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Friday, July 26, 2002
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Report Finds Growth In Ebook Industry
Despite major setbacks, such as the closings of iPublish and
Mighty Words, a new study finds that ebook sales are growing
and money is continuing to be spent on developing ebook technology.
The study, conducted by the Open eBook Forum, is an industry-wide
analysis of sales growth and new product innovation.
Showing growth in all facets of the business, the
analysis highlights the numbers of users adopting ebooks and
related software, the creation of new technologies and the
increasing use of ebooks by publishers as marketing tools
that work in tandem with traditional book sales efforts.
The non-profit Open eBook Forum aggregates business
data, develops industry standards and champions electronic books
as a tool to promote literacy and provide access for readers
with disabilities. The results of the organization's analysis
were announced by Nicholas Bogaty, executive director of the
Open eBook Forum.
"The initial hype that surrounded the early days of ebooks has
overshadowed the steady growth of a burgeoning industry," says
Bogaty. "By providing concrete numbers on the solid growth of
this market, we're able to tangibly assess its impacts on the
traditional publishing world and on consumers."
Open eBook Forum members that contributed data include Adobe Systems
Inc., AOL Time Warner Book Group, HarperCollins, Microsoft
Corporation, OverDrive, Random House, Inc., Simon & Schuster,
Palm Digital Media and McGraw-Hill. The group released
some of its analysis findings -- which are listed below.
Growth in Customer Base
- Random House, Inc.'s ebook revenues doubled year-over-year in
2001 and during the latest quarter ending in March, revenues
were the highest since the company began selling ebooks in 1998.
- HarperCollins' eBook imprint, PerfectBound, has sold more
ebooks in the first five months of 2002 than in all of 2001
- Average monthly downloads of Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader have
increased by approximately 70% from 2001 to 2002
- Simon & Schuster has seen double-digit growth in ebook sales
from the first half of 2001 to the first half of 2002
- Over 5 million copies of Microsoft Reader have been
distributed for use on desktop, notebook and Pocket PC systems
- Palm Digital Media reports that nearly 180,000 ebooks were
sold in 2001, a more than 40% increase from 2000
- In 2002, McGraw-Hill Professional ebook sales are up 55% over
the same period last year
New Technology Development/Consumer Product Offerings
- Random House, Inc. has coordinated with its compositors and
other print partners to standardize ebook production and
create print and ebook formats simultaneously.
- Adobe is providing new automated library lending functionality
which allows patrons to check-out an ebook and check it back
in
- Overdrive puts the number of publishers and independents
offering a commercial ebook library at 450
- HarperCollins' PerfectBound is offering exclusive "ebook
extras" on its frontlist titles
- The forthcoming tablet PC from Microsoft is being positioned
as a perfect platform for reading
- 23 AOL Time Warner Book Group's New York Times bestsellers for
2001 are available as ebooks
Ebooks in Publishers' Marketing Efforts
- All eight of Random House Inc.'s trade divisions are
supporting digital editions and have a commitment to publish
lead titles simultaneously in ebook and print.
- HarperCollins' PerfectBound promotions have increased the
sales of individual titles as much as 5-10 times by offering
older titles by an author for free in electronic form as a
means to promote that author's latest title
- Simon & Schuster is publishing the complete Hemingway
collection of 23 books electronically in August 2002
- In a recent survey of librarians, 41% of respondents indicated
intent to offer Adobe PDF eBooks to their patrons
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