Engadget: Simon & Schuster imposing four-month delay on e-book versions of major upcoming releases

Posted by on under page turners, digital trend, wall street journal, versis, book versions, new novel, e book, digital copies, book business, mths, mey, schuster, gap, standpoint, equivalents, tiers, amp, sim, wall street, nbsp |

After hardcover and before paperback. In Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy's mind, this is when we as consumers should be expecting the digital copies of their favorite page turners to come out. Putting money where its mouth is, so to speak, the company has announced that for around 35 of its major releases coming early next year, the e-book iterations won't be out until four months after the physical releases. Seeing as hardcovers can debut at $27 while their digital equivalents can run $10 or less, Reidy notes one of the driving motivations behind this move is to curb consumer expectations that a new novel is worth only one Alexander Hamilton. It's a historically valid concern, especially when you consider how iTunes taught us that songs are only worth $1 apiece, but in the long-term, we don't expect this delay-on-digital trend to stay afloat. The e-book business is growing, and that delay is too artificial for its own good -- at some point, the argument's going to have to shift back to day-and-date pricing tiers. We'll be very interested to see just how this paper-borne release gap pans out from a sales standpoint.

Simon & Schuster imposing four-month delay on e-book versions of major upcoming releases originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tagi: page turners, digital trend, wall street journal, versis, book versions, new novel, e book, digital copies, book business, mths, mey, schuster, gap, standpoint, equivalents, tiers, amp, sim, wall street, nbsp

Most Console Gamers Still Prefer Physical Media

Posted by on under downloading games, game stores, line game, digital copies, ipsos, perceptis, dcs, ly, gamers, advent |

arcticstoat writes "Despite the advent of online game stores on all three major consoles, most console gamers apparently still prefer hoarding collections of gaming discs to downloading games. A recent survey conducted by Ipsos in the UK revealed that 64 per cent of the 1,000 users polled would rather have games on physical discs, while only 25 per cent would prefer digital copies. In the survey, 55 per cent of those polled said price was the key factor in determining their interest in downloading games, while 27 per cent said they wanted games available online before they were in the shops. Ipsos' director Ian Bramley explained, 'Interest absolutely drops away when you get to the types of pricing that you might charge for a new physical disc. People's perceptions are that they're not prepared to pay as much for digital content — they make the connection that it's not a physical disc and therefore it should be cheaper.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Tagi: downloading games, game stores, line game, digital copies, ipsos, perceptis, dcs, ly, gamers, advent