 pm

Penguin Opts Out of Kindle Library Lending Service

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In what is considered a move that could be followed by other top book publishers, the Penguin Group  has announced that it has asked Amazon to remove all of its e-books from the Amazon Kindle library lending service. The publisher said that security fears are the main reason it is stopping the lending of its books.

According to OverDrive, the company that works with Amazon in managing digital content to different institutions like libraries, schools and retailers, the Penguin Group said that it has asked to “suspend availability of new Penguin e-book titles from our library catalog and disable ‘Get for Kindle’  functionality for all Penguin e-books.” [Read more…]

Originally posted on November 23, 2011 @ 9:16 am

E-Book Reader War Heats Up, Kindle on Target, Nook on Best Buy

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Again, it’s all about Apple and the iPad. Probably realizing that they need to push both their e-readers near to consumers some more, especially now that the iPad was proven to be a good competitor in the e-reader nice, Amazon and Nook are reportedly pushing their devices to brick and mortar stores.

And so the Kindle which is currently available only through Amazon.com will soon be making its way to Target.com. Engadget managed to score a shot of Target’s inventory handheld showing the Kindle device.  In addition, Target.com might start selling the e-book reader starting on April 25. Why it took Amazon this long to make its Kindle available on brick and mortar stores is not important anymore. What’s important is that casual buyers who chance upon it on Target’s store shelves might actually make an unplanned purchase of the Kindle.

As for Barnes & Noble’s Nook e-reader, another reliable source revealed that the Nook will be available on Best Buy brick-and-mortar stores. Curently, you can only score a Nook through Barnes & Noble online store or from Barnes & Noble outlets.  The proof was once again revelead by an inventory system, this time from Best Buy showing that B&N’s Nook will be available on Best Buy stores starting April 18.

What remains to be seen now is whether this will lead to an increase in both the sales figures of Nook and Kindle.  What we don’t know right now is how much these devices will be sold on stores. Will they be priced lower than their selling price online?

Originally posted on April 8, 2010 @ 5:22 pm