“That is going to be one of the big questions,” said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Jupiter Research. The software is intended to reduce illicit copying but also makes it more difficult for consumers to transfer audiobooks between computers and other devices.Īudible was one of the first creators of the software known as digital rights management, or D.R.M., which consumers often complain about. Internet downloads accounted for 14 percent of sales, up from 9 percent in 2005.Īmazon and Audible could conceivably try to expand the online audiobook market by loosening the content-protection software on Audible’s downloads. The audiobook market recorded $923 million in sales in 2006, up 6 percent from 2005, according to the Audio Publishers Association. One question that the acquisition raises is how Apple will respond, because Audible content is featured prominently on iTunes, and Apple and Amazon are fiercely competing in digital media downloads.Īpple did not respond to a request for comment on the deal. “Now being able to have that as part of the Amazon family is what gets us excited.” “We think that Audible for many years has been providing the best customer experience in the spoken-word space,” he said. Steven Kessel, Amazon’s senior vice president for worldwide digital media, would not comment on how Amazon would use Audible or integrate audiobooks into its products. This is just another step in making the Kindle a more universal product.” “But now there is a real coordination here that is clicking all of a sudden. “The fact that the bottom of the Kindle has volume controls has always thrown me off,” said Evan Schnittman, vice president for business development and rights at Oxford University Press. Amazon introduced the Kindle to great fanfare late last year. The move could also allow owners of the Kindle, Amazon’s cream-colored electronic book reader, to download audiobooks directly to the device. The acquisition would allow it to offer digital audiobooks on the Amazon site.
In the past, Amazon has sent customers who wanted to download audiobooks to the Web site of Audible.
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