Thread: Wireless Reading Devices

Originally Posted by Quick Orange

The sad part is those college books will stay the same price and be non-transferable (ie, you can't sell them back or sell them to someone else). I think education publishing has a long way to go before textbooks are widely accepted in a paperless format.

Yep, we publishers are in general not great at exploring new business models. And the larger textbook publishers are most guilty of the tough pricing. I have some sympathy for college students -- except for the filesharers (but one probably exacerbates the other in this case, I'll admit).

We (the company I work for) have been more proactive than most in making it easier for students. Instead of buying the textbook ebook at the same price as the print, we offer the ability to rent it for one day (yes!) to 6 months for a fraction of the cost of buying it outright. We also sell individual chapters, for a price pro-rated against the total pagecount of the book (plus a small premium). So students can buy only those chapters that apply to their course, or rent only for the duration of their course (be it single semester or longer). The outcome for the student is cheaper than buying the whole book, and more than offsets the lost opportunity cost of selling back a print copy second hand.

We're not all evil!

Sony plans a Kindle rival with wireless downloads by AP: Yahoo! Tech

Sony is planning to release their model to beat the Kindle, this one will have the wireless download feature. Man, good thing I started this thread and some super knowledgeable people jumped in with great advise. I am gonna wait it out and let these guys duke it out and watch the prices drop.

Billy

Originally Posted by majurey

Yep, we publishers are in general not great at exploring new business models. And the larger textbook publishers are most guilty of the tough pricing. I have some sympathy for college students -- except for the filesharers (but one probably exacerbates the other in this case, I'll admit).

We (the company I work for) have been more proactive than most in making it easier for students. Instead of buying the textbook ebook at the same price as the print, we offer the ability to rent it for one day (yes!) to 6 months for a fraction of the cost of buying it outright. We also sell individual chapters, for a price pro-rated against the total pagecount of the book (plus a small premium). So students can buy only those chapters that apply to their course, or rent only for the duration of their course (be it single semester or longer). The outcome for the student is cheaper than buying the whole book, and more than offsets the lost opportunity cost of selling back a print copy second hand.

We're not all evil!

I like the idea of the rentals. A lot of the books I bought ended up getting opened maybe 5 or 6 times, and that definitely wasn't worth the money spent in buying it. Rarely did I ever like a text so much that I kept it. What I experienced quite often was that a professor or department favored a substandard book either because it had to or because of nepotism somewhere in the chain.

Honestly, I often simply didn't buy the book. I saved thousands of dollars and came out fine

I just got a Kindle2 the other day, both for myself and the wife. The thinking being that if we liked this, then we'd get a DX too (We both read alot).

I really dig the idea of being able to buy a book, and start reading it in seconds without having to leave the house. Everything should be like that.

The kindle2 has a nice screen, the E-ink is easy on the eyes.. BUt the rest of it feels little like a toy from radio shack in the 90's.. Plastic and clunky.. If it had been built as a touch screen, with fingerprint resistance screens, it would have been a complete winner.

The Plastic Logic link that someone posted looks nice too. I think I may sit tight until it comes out.

dw

This just released:
Nook, eBook Reader, eBook Device - Barnes&Noble

B&N have raised the stakes in ebook readers. This beauty has the b/w eInk screen for reading, and below that a smaller touchscreen colour backlit screen for browsing and buying. It's 3G wireless as well as Wi Fi. It takes epub format which means you can access your book from other compatible machines too. And here's the BIG innovation -- you can lend your ebooks to a friend for up to 14 days. What good is 14 days? Time enough for someone to check out a recommendation and decide whether they want their own copy. This brings 'word of mouth' method of boosting sales to the market and it's a GREAT idea (speaking as a publisher and customer). If you lend it out, you can't access it yourself, so it does not encourage lost sales, and focuses on selling more.

I've never been tempted to buy an ebook reader, but if this was available in the UK I'd be whipping out my credit card now! (BTW, I have no affiliation to B&N whatsoever in case you're wondering.)

Google update: I met with them just before the Frankfurt Bookfair and they gave me a heads up. By year end (but my guess is sometime early 2010) Google Editions will be launched. This will be the Google ebook store. You will be able to access you books from any compatible machine (laptops, desktops, iPhones, netbooks, epub compatible Readers like Sony, the Nook etc. but NOT Kindle). We are getting so close to what the market needs: platform agnostic ebooks!

You guys in the US get all the best stuff before us!

Originally Posted by majurey

This just released:
Nook, eBook Reader, eBook Device - Barnes*&*Noble

B&N have raised the stakes in ebook readers. This beauty has the b/w eInk screen for reading, and below that a smaller touchscreen colour backlit screen for browsing and buying. It's 3G wireless as well as Wi Fi. It takes epub format which means you can access your book from other compatible machines too. And here's the BIG innovation -- you can lend your ebooks to a friend for up to 14 days. What good is 14 days? Time enough for someone to check out a recommendation and decide whether they want their own copy. This brings 'word of mouth' method of boosting sales to the market and it's a GREAT idea (speaking as a publisher and customer). If you lend it out, you can't access it yourself, so it does not encourage lost sales, and focuses on selling more.

I've never been tempted to buy an ebook reader, but if this was available in the UK I'd be whipping out my credit card now! (BTW, I have no affiliation to B&N whatsoever in case you're wondering.)

Google update: I met with them just before the Frankfurt Bookfair and they gave me a heads up. By year end (but my guess is sometime early 2010) Google Editions will be launched. This will be the Google ebook store. You will be able to access you books from any compatible machine (laptops, desktops, iPhones, netbooks, epub compatible Readers like Sony, the Nook etc. but NOT Kindle). We are getting so close to what the market needs: platform agnostic ebooks!

You guys in the US get all the best stuff before us!

Awesome! I'm quite happy with the iPhone as an ebook reader, but this does sound tempting...

However, isn't 3G worldwide? I mean, the Kindle just released their international edition, which uses the 3G network to DL books and such...so why wouldn't the B&N be the same?

Originally Posted by JimR

Awesome! I'm quite happy with the iPhone as an ebook reader, but this does sound tempting...

However, isn't 3G worldwide? I mean, the Kindle just released their international edition, which uses the 3G network to DL books and such...so why wouldn't the B&N be the same?

eBook readers that use 3G suffer from the same barriers as cell phones some years ago before roaming deals were set.

Basically, B&N will not have tied up a roaming deal with other network providers in countries outside the US, therefore no 3G access.

The Kindle's International edition is a terrible fudge taken out of desperation. Bezos could not agree a roaming deal with European network. In the US, I believe you only have a few. But in Europe there are at least a dozen, in each country! He said it was like herding cats. Strange that an opened up market should present such big barriers -- something to be said for duopolies after all?

Anyway, the Kindle Intl Edn can only be bought from the US, and even then it ships with a US two-pin plug. Not much good for us here in Europe and UK!! Not only that, due to the standard Sprint roaming charges, every ebook will cost an international customer an additional $1.99. Yes, Amazon, lacking the ability to strike a deal, has decided to pass the costs onto the customer. Way to go! And if you should have a subscription to NY Times for example and you wish to download and access it as an international customer, you have to pay an additional $5.00 per month.

Why did Amazon do this poorly executed fudge? because they can no longer sit and watch Sony corner the market in the rest of the world. It was ship something substandard or risk giving their major competitor a massive first mover advantage in the rest of the world.

The B&N 3G issue is essentially the same. But it looks like they are launching first in the US and then see if they might deal with the roaming barriers in a better way I suppose.

I just got the cheap version of the Kindle 3 (wifi only) on friday. It is so much better than reading on my ipod, which is what I have been doing all of my reading on for the last year.

Saturday was super nice here, so we spent the afternoon on the lounge chairs in the back yard. The sun was super bright, and there was no way that I could see anything on my ipod, let alone read. But, my wife was comfortably reading my kindle from 5 - 6 feet away.

I've read for about 6 hours now since I got it. Its fantastic.

I had a 2nd Gen US 3G Kindle and sold it. I liked it so much that I bought the 3rd Gen 3G model. The 3rd Gen is really nice and light and the text is so crisp. I have about 27 books on it right now and I am about halfway through Lord of the Rings currently.

I absolutely love my iPad...I don't read outside, so it's not a problem. But the Kindle app (Amazon books in 30 seconds? Yes please!) on my iPad/iPhone is fantastic. I've read a good dozen novels through them together and man, I'm so happy.