It has been 20 years since Amazon sold its first book: the titillating-sounding Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies, by Douglas Hofstadter. Since then publishers have often expressed concern over
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If you’d told most people in 1994 that in 2014 there would be a website dedicated to watching other people play videogames, they would have laughed at you. And yet on Friday, Amazon concluded a deal to buy Twitch, an electronic sports broadcaster, for nearly
Publishing books seems like a noble and romantic business. You might imagine publishers in waistcoats, discovering new authors, delivering knowledge and enjoyment to the world, and wearing little glasses at the ends of their noses. Alas, there is nothing noble or romantic about Hachette’s dispute with Amazon. For more than six months Hachette
Amazon is not a consumer electronics company. Yes, the e-commerce giant has sold tens of millions of its own devices to customers. And yes, it has just launched a smart phone, but measuring Amazon by Samsung’s or Apple’s standards overlooks the most important thing about its business. When Amazon
As is customary at this time of the year, TechCentral is pleased to present its lists of who it considers the biggest technology newsmakers over the past 12 months, both internationally and in South Africa. We kick it off, as always, with the five people the publication’s editors believe
I used to be one of those people. You know the type. Every time people mentioned how great their digital reader was, I would go on some long rambling explanation about how I don’t get e-readers and prefer the tangible experience of holding a book in my hands. I am no longer that person
If I told you online shopping is the next big thing to hit South Africa, you might think I was living in 1995. So-called experts will tell you big brands like Amazon and Kalahari have the market sewn up. They have the scale, the supply chains and the deep pockets to dominate the market completely
South Africa’s e-reader market received a shake-up this month when Pick n Pay announced that it was bringing the Kobo Touch e-reader to SA for R995. By comparison, the Kindle Touch 3G, which was recently launched in South Africa, retails at R2 699. Obviously
E-readers have been a bit of niche product in the South African market and, until recently, usually made their way into the country by special order from online retailers or in jet-setting friends’ suitcases. Canada’s Kobo wants to change that, and its first foray into the market, the Kobo Touch
Canadian e-reader manufacturer Kobo has launched its first product in South Africa, predicting it will challenge Amazon.com’s Kindle for dominance in SA by taking more than 50% of the market within the next 12 months. Kobo has launched its first e-reader device in