Lessons Learned from the Stanza iphone App

Transcription

1 Lessons Learned from the Stanza iphone App Neelan Choksi CEO, Lexcycle twitter: stanza_reader O Reilly TOC Conference NFAIS: Mobile Delivery of Content 30 October 2009

2 Outline Who am I? Where do ebooks stand today? ebook Opportunity Drivers and Challenges An overview of Stanza How to work with Stanza Lessons learned (so far)

3 Who Am I? CEO, Lexcycle (acquired by Amazon in 2009) Former open source software COO, SpringSource (acquired by VMWare in 2009) President and Co-Founder of SolarMetric (acquired by BEA Systems in 2005) Previous Employers Exxon, Andersen Consulting, TechTrader, MIT Blackjack Team BS from MIT, MS from Stevens Institute of Technology, MBA from Univ. of Chicago Booth

4 Last 10 Months in ebooks Jan 26 Classics featured in iphone TV advertisement Feb 5 Google Book Search for iphone, Android Feb 9 Amazon Kindle 2 Launch Feb 16 Adobe Reader Mobile SDK Feb 25 Indigo Shortcovers launched Feb 27 Hearst announces plans for ebook reader Mar 4 Amazon Kindle for iphone Launch Mar 5 B&N acquires Fictionwise Mar 11 Sony Reader launch in Germany Mar 17 Apple iphone 3.0 O/S announced (ebook examples) Mar 19 Sony and Google 500,000 books Mar 23 Borders UK ends iliad for cheaper e-book reader Apr 1 Blackberry App World launches Apr 2 News Corp. confirms looking into investment in ereader Technologies Apr 8 Lexcycle, Adobe, Internet Archive release catalog spec - OPDS Apr 11 B&N / Sprint ereader discussions announced Apr 17 Random House announces first to put books into Blackberry app Apr 22 Penguin signs English ebook distribution in China Apr 27 Amazon acquires Lexcycle

5 Last 10 Months in ebooks Apr 28 B&N/Fictionwise add EPUB to Multi-format titles May 6 Amazon announces Kindle DX May 12 New Cybook update announced May 13 Sony announces 3rd party advertising in Sony Reader May 15 New BeBook Reader announced May 27 Interead COOL*ER debuts Jun 1 E-Ink acquired by Prime View Jun 2 Google sets plans to sell ebooks Jun 8 ScrollMotion in WWDC keynote Jun 9 California to scrap school textbooks in favor of ebooks Jun 12 S&S to sell ebooks on Scribd.com Jun 22 ScrollMotion and LibreDigital announce 100,000 books and magazines delivered via iphone Jun 30 Borders release Elonex Reader Jul 13 Stanza passes 2M users and 12M books downloaded on 1 year anniversary Jul 20 Barnes & Noble launch ebook store Jul 23 Shortcovers announce discounted conversion service to EPUB Jul 29 Google / Sony announce 1,000,000 public domain titles available Aug 4 Sony announces 2 new Reader models Aug 8 Astak PRO ebook Reader announced Aug 12 Sony announces they will only sell EPUB content from Sony Bookstore Aug 24 Sony announces Reader Daily Edition with 3G Wireless

6 Last 10 Months in ebooks Aug 27 Asus CEO tells DigiTimes that its < $150 ereader will be available by end of 2009 at the earliest Sep 6 Nick Cave s Death of Bunny Munro combines video, ebook, sync d audio Sep 9 Interead announces 1+ million Cool*er devices sold Sep 15 - DNAML releases PDF to EPUB conversion software Sep 16 Anthony Zuicker s Level 26 rolls out as a digi-novel Sep 29 - Disney announces subscription for access to 100s of Disney books Sep 30 HarperCollins delays ebook release of Palin memoir 3 months Sep 30 Further rumors of Apple Tablet Oct 1- Simon & Schuster announces first set of Vooks video/book hybrids Oct 7 Amazon announces Kindle Worldwide (Oct 19) Oct 9 Egmont + Penguin + EA Games to create ebook for on Nintendo DS Oct 13 Jane Friedman launches company that will republish old titles by big name authors as ebooks Oct 15 Browser based Google Editions announced Oct 19 Spring Design announces Alex ebook reader Oct 19 Internet Archive announces Bookserver project Oct 20 B&N announce Nook Oct 20 B&N and Adobe to support RMSDK and ereader Social DRM Oct 20 AUO unveils 20 eink display Oct 22 Amazon Kindle for PC announced at Windows 7 launch

7 ebooks Rapid Growth $94 million Wholesale ebook sales in last 4 quarters $30.6 million Wholesale ebook sales - July/Aug 09 * Source: IDPF and AAP US Trade Wholesale Electronic Book Sales

8 Small %age but Growing Fast 2008: 0.467% of all books sales were ebooks per the AAP 2008: 0.6% of all books sales were ebooks per Bowker Pub-Track Q109: 2.4% of all books sales were ebooks per Bowker Pub-Track October 2009 For every 100 printed copies of a title sold, Amazon.com sells 48 Kindle books, assuming the book is available in both versions Forrester Research predicts 3 million ereaders will sell in 2009 in the U.S. (up 50% from their May projections)

9 ebook Opportunity Drivers and Challenges

10 Mainstreaming of e-books Oprah Effect

11 Big Name Vendors

12 New Hardware Netbooks Lots of new ereaders

13 So Many More Devices Aztak Mentor EB-900 Bookeen Cybook Gen3 Bookeen Cybook Opus Foxit eslick Ganaxa GeR2 HanLin ebook V3 HanLin ebook V5 Hanvon HandyBOOK N516 Interead COOL*ER Classic irex Digital Reader 1000 irex iliad Pocketbook 360 Pocketbook 301 Plus STAReBOOK Asus E-Reader Aztak Mentor Electra Fujitsu FLEPia Hanvon WISEreader N518 Hearst reader irex DR800 iriver Story Lubix L Book Onyx Boox60 Pocketbook 302 NUUTbook NUUT2 Plastic Logic Que Polymer Vision Readius Samsung Papyrus* Wizpac txtr Reader

14 Improved Displays: E Ink

15 Improved Mobile Displays Larger touch screens w/ crisp color OTA, wireless App Store

16 Mobile Reading iphone Stanza Kindle for the iphone B&N Reader Shortcovers ereader Classics BookShelf BookZ Libris Wattpad Eucalyptus standalone books apps Other Devices FBReader ereader Pro MS Reader Global-Reader Mobipocket ebook Reader Aldiko Word-Player many more

17 e-book Alphabet Soup Formats -.LIT - Mobi - AZW - PDB - FB2 - PDF - RTF - BBeB - EPUB - HTML - RB - CHM - OEB DRM - Microsoft Reader - Adobe Adept - ereader - Mobi - Apple FairPlay - DNL - many others

18 Stanza Overview

19 iphone Distinctions As an ereader: International reach Color display Multi-function device Built-in wireless No external light required App Store 15% of smart phone market; 50% of web hits

20 Stanza iphone & ipod Touch 2.5+ million users in 75+ countries ~15 million books downloaded 115,000+ books available (half free) Books in 25+ languages Featured in: NY Times, Boston Globe Time Top 11 iphone Applications Forbes Wired 10 Most Awesome Apps itunes Top Applications of 2008 App Store 1 Year Anniversary Featured Application

21 Geographic Breakdown Sales Top 10 Stanza Downloads US UK France Germany Canada Australia Russian Federation Japan Italy Spain North America South America Australia Europe Asia Africa

22 Stanza User Customizations App available in 12 languages 21 fonts options Wide range of font sizes 135+ font colors 135+ background colors + nearly 30 background textures; choose your own background image Completely customize layout: alignment, hyphenation language, margins, line spacing, paragraph spacing, paragraph indentation Adjust behavior: page turn effects, book rotation

23 Primary Usage In bed 32% Commuting on bus / train 27% In waiting areas 13% At home 13% At work 6% At a bar or café or lunch or dinner 5% On an airplane 5% 2 write-ins mentioned In the bathroom Readers enjoy having access to their library at all times in their pocket or handbag

24 Stanza Bookbinder Create standalone books applications for sale directly in itunes App Store LibreDigital and others soon - aggregator Bookbinder And more

25 What We Did Right and What We Did Wrong

26 What We Got Right Holistic view of the entire experience for a reader: Search / browse content Find book Purchase book Download book Start Reading Available via partners. Not enough to focus just on one piece. Readers expect more.

27 What We Got Right Focused on the reader s experience Every reader is unique Respected users historical ebook investments Free/public domain content Partnered to extend reach Supported standards, where possible Active at events and with PR Translated app to 12 languages and added catalogs with foreign language content Published catalog spec

28 What We Got Right Innovated very quickly Fast releases (historically 1 per month) Honest and open Admitted when we didn t know something Community around the software Actively listened and participated Admitted when we made mistakes We were early on the iphone / ipod Touch

29 What We Need to Work On More foreign language and international content Haven t made commerce as easy as we could Have not merchandised well 1 newsletter ever focused solely on Stanza ebooks Publisher promotions can tie better into purchasing Are not using social media enough From within Stanza: Twitter, book clubs, etc. Outside of Stanza: Help our community show their Stanza pride

30 Lessons Learned Readers The bar is constantly moving up on everything - Reading experience - Purchase experience - Discovery - Community

31 Publisher Lessons Make sure your books are available electronically: - Minimum formats: PDF, AZW, EPUB Keep experimenting be bold Have a budget for marketing e-books - Better integrate your physical book marketing with your ebook initiatives

32 Publisher Lessons (continued) Figure out ways to support your authors better in the electronic world - Websites - Blogs, Twitter, social networking, Book Trailers - Understand the technology Don t let this just turn into a blockbuster industry: - Find self-service methods and appropriate revenue splits for mid-tier authors - Don t let The Shacks of the future slip away

33 Lessons Learned from the Stanza iphone App NFAIS 30 October 2009 Neelan Choksi CEO, Lexcycle