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The word from Der Spiegel is that German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom is developing a Kindle rival, of sorts, the as yet unnamed portable e-reader project carries the codenamed “News4me” – there are no images of what the Deutsche Telekom device will look like.

Deutsche Telekom has put this little blurb on their website;

The News4Me project aims to create an individual electronic newspaper. Subscriptions are possible to complete issues or to individual sections from differing newspapers, which will then be transmitted to mobile devices. The contents and the layout adapt constantly to the way that you read. In future, wherever you are, you will benefit from easy access to current news and information which correspond to your personal interests.

According to the Der Spiegel article, the head of Deutsche Telekom’s R&D department, Peter Möckel, says Deutsche Telekom sees a niche market in the gap between mobile phones and laptops and will serve as a conduit for printed media. Deutsche Telekom is said to have plans to test few dozen prototypes in Berlin by the end of the year.

Unlike the Kindle however, the Deutsche Telekom device is rumoured to let customers download personalised content from print media onto their readers, we’re not exactly sure what this means, but there is speculation that the device wont allow for RSS feeds. Also unlike the Kindle, the Deutsche Telekom device is expected to contain targeted ads and is said to be bendable.

Deutsche Telekom isn’t expected to manufacture the device or even provide content for it, since they are a telecommunications company, my guess is that they will simply deliver the content to the device and charge a percentage fee for the content.

Deutsche Telekom could use targeted ads to offset some or all of the price of the reader which will make it more appealing than the $359 Amazon charges for the Kindle.

Source: Der Spiegel-Google translation to English, CrunchGear

Amazon.com has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement which will see the worlds largest on-line book retailer acquire the worlds largest rare and out-of-print book specialist, AbeBooks. AbeBooks is a Victoria, B.C., Canada and Düsseldorf, Germany based company with approximately 120 employees, the company lists over 110 million books from 13,500 booksellers worldwide. AbeBooks will continue to function as a stand-alone operation as part of the deal.

AbeBooks touts itself as a leader in rare and hard-to-find books. Russell Grandinetti, VP of books for Amazon.com said “AbeBooks brings added breadth and expanded selection to our customers worldwide, AbeBooks provides a wide range of services to both sellers and customers, and we look forward to working with them to further grow their business. We’re excited to present all of our customers with the widest selection of books available any place on Earth.”

Hannes Blum, chief executive of AbeBooks, said that he was “very excited” about the acquisition. “This deal brings together book sellers and book lovers from around the world, and offers both types of customers a great experience,”

Founded in 1996, AbeBooks charges members a monthly subscription fee to list their books, the website has over 110 million rare and out-of-print books listed.

Amazon expects to close the acquisition of AbeBooks before the end of the year for an undisclosed sum–rumoured to be between $90-$120 million–and is still subject to regulatory approvals. The takeover is the third major acquisition Amazon has made this year. It took over digital book download site Audible for $300m in March and also bought on-line fabric store Fabric.com in June.

How does it effect the Kindle?

There wont be any immediate effects for Kindle owners because AbeBooks wasn’t in the e-book business, however the acquisition of AbeBooks shows that Amazon is ruthlessly buying up its competition which is a loss for the consumer. In fact AbeBooks is the antithesis of of what Amazon has done lately with pushing into electronic books with the Kindle and hosting Web 2.0 services like EC2, S3, and its recently launched Flexible Payment Service.

I don’t anticipate any new services from Amazon since they have stated that they will keep AbeBooks as a stand-alone operation, one thing that AbeBooks is great at is connecting book lovers with small, independent book stores and allowing them to discover titles which no major book retailer sells.

AbeBooks business model doesn’t really apply to e-books since a copy of the a book can always be stored on Amazons server, forever. Perhaps in the future when e-books are more commonplace then a service like AbeBooks would be beneficial to Kindle owners allowing them to discover obscure authors or controversial content which publishers wont ever print.

Can AbeBooks somehow incorporate its service for Kindle owners?

Source: Amazon, Marketwatch, Techvibes

I guess the figures had to come out sooner or later.

240,000 Kindles have been shipped since November 2007, according to TechCrunch, that’s what their source claims. We know that Amazon always stays coy about sales as part of its company policy so we may never get any conformation from Amazon about this.

TechCrunch says that their source is close to Amazon with direct knowledge of the numbers, possibly the same source that claimed Kindle v2 is on it’s way this fall — we’ve yet to see any evidence of that prediction.

TechCrunch goes on to say;

Doing a little back of the envelope math, that brings total sales of the device so far to between $86 million and $96 million (the price of the device was reduced to $360 from $400 last May). Then add the amounts spent on digital books, newspapers, and blogs purchased to read on the device, and you get a business that has easily brought in above $100 million so far. (Each $25 worth of digital reading material purchased per Kindle, add $6 million in total revenues).

From these numbers is appears that Kindle is already a profitable operation and has been so from the beginning, however, what we don’t know is whether after research and development costs have been factored in if the Kindle project overall is in profitability.

Wall Street has also came out with some new estimates;

Scott Devitt, an analyst at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., predicts that Amazon is on track to sell 500,000 to 750,000 more Kindles over the next four quarters (including this one). He estimates that Kindle owners will buy an additional $120 to $150 worth of books and other content for each device, bringing the total revenues over that time period to somewhere between $225 million and $355 million. Based on that, he values the Kindle as a $1 billion business for Amazon.

So by this time next year there could possible be over a million Kindle’s sold by Amazon. In May, Citi analyst Mark Mahaney was estimating that total sales of Kindle’s this year would only reach 189,000. The image below shows what he thought would happen. Turns out that his numbers were way off, that’s analysts for you! Its time for him to significantly revise his estimate.

240,000 Kindle’s shipped, would you call it a success? It certainly has proved the nay-sayers wrong, it’s proved Wall Street wrong as-well.

If the numbers are to be believed, then its a wonderful start for the Kindle, the revenue from hardware sales alone is an estimated $100 million. When you begin to add on book sales, Amazon looks like its earning some major money for its shareholders.

Source: TechCrunch

As promised, following on from last weeks promotional e-book “Nate” by Beth Williams” by Samhain Publishing, this week you can download their second promotional e-book “Giving Chase by Lauren Dane” absolutely free from today (August 4) until August 10.

Here is the book synopsis;

Together they find a special love?can it survive the threat stalking her?

Some small towns grow really good looking men! This is the case with the four Chase brothers. The home grown hotties are on the wishlist of every single woman in town and Maggie Wright is no exception.

Maggie has finally had it with the men she?s been dating but a spilled plate of chili cheese fries drops Shane Chase right into her lap. The sheriff is hot stuff but was burned by a former fianc?e and is quite happy to play the field.

After Shane?s skittishness sends him out the door, Maggie realizes that Kyle Chase has had his eye on her from the start. Now that Shane has messed up, Kyle has no intention of letting anything stop him from wooing her right into his bed.

Despite Maggie?s happiness and growing love with Kyle, a dark shadow threatens everything?she?s got a stalker and he?s not happy at all. In the end, Maggie will need her wits, strength and the love of her man to get her out alive.

Warning, this title contains the following: explicit sex, graphic language, and some violent situations.

Enjoy.

Download Giving Chase (Kindle Edition) by Lauren Dane – free until August 10.

Welcome to the BlogKindle.com weekly news round-up!

Every Sunday we compile a list of our favourite stories from the past week, we also bring to you our selection of Kindle and Amazon related links from around the web. Compiled from blogs, magazines, main stream media and other sources, we hope these links will give you a definitive overview of what’s happening regarding the Kindle and what the Kindle community is talking about.

The browser – Amazon kindles a blue flame – The Scotsman

Amazon Profits From Petrol Misery – Sky News

NYT CTO: Kindle Version Gaining ‘Some’ Traction; Taking Advantage Of Mobile’s Unique Aspects – Washington Post

College textbooks go digital for Kindle – Yahoo Tech

Giving the Kindle a second reading – The Seattle Times

Mitch Albom sells e-book for 99 cents – Buffalo News

The Amazon Kindle: The Best Travel Gadget Since the Neck Pillow – Conde Naste Traveller

Newbie Kindle reactions (cont) – James Fallows – The Atlantic

Bezos: More Kindle Titles, More Kindle Titles Selling (AMZN) – Silicon Ally Insider

Maximize productivity with fewer gizmos – Inman

I have a Kindle – Heather Foeh

The Kindle, the Reader, and e-ink: The buzz continues – Consumer Reports

Some Observations from an Amazon Kindle User – EReader Central

Kindle to Kill Paper Newspapers – K.indled

Chicago Tribune is the latest newspaper on the Kindle – Mobility Site

The Kindle: A Great Example Of Online Infusion – Customer Experience Matters

Amazon Kindle taking Business Away from Amazon Prime? – K.indled

Online Financial Times readers increasing, fast! – The Next Web

Kindle Vs. REAL Books – Meditative Meanderings

Importing “My Clippings” – Kindle Tips

Touch, color, and more – speculations on Kindle 2.0 – MobileRead Forums

Amazon Kindle unmoved as Sony opens Reader to outside publishers – The Tech Herald

The Kindle and Why Luxury Marketers Should Care – Halogen Publishers

An Imaginary Kindle – Harpers Magazine

Something To Get (Kindle…I’m curious about you…) – Peacock•Moon

Be Kind to Trees, Use a Kindle Reader – It’s the Planet, Didiot (we love this site -editor)

Attention Publishers – Pitch to my Kindle – C.C. Chapman

Kindle Podcast – The Kindle Chronicles

E-book Sales Looking Good – Gordon’s Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) Blog

Does a Kindle Really Save Money on Books? – The Kindle Reader

Amazon Kindle outside of the US – nerdgirl

Kindle Question 1: TOCs – MobileRead Forums

Kindle Question 2: Graphics – MobileRead Forums

It was announced today on the official Amazon Kindle blog that the Chicago Tribune will be available in the Kindle newspapers section for download. This brings the total number of newspapers on the Kindle to 21 and as always there is a free 14-day free trial.

Chicago Tribune (Kindle Edition)

With the Chicago Tribune, you’ll have everything you need to stay informed. Whether it’s Chicagoland, national or world news–the Chicago Tribune has it all. The Chicago Tribune’s Pulitzer-Prize winning journalists provide all of the coverage and features you need to start your day off right.

The Kindle Edition of The Chicago Tribune contains articles found in the print edition, but will not include some images and tables. Also, some features and sections such as Chicago Tribune Magazine, the crossword puzzle, Parade magazine, box scores and classifieds are not currently available. For your convenience, issues are automatically delivered wirelessly to your Kindle so you can read them each morning.

Source: official Amazon Kindle blog, Chicago Tribune product page

Amazon and publisher Grove/Atlantic from today will be giving away a free copy of the new novel “Spirit House” by Christopher G Moore to Amazon Kindle customers, beginning today Kindle owners can go to the Kindle page for “Spirit House” and download a free copy of the e-book via Whispernet.

The electronic version will be available from today (August 1), in advance of the book’s release in print on 28th August, which will cost $10.40.

Morgan Entrekin, the president and publisher of Grove/Atlantic, said that the deal with Amazon “is a great way to expand Moore’s audience even further.”

So head on over and get your free copy, here is the book description;

In the nearly twenty years he has lived in Bangkok, Christopher G. Moore has written nine novels starring Vincent Calvino, a disbarred American lawyer working as a PI in the dark and steamy Thai capital. Internationally acclaimed, the prizewinning novels have been translated into ten languages. Now Spirit House, the first novel in the series, is finally available in North America.

A farang is dead and the Bangkok police have a confession the next morning from a young paint-thinner addict. He claims he killed Ben Hoadly, an expat Brit, but Calvino has his doubts when he sees heavy bruises on the kid’s face. In no time Calvino is working both sides, out to find the killer for Hoadly’s wealthy father, and eager to clear the addict’s name for a beautiful friend who runs a charity in the slums. With the help of his best friend, Pratt, a Shakespeare quoting Thai police colonel, and his loyal assistant, Ratana, Calvino plunges into the dangerous world of addicts, dealers, fortune tellers, inexpensive hit men, oversexed foreigners, and professional bar girls. Spirit House is a thrilling introduction to Vincent Calvino and Christopher G. Moore’s Bangkok.

UPDATE: Link to the Kindle edition of “Spirit House”

Source: New York Times