eReader eBook Business Sold to Fictionwise
Fictionwise has announced that it has acquired the eReader.com retail electronic book business unit from Motricity. eReader.com is one of the largest and longest-running eBook retailers on the Internet, with a large customer base and over 23,000 titles available from major publishers and authors.
The company formerly known as PeanutPress was first acquired by Palm Inc in 2001 and became part of the Palm Digital Media Group. It then changed hands to PalmSource after the spin-off and was then sold to PalmGear/Motricity in 2003 who would rebrand it as eReader.com in 2004.
"eReader.com is one of the crown jewels of the eBook world," commented Steve Pendergrast, co-founder of Fictionwise, Inc. "With this acquisition, Fictionwise breaks into the very top ranks of the eBook retail market. Synergies between our business units will open the door to some very interesting developments for our customers in the coming months."
"Over the years, eReader.com nurtured and grew a loyal following of customers while pioneering methods to help raise the general adoption and consumption of eBooks, " said Chris Chuang, Vice President of Strategic Development for Motricity. "eReader.com is a strong strategic fit with Fictionwise, not only in terms of the additional customer footprint it brings, but also in that Fictionwise is acquiring some of the leading technologies and infrastructure in the eBooks market."
Fictionwise plans to maintain ereader.com as an independent web site to capitalize on the strong brand and loyal customer base achieved by the site. However, Fictionwise plans to build on the success of the eReader eBook format by expanding the product to function on an even wider range of handheld devices, allowing customers the flexibility to read on whatever devices best meet their needs.
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RE: eReader sale is sad news.
1. Overly high e-book prices. I can buy "real" books, with all of the convenience and tactile delights they entail, at somewhere like Costco or Amazon for significantly less than the e-book versions. If e-books from publishing houses large & small were consistently 50% less than the hardback & paperback versions I am sure more people would buy 'em.
2. No compelling multi-function devices on the market. The Amazon Kindle is a hideous looking atrocity. Sony's Reader is a fantastic device that, again, is too large to be pocketable. There's a huge market for affordable PDA-sized devices. Imagine something (regardless of OS) the size of a Zodiac but with Sony's fantastic eInk screen. Baring that, Palm should have just taken their aging PDA lineup and respun the TX into a PMP/e-book/mobile phone companion device.
I was always an eReader fan and of the e-books that I did buy, I always purchased there. I figured things were getting ugly when they didn't release a version 3 of their Palm OS eReader software. In fact, that partciluar app hasn't been updated since March '06 IIRC. Wow.
Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P
RE: eReader sale is sad news - no way
Fictionwise is a great site. I have bought several ebooks from them in ereader format that were not available at ereader.com. Fictionwise's discount structure is better than ereader.com. I was under the impression that Fictionwise was the bigger ebook retailer. It seemed to have a larger range.
Regardless, as long as books keep being published in electronic format I'm happy. Ebooks have rekindled my love for novels.
RE: eReader sale is sad news.
RE: eReader sale is sad news.
320x480 should be the MINIMUM of any serioues new release in '08. Why can I not shake the feeling that if Nova does ship, we're going to see it running on...320x320 and 480x480 devices!?!
800x480 is the new widescreen res of choice! (Eee PC, Nokia tablets) but I'd love to see an oddball for more pocket-sized devices, such as 600x360 or some such!
Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P
RE: eReader sale is sad news.
Re eReaders - I think there is a bit of a catch 22 situation - serious users prepared to pay a lot of money demand a large screened reader (just like they want large monitors and large text books) whereas casual readers want small pocketable devices, but are not prepared to pay for them. Thats why dedicated readers end up stuck in a niche, being too large and expensive to expand into the larger casual market.
Surur
RE: eReader sale is sad news.
Sale is no failure
Does Apple Want To Be King Of Ebooks?
http://tinyurl.com/3cbhwo
Lots of other ebook posts there too.
Ebooks are on the rise
Palm could do it with a TX2 or a Treo with a larger screen. Will they? We will have to see.
"Many men stumble across the truth, but most manage to pick themselves up
and continue as if nothing had happened."
- Winston Churchill
RE: Ebooks are on the rise
And when they DO go big, they go WAY TOO BIG (Fooleo) instead of giving us the TX2 or 320x480 Treo that we have been clamoring for since the days of the T3 (can you believe it's been over 4 years already? Wow!)
Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P
RE: Ebooks are on the rise
Palm is always swimming against the tide. My TX has completed two years and still no sign of update. I donīt mean that Treos are not good. My wife has a Treo 650 and I think it is a great device. But not for me. I have tried to use it but the screensize is too limited. I even type much faster on my TX than on the 650 because I use Minikbd widescreen keyboard application that allows me to use my fingers on it. Much better thant the IPhone keyboard as I have seen in some reviews. Palm have made many mistakes since the T3:
- Removal of mic, led and vibrating and lack of Wifi on T5
- lack of mic, led and vibrating on TX
- lack of at least 128MB flash program memory on LD to store the applications.
- And finally the Foleo that was a real flop.
If palm took the TX and add to it a cellphone and at least 4GB of flash for sure could be a winner smartphone.
HEY PALM, CANīT YOU HERE THE VOICE OF YOUR LOYAL USERS????
RE: Ebooks are on the rise
PDA's Past and Present:
Palm TX (Number 2)
Palm - IIIxe, Vx, M500, M505, Tungsten T, TX
Handspring - Edge, Platinum, Deluxe
Sony - SJ22
Casio-EM500
Apple - MP110, MP2000, MP2100
RE: Ebooks are on the rise
Once the price comes down, and the screen is color (ie Kindle 2.0), I will buy one.
Now I still use my TX and Treo. They work, but I end up getting Audible books and listening to them on my iPod mostly.
Mike
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eReader sale is sad news.
I have always hated the fictionwise website btw, the design is just so primitive. If eReader was forced to sell to Fictionwise (a much smaller name) they must have really fallen on hard times. It would be like Palm being bought by UTStarcom.
Surur