ALPSP Seminar – Richard Padley speaks on The Future of Academic Publishing

Posted on by Richard Padley
The Future of Academic Book Publishing was a one-day seminar which provided a unique opportunity for those attending to consider both the present situation facing academic and scholarly publishers of all shapes and sizes, and the likely direction for the business of academic book publishing in the immediate future. For those who were unable to attend, or would like to listen in full again, you can listen to a recording of eBook readers and the Future of Other New Technologies and view the accompanying slides below. If you would like to view the slides or listen later at your own leisure I have made the accompanying slides and an mp3 recording of the presentation available here.

Publisher choices for mobile delivery – apps vs websites

Posted on by Richard Padley
The current explosion in interest around mobile devices such as the iPad and Kindle raises an interesting question for publishers. Is it best to create mobile specific websites to deliver content to smartphones, iPads or other mobile devices, or is it better to develop apps targeted at the iPhone, Android and other mobile platforms? In this post I examine the pros and cons of each approach. Continue reading →

iBooks or Apps? The publisher's dilemma

Posted on by Richard Padley
Should publishers sell books using Apple’s App Store or iBookstore? Many publishers have started using the iPhone App Store as a channel to sell book content by packaging e-books as applications. There are currently 18,000 books in the App Store, and books are the fastest growing category of application in the store. With the launch of the iPad and the iBookstore, Apple has given publishers another option for delivering content. In this post we analyse the pros and cons of both approaches. Continue reading →

The Challenge of Online Identity: Part 3

Posted on by Richard Padley
FingerprintThis is the third and last of a series of blog posts (see part one and part two) in which I set out to examine the current state of identity management in our industry and where it’s going. The real point of this series has been to answer the question (which will be familiar to any parent of children who drives) ‘Are we there yet?’ – the destination in this case being not Legoland, but a much-discussed concept in our industry, Online Identity 2.0. Continue reading →

What Apple’s iPad and iBookstore mean for publishers

Posted on by Richard Padley
iBook reader appPublishing techies like myself have been waiting for a long time for Apple to launch their tablet device. With the accelerating interest in eBooks, and the ignition of the eBook marketplace with devices such as the Kindle and Sony reader, I’ve been keen to see how Apple’s entry into the tablet marketplace will change the landscape. And the conclusion I’ve come to is that Apple stand a good chance of stealing the consumer eBook show. Continue reading →