In late April, giant retailer Target announced it had begun selling the Amazon Kindle e-reader in 102 of its stores, mainly around Minneapolis and Florida, as a pilot program for a broader launch.
That test program is now done, and Target says a full nation-wide rollout has started, with the full roll-out expected to be completed by June 6th.
Adds Mark Schindele, senior vice president at Target: “Our guest’s response to Kindle has been overwhelmingly positive.”
The device costs $259 USD at Target, the same price if you were to get it on Amazon.
Amazon’s Kindle currently dominates the e-reader market, but has been slowly losing share to new competitors such as the Barnes & Noble Nook and Apple iPad.
The Kindle e-book store has 550,000 titles, the most of any e-store.
Result for: USD
Late last year, Google announced it intended to buy mobile ad giant AdMob for $750 million USD.
After over six months of delays, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) cleared the purchase last week, thanks in part to Google’s arch rival Apple.
Apple recently purchased the third largest mobile ad company, Quattro Wireless, and used it as the backbone of its new iAd platform on the iPad and iPhone. The FTC had been concerned that Google (the world’s largest ad platform) merging with AdMob (world’s largest mobile ad platform) would violate anti-trust laws. Apple joining the fray eased those concerns.
Today, Google has announced the completion of the acquisition.
Says the search giant: “It’s clear that mobile advertising is becoming a much larger part of our clients’ and partners’ strategies and with this acquisition, it’s now a central part of our own business. In continuing to invest in this highly competitive area, we’ll be bringing together our technology, resources and expertise in search advertising with AdMob’s innovative solutions for advertising on mobile websites and in mobile applications.”
Result for: USD
In late March Sprint unveiled the first 4G/WiMAX smartphone for the U.S. market, the HTC EVO 4G.
The device has the most powerful specs seen on a smartphone yet, and it will run the Android 2.1 firmware.
This weekend, the carrier has given a release date and price for the device, which will hit stores on June 4th. The phone will cost $199 USD with two-year contract.
The EVO 4G has a 4.3-inch WVGA capacitive multi-touchscreen display (with pinch to zoom), Android 2.1 with Sense UI, Google Search, Google Maps, Google Talk, Gmail, Google Goggles, YouTube, Google Calendar syncing, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot capability for connecting up to eight Wi-Fi enabled devices.
Additionally, the device has GPS with Sprint Navigation, a Digital compass, Bluetooth 2.1, a 3.5mm headset jack, FM radio, Amazon MP3 store, Qik video sharing, HDMI out a kickstand for hands-free viewing, an 8MP autofocus camera with dual LED flash (and 720p HD video recording) and an additional 1.3MP front-facing camera for video conferencing.
Under the hood is a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 1GB ROM, 512MB RAM, a 1500 mAh battery and an 8GB microSD card.
