Thanks to Liz

Thank you to Liz Hains for her contributions to The CITE over the past 2 years. Liz has increasingly handled most of the blog postings and was a great member of our team. Her contributions helped the blog grow past the 50k reader point this year.

Liz was offered and accepted a position with another organization that will be an excellent career move for her. While we search for a replacement, and with the pending holidays, there will be fewer posts for a few weeks. I want to take this opportunity to thank our loyal readers and welcome readers new to the blog.

There are many things happening in this space and with this change in staffing we are looking at a number of opportunities and ways to increase the value of this blog in the year ahead. While postings may be sparse for the next two weeks, we plan to get back up to regular posting speed after the new year. Best wishes to all for the holidays.

-M

October 2010 e-book sales statistics

E-book sales statistics for October 2010 have been released by the Association of American Publishers (AAP). Trade e-book sales were $40.7 million, a 112.4% increase over October 2009. AAP reports year-to-date e-book sales are up 171.3%. Note: These figures represent the trade book publishers who have been willing to supply their data.

Gartner’s e-reader predictions

An article from ElectronicsWeekly.com discusses some stats from a new Gartner study. Gartner predicts that e-reader sales will reach 6.6 million units in 2010, an increase of 79.8 percent from 2009. In 2011, sales could surpass 11 million units which would be a 68.3 percent increase from 2010.

Gartner says that e-readers will need to maintain a price advantage because few consumers are likely to buy both an e-reader and a tablet.

iPad pilots at CDI College and the University of Houston

An article from Campus Technology discusses the iPad pilots that are occurring at CDI College in Canada and the University of Houston in Texas. At CDI College, the iPad pilot aims to help students in the nursing and business programs develop technology skills for their future roles in the workplace. At the University of Houston, professors have developed an iPad app for a communications course that includes: learning modules, video lectures, course materials, presentations, tutorials, and simulations. The pilot aims to obtain feedback for a program that helps faculty integrate technology into the curriculum. In addition, a survey will be conducted to evaluate the impact of the devices on learning, class attendance, and study habits.

More information about the pilots can be found here.

Children’s Reading Trends in the Digital Age

On Tuesday, December 14th, Book Business will be hosting a free webinar that you may find interesting. The webinar is called: “Children’s Reading Trends in the Digital Age: An All-Access Pass to Scholastic’s ‘2010 Kids and Family Reading Report.’”

The registration page for the webinar can be found here.

Interview with James McQuivey, Forrester Research

The Beyond the Book website features an interesting discussion with James McQuivey, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, about the events that have occurred in the publishing industry over the last year and what we can expect in the future as e-readers and e-books take off.

The audio of the discussion is available here.

Apple and News Corp to create digital newspaper for iPad only

According to a posting on Mashable.com, Apple and News Corp are preparing to launch The Daily, a news publication that will only be available via an app on the iPad. The publication is expected to launch in early 2011 and could provide consumers with a new type of reading experience that incorporates video and utilizes the iPad’s sophisticated technical capabilities. This could give the publication capabilities beyond what other newspapers and websites currently offer.