Google Announces Its Ebook Store
The world's largest ebook library announced "Google Editions", a 500,000 title ebook store that will launch during the first half of 2010. Reactions to the news varied. Bezos, with his 350,000 ebooks, was overheard muttering "Dang!".* Barnes & Noble's 200,000 non-Google-provided ebooks alternated cheers of "Crap!" and "Yahoo!"*. Manufacturers of the 15 ereader devices expected to launch by mid-2010 cheered for joy* while Kindle owners sighed with disappointment*, victims of their all-too-familiar love of glitzy proprietary formats (ahem, Apple).
Meanwhile, a Popular Science magazine reader explains How to Build Your Own Kindle
A Popular Science reader builds an ebook reader that's full color and can read any ebook format. Cost? 1 hour and $100 less than a Kindle. Disclaimer: Okay, the guy just loaded a few ereader software programs onto a tablet PC. Not that cool. Still, the point remains: Kindle is overpriced and underfeatured and, courtesy of Google, about to be out-titled.
Meanwhile, the RIAA and MPAA learned that they have no hope against BitTorrent.
Book publishers attending the Frankfurt Book Show this weekend fretted openly at this sign of things to come.*
Meanwhile, the Association of American Publishers scratched its head*, noting that ebook sales accounted for just 1.6% of the $5.25 billion in U.S. book sales in the first half of 2009.
*not really
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