| Review Date: September 2015 – Review unit purchased from Amazon Overview The Lenovo Tab 2 10 was released in May 2015. It’s a 10-inch Android tablet that runs Android 5.0 Lollipop. It’s among Lenovo’s A series tablets that also includes 7 and 8-inch models. The Tab 2 10 is the best of the bunch. It […] |
Saturday, September 26, 2015
Lenovo Tab 2 A10 Android Tablet Review (+Video)
Publishers Initiate Predatory Pricing on e-Books to Destroy the Market
| Major publishers have gained the ability to dictate their own prices on e-books and this has dramatically increased the cost to the customer. In many cases the hardcover is actually cheaper now than the digital version and this is because of predatory pricing. Publishers have been making moves to capitalize on the convenience and instant delivery of e-Books by making them more expensive than their printed counterparts. I have talked to many high ranking executives off the record and they have told me that they foresee the destruction of the e-book market and are anticipating higher profits on print down the road. There are many companies that are heavily involved in the e-book sector that have went out of business over the course of the last year. Sony killed off their consumer e-reader division and abandoned the Reader Store in every country, but Japan. Diesel eBooks, Oyster, Entitle, Txtr, Blinkbox Books and others have all closed up shop because e-books are no longer profitable. The reason why these companies went out of business is because of predatory pricing from the publishers. If you have never heard of this term, its basically a pricing strategy that is intended to drive competitors out of the market, or create barriers to entry for potential new competitors. The fewer e-book stores that exist, the less sales the format generates, which is resulting in a resurgence of trade paperback and hardcover sales at the expense of e-books. The Association of American Publishers, using collected data from around 1,200 publishers, found that e-book sales dropped 10% during the first five months of 2015. They also found that e-books generated 24.9% of publisher revenues between January and May, down from a peak of 26.5% in the same period last year. The Kindle "has disappeared to all intents and purposes", said James Daunt the head of Britain's biggest book chain Waterstones. He also reported that print book sales lifted by 5% in December 2014 and that they plan on opening at least a dozen stores in 2015 . Foyles, the London chain of bookstores, said sales of physical books had risen 11% last Christmas. Across the pond, Australian bookseller Jon Page of Page and Pages said "Sales were up 3% last year, and will increase by 6% in 2015, which is fantastic because for the last three years we'd actually seen a decline." United States bookseller Barnes and Noble announced that their "Core" comparable bookstore sales, which exclude sales of NOOK products, increased 1.1% in the first quarter of 2016, while Nook product sales declined 28.0%. Likely the most compelling case of predatory pricing for publishers is in your local libraries e-book collection. Very early on, publishers realized that e-books do not have as much legal protections as physical books do, because they are considered a service and not a product. This has resulted in the e-book cost increasing by over by 800% and limits on the number of checkouts being imposed before the library has to buy a new copy. Real books last MUCH longer than this, at a fraction of the price to the library. The sad truth is, e-book sales are falling all over the world, but libraries don’t have the luxury to abandon buying them and are at the mercy of the publishers. Print is doing so well now, that publishes are heavily investing in infrastructure. According to a New York Times article Hachette added 218,000 square feet to a warehouse last year, Simon & Schuster is expanding a New Jersey distribution facility, and Penguin Random House has invested nearly $100 million in expanding and updating its warehouses. In a few short years most digital bookstores will be out of business and Amazon and Kobo will likely be the only players left. The destruction of the digital book market has already been set in motion and there is nothing that can prevent the format from being completely annihilated. |
Notion Ink Cain Signature Black Edition Now Available
| When the tablet industry started to blossom in 2011, one of the companies to really make a splash was Notion Ink. It was the first Android device that incorporated a screen from Pixel QI, which allowed you to use it in direct sunlight. The company has always done some really cool things with design and this is very evident in their new product, the Notion Ink Cain Signature Black Edition. Notion Ink Cain Signature Black Edition, sports a 10.1-inch multi-touch IPS display with 800 x 1280 pixels and Scratch Resistant Glass. It is powered by a 1.33GHz quad-core Intel Atom Z3735F processor with 646MHz Intel HD Graphics with 2GB RAM. On the storage front, this device comes in 32GB/64GB of inbuilt storage with an expansion option of up to 128GB via microSD card slot. There are two cameras on the front and rear, both are 2 MP. The Notion Ink Cain Signature Black Limited Edition is being billed as a “2-in-1”, since it comes with a magnetic cover with integrated keyboard and multitouch trackpad. The device also comes with ProPen, which is an “active stylus”, as the company calls it. The ProPen allows functions such as scribbling, sketch and drawing. It has been designed with a tip that can be turned either clockwise or counter-clockwise in order to adjust the sensitivity. Currently you buy can buy this device via Snapdeal. The 64 GB variant is available for $317 USD and a 32 GB model will be released soon for $279.00 |
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