Apple

According to a new study from Strategy Analytics, the iPad is still the dominant tablet, but it has lost market share. The company estimates that Apple had a 58 percent share of the tablet market in the fourth quarter of 2011, down from 68 percent of the market in the same period the year before.

Strategy Analytics director Peter King explained: “Global tablet shipments reached an all-time high of 26.8 million units in Q4 2011, surging 150 percent from 10.7 million in Q4 2010. Demand for tablets among consumer, business and education users remains strong … Apple shrugged off the much-hyped threat from entry-level Android models this quarter.”

eBookNewser has more: “The study draws a parallel to this drop and the introduction of the Kindle Fire. However these two devices are in different price brackets and it may be the growth in the tablet market overall that is making Apple less dominant.”

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Apple counted a quarterly net profit of $13.06 billion in an earnings call this afternoon, recording impressive device sales for the quarter that ended December 31st.

Check it out: “The Company sold 37.04 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 128 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 15.43 million iPads during the quarter, a 111 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 5.2 million Macs during the quarter, a 26 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 15.4 million iPods, a 21 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

CEO Tim Cook promised: “we have some amazing new products in the pipeline.” The company also revealed that 58 percent of revenues for the quarter were from international sales.

Apple unveiled iBooks Author this morning, a free app that will help writers make eBooks and publish to the iBookstore. Writers can download the app Mac App Store right now.

UPDATE: Dan Wineman has noticed some sticky legal issues buried in the user agreement for the free app. Read his post before you use the tool to upload your work to the iBookstore.

Here are a few highlights from the App Store description of the app: 1. “Import a chapter written in Pages or Microsoft Word.”

2. “Add any word to the glossary with a single click and easily include photos, images, charts, tables, and shapes next to any definition.”

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This Thursday, Apple is hosting an “education announcement” in New York City–generating rumors all month.

Ars Technica published the latest rumor today. The blog wrote: “Apple will announce tools to help create interactive e-books—the ‘GarageBand for e-books,’ so to speak—and expand its current platform to distribute them to iPhone and iPad users.” Wired is reporting that its sources say Apple will such a tool at the event on Thursday.

eBookNewser has more “We’ve heard that they are going to announce a self-publishing platform. We’ve also heard that they are going to get into digital textbooks. And now we’re hearing that Apple is going to come up with a tool that would do for eBooks what Garage Band does for digital music files.”

 

Today Apple sent media invitations for a mystery “education event” in New York City on Thursday, January 19th. It read: “Please be our guest at an invitation-only education event at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.”

We’ve embedded the invitation image above–what do you think they will reveal? UPDATE: eBook expert Mike Cane reminds us “What Steve Jobs thought about Textbooks.”

Publishing folk have been debating the rumored announcement all week. Some speculated that Apple would reveal a self publishing platform while others disagreed.

Rumors have been flying about Apple hosting a press conference this month. While no one knows when exactly this event will take place, many tech blogs are speculating that this press conference will be about software, not hardware. This would be out of character for the company who is normally hosting events to show off new devices and computers.

One report suggests that at the event, Apple will unveil a new self-publishing platform for iBooks. Mark Coker, the CEO of self-publishing platform Smashwords, is not convinced.

Coker, whose company lets writers self-publish to the iBookstore, told eBookNewser that Apple’s already got self-pub tools and it’s easier for Apple to use partners anyway. He said: “Unlike others, Apple actively encourages authors and publishers to deliver books through their aggregators. Apple realizes that they’re going to earn a 30% commission whether they source the book from an aggregator or from their own platform, and books sourced from aggregators are more profitable for Apple because they can be sourced at lower cost (no need to invest millions of long term dollars to maintain and staff their own platform) and greater scalability than from one’s own platform.”

Apple is reportedly hosting a press conference this month to make an announcement involving eBooks.

Good eReader is reporting that Apple will announce a self-publishing platform. Here is more from the blog: “Sources close to the matter have told us that they intend on launching a new digital self-publishing platform to get peoples content into the iBookstore. This is a huge step forward for Apple to compete with Amazon (DTP) and Barnes and Noble (Pubit).”

While Apple has yet to say what exactly they are doing, TechCrunch and AllThingsD are both reporting that the event will not involve hardware but will likely focus on publishing.

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Looking for some weekend reading for yourself or the kids in your life?

An interactive eBook edition of the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine is currently free in the iBookstore for iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad readers. Follow this iTunes link to watch a video about the project.

Here’s more about the book (iTunes link): “Yellow Submarine book takes the reader on a kaleidoscopic, music-filled journey with The Beatles to an underwater dreamland featuring animated illustrations and text from the 2004 book, 14 full-color video clips from the original 1968 film, audio clips of classic Beatles hits and Sir George Martin’s original score, original dialogue from the film, ‘read aloud’ functionality to follow along as actor Dean Lennox Kelly narrates, as well as interactive features that let you tap the story’s wild array of butterflies, starfish and sea monsters to make them come alive.”

According to The Wall Street Journal, a number of readers complained about font choices and design on the Japanese translation of Walter Isaacson‘s Steve Jobs biography. Nevertheless, the book is selling briskly in Japan.

Japanese publisher Kodansha ended up multiplying its original 100,000 print run of the book. The WSJ has more: “Three days later, an additional 650,000 copies – 350,000 of the first volume and 300,000 of the second – were printed. It’s an incredible amount for the publishing company which says the typical first-round printing tab for a book debut is about one-sixteenth of the ‘Steve Jobs’ treatment.”

The book is selling well in other countries as well. During its first week of sales, the book sold 379,000 copies in the United States and 37,600 in the U.K.. Not surprisingly the title topped Amazon’s Bestselling Books of 2011 list.

Looking for a super cool gift to give? Third Man Records and Griffin Technology have teamed up to make an iPhone cover out of 7″ records called The Third Man 45 Case.

The Griffin Technology website explains more: “Each case uses a real 7-inch single die-cut to cover and protect the back of your iPhone without blocking the camera lens. A custom-made polycarbonate frame with volume, headphone, hold switch and dock connector cutouts holds the record insert in place; frame available in yellow, black or white, each sold separately.”

eBookNewser has more: “You can also purchase a set of 3 vinyl inserts from The White Stripes, The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather… The cases are $29.99 and the insert pack is $19.99.”

We’d love to see book publishers take on this idea with book cover iPhone cases.