IN part two of our series on ebooks and ereaders in Ireland we look at Apple and Easons.

Apple

Personally I’ve never rated Apple’s commitment to books as a category and not just because their recently deceased founder dismissed reading as something people didn’t do any more. More importantly for me ebooks never seemed to have Apple’s wholehearted support, iBooks was originally an optional download on new iOS devices rather than a native app/. But I’m beginning to warm to them.

Firstly they are the only ebook international retailer with a dedicated Irish ebook store. Through their iBookstore I can now see what Irish people are buying, at least what they are buying through Apple. Secondly they have a growing collection of enhanced ebooks that offers more than just reading for those easily bored, Finally they are keenly priced beating Amazon by a few cent on many of the bestselling titles.

Where iBooks falls down is its lack of support for computer reading. Unlike Kindle which facilitates both computer reading AND web reading, Apple does neither, a big let down in their ecosystem. ON the plus side, Apple does use the ePub standard with DRM and so

Device Types: The iOS range is huige and includes iPod’s, iPhones and iPads.

Device Pricing: Basic iOS devices begin at €199 for the iPod Touch and range all the way up to the iPad 2 3G 64GB at €799.

Ebook Pricing: Like Amazon Apple offers a huge selection of free ebooks, both classics and mainstream. Bestsellers trending towards 60-80% of print price especially from big six publishers. Some specialist titles have either parity or more expensive ebook editions. Irish publishers are leaking into the iBookstore slowly but surely.

IPN Rating: 4/5 (Loses 1.5 for lack of computer and web reading, gains .5 for Euro Pricing)

Easons

Unlike both Apple and Amazon, Easons is not a platform, in fact it is only a reseller, in that way it’s offering is more like that of a traditional bookseller.

For all that they have a number of positives in their corner. For one they offer a range of devices and use epub and their supplier of epub files is Overdrive which has a massive catalogue.

Another positive for Easons is that they seem keen to expand into ebooks as rapidly as possible, devoting lots of store space to devices and even offering ebooks prominently on their website. It’s also got a trusted name in Irish homes so I;d never rule out a successful effort on Easons behalf to gain a chunk of the market.

They also facilitate download to computers and reading of ebooks on the Adobe Digital Editions application.

Device Types: Easons offers numerous devices from the cheap and cheerful Elonex to the very attractive Sony Reader

Device Pricing: IN truth Easons has the keenest pricing starting at less than €100 and ranging only up to €250.

Ebook Pricing: The range at Easons is good, but not as vast as at Apple and certainly nowhere near as huge as at Amazon. Pricing is also hampered and ebooks are close to print prices in many cases and sometimes higher though to be fair this is a common problem across ebook retailers and is the fault of the publishers not one just associated with Easons.

IPN Rating: 3.5/5 Easons loses 1 for a poor selection, 1 for poor pricing but gains .5 back for Euro pricing.

Friday will see the final part of these series, tackling, Kobo and everyone else.

Still, given that nobody knows anything, what is going to happen in these next five years?

George Walkley laughs at the question. “Anyone who claims to know that is either a liar or a fool, but over the next two years or so, I think we can look at a situation where ebooks represent about 30% of the market.”

Walkley is head of digital for Hachette UK, which includes Orion, Headline and Little, Brown. He accepts that publishers face a huge challenge, but it all depends on what you mean by “publisher”.

“At one level, there will be a huge increase in the number of publishers. A lot of them are going to be one-man bands, a lot of them are going to be people operating out of the spare bedroom. At the same time, there will still be publishers in the conventional sense of the word. I think what we are going to see is a larger, more diverse publishing scene and a more diverse notion of what a publisher is.”

via iPads, eBooks and T.S.Eliot | Bryan Appleyard.

The hottest items at the public library cant be seen on bookshelves.

Just a year after the first e-books appeared in the collections of metro-area libraries, demand is surging and librarians are scrambling to keep up with publishers and patrons. Kindles, iPads and Nooks are being joined by more e-readers and tablets. And the changing shape of books has the library community pondering the role of the traditional brick-and-mortar buildings where paper and ink have long reigned.

“Everybody got these e-book readers and came to the public libraries and said, I want the e-books,” said Christine Lind Hage, a Michigan librarian who serves on an e-book task force for the American Library Association. “A good library is going to have to adapt. You cant stick your head in the sand and say were just going to go with print.”

via E-books flying off e-shelves at metro libraries | StarTribune.com.

“The book publishing industry has entered a period of long-term decline because of the rising sales of e-book readers,” reads an April 28 research note from IHS iSuppli, which predicted a decrease in book revenue at a compound annual rate of three percent through 2014—a reversal from the period between 2005 and 2010, when revenue rose.

For the traditional book publishing industry, the implications of the rise of the e-book and e-book reader markets are frightening, given the decline in paper book printing, distribution and sales,” Steve Mather, IHS iSuppli’s principal analyst for wireless, wrote in an April 28 statement. “The industry has entered a phase of disruption that will be as significant as the major changes impacting the music and movie business.”

The firm predicts that physical book sales will decline at a compound annual rate of 5 percent. While e-book sales will rise during that same period, the increase won’t cover the revenue gap created by the decline in the physical book market. By 2014, the research note predicts, e-books will occupy some 13 percent of U.S. book publishing revenue, more than twice its current level.

However, e-readers will find some significant competition in tablets such as Apple’s iPad.

via Kindle, Nook, Other E-Readers Wrecking Publishing Industry: Report – Desktops and Notebooks – News & Reviews – eWeek.com.

It’s a real question of who you believe this morning is a game of the glass if half full or half empty, depending on who you speak to.

Mashable points to a video of Representative Jesse Jackson’s speech on the floor of the US House Of Representatives this week when he blamed the iPad for job losses in retail, publishers and printing industries, as well as pointing to the fact that the device (which he admits to owning) was made in China:

Speaking on the House floor on April 15, Jackson — an admitted iPad owner — says the device is “probably responsible for eliminating thousands of American jobs.”

He continued: “Now Borders is closing stores because why do you need to go to Borders anymore? Why do you need to go to Barnes & Noble? Just download your book, download your newspaper, download your magazine.” Jackson goes on to say that the iPad is also replacing textbooks in colleges and that the device will cause people who work in publishing, libraries and bookstores to lose their jobs.

On the other hand, Fins Technology points to the more positive message coming from publishers themselves about the new digital age and the iPad:

To capitalize on this trend and re-ignite growth, publishers are expanding their e-book operations. They’re hiring engineers, app and Web designers, statisticians, experts in analytics, metadata managers, information architects and software and app developers, among others. They’re also contracting with a whole new set of start-ups: small companies that specialize in transforming an old-fashioned paper product into a jazzed-up digital experience.

Millions of gift-wrapped iPads, Kindles, Nooks and other digital reading devices resulted in an unprecedented surge in sales of e-books last week.USA TODAYs Best-Selling Books list, to be published Thursday, will show digitals new popularity: E-book versions of the top six books outsold the print versions last week. And of the top 50, 19 had higher e-book than print sales.Its the first time the top-50 list has had more than two titles in which the e-version outsold print.

via Week after holidays, e-book sales outdo print – USATODAY.com.

In Britain, the first (quantitative) stage of BML’s new research project, Understanding the Digital Consumer, carried out in the second half of August 2010, suggests that 7% of adults have downloaded “paid-for book-type content”, a figure that could potentially double by spring 2011. So, though ebook sales in the UK are currently only around one per cent of the US figure, is Britain also now, finally, at the tipping point? Or is it not so much a tipping point as merely “the end of the beginning”? Less publishing’s “iPod moment” than the start of a period where people are willing to try digital downloads on their phone or PC – intrigued, perhaps, by short story offerings from Spoken Ink and Shortlist Press and by the BBC National Short Story Award, which has this year generated real excitement?

via The London Book Fair – Let’s Get Digital!.

Founder of the Waterstone bookshop chain, Tim Waterstone will join, Jamie Byng, whose publishing house Canongate published Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father and the global success, Life Of Pi, author Matthew Kneale and journalist Rachel Cooke in the Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire to debate the future of reading, writing and books.

The session takes place on Sunday 12th September at 1.45pm as part of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown’s book festival, Mountains To Sea which is entering it’s second year in 2010.

The discussion comes at a time of great change in the world of books and the panel will explore this new digital landscape. With the launch in Ireland of Apple iPad and news that Amazon’s newest Kindle device is both the best selling Kindle ever and the best selling product on Amazon there will be much to discuss.

For more information on iPad/iPhone and iPod Touch reading apps try Robert Maguire’s long review post on some of the freely available iPad book Apps.

These apps allow readers to download books to their iPads and read them. Nearly all of them offer works for free that are currently in the Public Domain (That is books that have either been published by authors who have died before 1939 as copyright extends for the life of the author plus seventy years or books that have been placed in the public domain by their authors for a variety of reasons).

If Irish readers wish to buy books however, other than as stand alone apps, which IS currently possible directly though the iPad App Store, then they will need to buy them in Apps other than iBooks.

The Kindle App for iPad is currently in the top Twenty free apps and it offers books for free and for purchase. Kobo also offers books for sale. Both require credit cards as does an iTunes account so that might present problems.

Direct downloads from these apps however take only seconds once a book is purchased. Both also allow for preview sections to be sent to a device and Amazon’s Kindle in particular has a good online account for managing your purchases and previews and re-sending them if needs be.

All told, Kindle is the clear winner in terms of selection and pricing though Kobo is a good performer and some may prefer the apps design clarity and presentation which is slightly sharper on the iPod Touch than the Kindle App.

This morning iBooks is the number one free iPad App in Ireland.

Amazon’s Kindle for iPad app, at number eleven is just outside the top ten free Apps.

The Elements: A Visual Exploration published by Touch Press is the top ranked paid book app at number 15 in the overall list of paid apps.

Drilling down to the paid apps in the book section, The Elements: A Visual Exploration is at number one, the full version of Disney’s toy Story Read Along App at number two, Alice for the iPad at number three, Self Help Classics at number four and The Cat In The Hat by Dr. Seuss at number five.

iBooks is joined by the Kindle App, Marvel Comics App, Toy Story Read Along App and the Free Books App in the top five free book apps.

For more on reading and book apps, read Robert Maguire’s post from yesterday: To E Or Not To E: A Beginner’s Guide To iPad Ereading Apps.