United Kingdom-based BookDepository has opened up shop on our virtual shores. The BookDepository has been raking in awards around the world as a leader in the online bookselling world and seems to be the only current site that can compete with Amazon and B&N.com on price.
I price compared three titles that I would like to purchase soon and they were all cheaper on BookDepository, with a price difference ranging between a penny and 62 cents. So not major savings (they do claim free shipping worldwide though), but it sure is nice to have someone else trying to be competitive.
One thing I really do like is that they are using Google Preview API on their site. It’s nice to be able to read enough of a book that you know you’re making an informed purchase. It’s not as nice as being in a real bookstore, but the extra preview pages are the next best thing. Let us know if you’ve had any experience buying from them.
The interwebs are all a Twitter with the new IndieBound iPhone app, but I had not read deep enough into all the news to realize that the stores had started competing in this space too.
Though they may not have many customers via the ebooks channel yet, it’s smart that they are making it an option to site visitors and store customers. Even though they’re hands are tied by the DRM publishers and distributors have on their books, I thought that the eBooks FAQ was pretty informative for the everyday newbie.
Barnes & Noble opened their Audiobook store this weekend. As a promo they are offering nine titles as free MP3 downloads. I noticed that each title is listed at a penny a piece, but when I clicked through, the total was zero dollars at the checkout stage. You do still have to enter a valid credit card to get your free audiobook, though.
These nine title will be available until 3 a.m. on May 16th.
The folks over at the O’Reilly RADAR blog crunched some numbers and churned out some graphs. With the iPhone Apps store about to sell its one billionth app download, the “books” category is by far and wide the largest mover and shaker. It saw 279% growth over the past week and while sporting only 11% of the Apps Store’s total offerings. Granted it’s not as popular as the Games and Entertainment categories and the growth probably has a lot to do with the Kindle App, but with all of the geo-synching-motion-controlling-gesture-detecting-music-blasting features that the iPhone can do… look what all those iPhone owners are wanting to explore on their gadgets… books.
