Tag: amazon kindle

Amazon Japan Kindle made with manga book storage in mind

The new version of the Paperwhite device has huge available storage for the graphic novels.

The new Amazon Japan Kindle Paperwhite has been unveiled and this device has a massive amount of storage. It was created this way to help readers to be able to store books with much heavier file sizes. The reason is that manga books are immensely popular there and the graphics need far more room.

The Kindle Paperwhite manga version provides users with 32 GB of storage.

This is about eight times larger than the traditional model of the Amazon Japan Kindle – and those from around the globe for that matter – which is only 4 GB. This makes it possible for readers to store several whole series of manga comics on their ereaders, said an Amazon statement. Moreover, slow page-turning rates won’t get in the way of users of this new model. That function has been sped up by 33 percent to ensure that readers stay lost in the manga world.

Amazon Japan Kindle - Image of Kindle e-ReaderUntil now, the new manga Kindle had yet to be released. That said, Japanese consumers could pre-order it for only slightly more than the cost of the standard device. The pre-order price was about $157 (¥16,280). Amazon Prime subscribers can enjoy a hefty discount at about $118 (¥12,280).

The Amazon Japan Kindle manga version will start shipping today, with preorders heading out first.

This version of the Kindle e-reader will be the first one with the accelerated page turning rate. That said, the faster page turning performance will also be updated into other Kindles. Amazon expects that those improved features will become available to ereaders other than the manga-focused device by the end of October.

It is likely that the Kindle Paperwhite version for manga will remain a product exclusive to the Japanese market. The reason is that while manga does have a notable following around the globe, it doesn’t even approach the level of popularity in Japan. Moreover, the standard 4 GB devices are not small when it comes to standard books.

One ereader with 4GB can easily hold a library of up to thousands of standard books. As a result markets outside the Amazon Japan Kindle don’t have much reason to try to expand their capacity.

Tablet commerce leadership held by iPads in 2013

The shipments of these mobiles devices on a global scale maintained Apple’s crown.

According to recent tablet commerce data issued by Strategy Analytics, the shipments of these mobile devices reached 76.8 million units last year, which was an increase of 20 percent over the 64 million units that had been shipped in 2012.Tablet Commerce - iPad Success

The Android operating system has been leading this marketplace with a clear dominance.

The data from Strategy Analytics showed that in terms of the share of operating systems in tablet commerce, Google’s Android was in the lead with a massive 62 percent. That said, Apple’s iOS had a 34 percent of the whole. That said, when it came to the individual mobile devices, Apple by far sold the largest number when compared to any other specific manufacturer.

Apple saw tablet commerce, last year, that was made up of the shipment of 26 million mobile devices.

Samsung came in second when it came to tablet sales, having shipped 13.6 million. In third place was Amazon, which sold 4.6 million. The next on this list were Asus (the manufacturer of the Nexus 7), which sold 3.6 million units, and then Lenovo with its 3 million, and Acer which had 1 million.

Among the products that drove Apple to the top of the list and made sure that consumers remained very interested in the tablets that it had to offer, were the iPad Air and the iPad mini with Retina display. These were credited by Strategy Analytics as having pushed its market share upward in the fourth quarter of last year by an additional 7 percent over where it had been in the third quarter. This turned around a two quarter streak of lost share.

Overall tablet commerce was very strong last year. It saw growth of 33 percent when compared to the year before, reaching 227 million units. The Strategy Analytics director of tablets and wearables, Matt Wilkins stated that “2013 was another extremely healthy year for the tablet market.” He added that while it was not a three digit increase, as had previously been seen, it remains considerable when keeping in mind that the market is now delivering more than 200 million units worldwide each year.