e-Books Outsell Hard Copies on Christmas Day

I came across an article through Digg claiming that e-books outsold hard copy books on Amazon on Christmas day.

I bought a Sony Reader recently so I've been keeping an eye on developments with e-books. Also, as I mentioned in a previous post, I've been reading The Long Tail, and there's a lot of material in the book on the advantages of digital distribution for retailers. It'll be interesting to see whether this was just an anomaly or the beginning of a move towards consumers buying e-books more than hard copies.

The Long Tail - Chapter 1

I got through chapter one of The Long Tail Last night and I must say I was pleasantly surprised. The book seems very readable and I'm looking forward to getting properly stuck into the rest of the chapters.

He discusses some really interesting ideas, like how "Many of our assumptions about popular taste are actually artifacts of poor supply and demand matching" (Anderson, 2006:16). He goes on to describe how the online retailers like Amazon and Rhapsody are making big money by selling to niche markets, and outlines the long tail concept itself.

It's thought-provoking stuff and really makes sense once you get into it. I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of direction he takes for the next few chapters. Sorry for the shortness of this one but I'm wrecked from being in late doing assignments. I'll try and be more elaborate and insightful with the next few posts!

Reference
Anderson, C. (2006) The Long Tail, London: Random House

The Long Tail

I've been snowed under with assignments lately so I haven't gotten a chance to put up a new post in a few weeks.

Now that I've got a bit of breathing room I thought I might take a look at some of the books that were mentioned in the lectures. I bought a copy of Wired editor Chris Anderson's book, The Long Tail at the weekend. I'll be reading it over the next few weeks and I'll try and put up a post on my thoughts about each chapter as I go along. If it all goes well I'll be doing the same for Don Tapscott's book on mass collaboration, Wikinomics.

I came across some of Anderson's stuff while doing some research for an assignment. He's got some interesting thoughts on the new business models that are emerging on the web. Here's a good video featuring his take on "freemium", which he calls "the first business model of the 21st century":

In the video Anderson references Alan Murray, executive editor of The Wall Street Journal Online. Here's a link to another interesting video where Murray gives his opinion on what content should be charged for, and what should be free.

In his second book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price, Anderson discusses his ideas on the future of free.

That's it for now. I'll try and post again as soon as I've finished the first chapter of The Long Tail.