Monday, May 23, 2011

E-Book Sales Overcome Print Books

Amazon has announced that sales of its Kindle e-Books has outstripped sales of all its print books, including hardcover and softcover. During 2010, it announced that e-Book sales had exceeded sales of hardcover books.

IT clearly marks the course of the future. People are getting used to reading on a screen and the convenience of carrying a small device rather than a pile of heavy books is making its mark.

Sales of eBooks will also be spurred on by the sales of tablet computers as well. Although their screens are not as good as those of the e-readers, nevertheless, they tend to be very good, except in direct sunlight, and have the same level of convenience as their e-reader counterparts. In fact they might have some more convenience, since the tablets also include other conventional computer apps as well within the same device and people don't want to be burdened with carrying around a bunch of different devices.

Expect e-Books to remain as the dominant form of books in future and print books to become collectors items. Read more on the announcement here.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Google Interior Views

Google is doing it again. The company is bringing out a new service under Google Earth in which you can go beyond street view to enter buildings and tour around inside. Want to visit the Louvre? Or check out that great looking restaurant on Fifth Avenue?

Google is not the first to make this happen. However, the fact that the capability will be integrated into its popular Google Earth will seriously ramp up the importance of interior views. Businesses will be able to make use of this feature for advertising purposes. Customers will be able to do virtual shopping, check out the ambience of interiors or perhaps eventually window shop, or heck, even actually shop.

The possibilities are incredible. Further explanation is in this article.