What do you think will happen if Sony updates its firmware to support Epub and Adobe? Do you think the content offering at the Connect Store will increase or just broaden the places you can buy from. Especially with the recent Books on Board announcement. I think if Sony moves in this direction it definitely will show their commitment to the market.

JJ

I think the Sony will eventually become compatible with Kindle format and we Sony reader owners can buy books off Amazon. Sony will abandon its book selling

I think the Sony will eventually become compatible with Kindle format and we Sony reader owners can buy books off Amazon. Sony will abandon its book selling

If Amazon wanted to sell "kindle" books to people with other devices they would have just made the Kindle a standard Mobipocket device rather than creating a closed system. So, I would bet 100 to 1 against what you said above.

BOb

If Amazon wanted to sell "kindle" books to people with other devices they would have just made the Kindle a standard Mobipocket device rather than creating a closed system. So, I would bet 100 to 1 against what you said above.

BOb
I think it may happen eventually, but definitely not at this generation. What's crucial for Amazon's strategy is customer experience. Open the market to third parties at this stage will bring a lot supporting headaches. It is sort of like Mac vs. Windows analogy.

But in order to be successful in the long term, Amazon have to work with experience hardware makers like Sony. I wouldn't surprise if they quit making the dumb terminals and become a entity like the media distribution company.

What do you think will have if Sony updates its firmware to support Epub and Adobe? Do you think the content offering at the Connect Store will increase or just broaden the places you can buy from. Especially with the recent Books on Board announcement. I think if Sony moves in this direction it definitely will show their commitment to the market.

JJ
Since we know that BooksOnBoard have started selling eBooks in ePub format, it means that we would be able to purchase DRM laden eBooks from BooksOnBoard instead of just Sony.

I'm hoping Sony is getting out of the direct content sales business and will let others (e.g. Amazon) handle that for them. The longer everybody clings to their proprietary formats, the less likely ebooks are to survive.

I can't believe that Amazon really wants to be in the hardware business, either.

Bob

I'm hoping Sony is getting out of the direct content sales business and will let others (e.g. Amazon) handle that for them. The longer everybody clings to their proprietary formats, the less likely ebooks are to survive.

I can't believe that Amazon really wants to be in the hardware business, either.

Bob

I think I said it on the kindle forum but I am surprised that Amazon did not approach Sony or another established Device Manufacturer to provide the Hardware and let Amazon do what it does best and sell books. I can not wait for the market to move to one standard and then it is just down to which device I would like to read on.

JJ

What is the likelihood that Sony will move to Epub and/or the Adobe platform, and if they do, any kind of a timeframe in view? I'm really loving my Reader, but I'd really like to be able to buy more books than just what Sony has to offer. I like that Fictonwise offers multiformat books, but their selection is pretty limited and doesn't contain a lot of the more popular authors and books of the last few years.

Found this on the net yes it is an old article but it still applies with this recent announcement.

http://www.teleread.org/blog/2007/12/10/daily-blog-mentions-of-the-kindle-vs-sony-reader-as-tracked-by-technorati-for-the-past-30-days/

JJ

I think I said it on the kindle forum but I am surprised that Amazon did not approach Sony or another established Device Manufacturer to provide the Hardware and let Amazon do what it does best and sell books. I can not wait for the market to move to one standard and then it is just down to which device I would like to read on.

JJ

Maybe, Amazon did approach an established device manufacturer and found it easier to go their own way, we don't know. Sony already has some kind of deal with Borders so why would Amazon go to them?

Edit: Do we know if Sony ever approached Amazon when they began to develop their Reader?

Maybe, Amazon did approach an established device manufacturer and found it easier to go their own way, we don't know. Sony already has some kind of deal with Borders so why would Amazon go to them?

Edit: Do we know if Sony ever approached Amazon when they began to develop their Reader?

You may be right, Not everything that makes sense to Joe Consumer, Ever registers in Big Business.

JJ

Just to put my 2 cents worth in, it sounds like it's pretty likely that there will eventually be convergence towards a particular ebook format standard. I also think that eventually DRM will go by the wayside. That is the direction that music is going and as hidebound (if you will forgive the pun) as the book industry is, I just don't see the book industry being able to avoid it. I just am not sure of the time line. As a guess, anywhere from 2-5 years.

I would expect that Amazon views the Kindle as a way to sale content, which Sony views connect as a way to sale hardware. That's just how each company seems to be focused, IMPO. From a consumer point of view, it seems like it would have made sense for Amazon and Sony to partner, but I guess this is a case of both companies getting a bit greedy and not wanting to share the pie.

I suspect that at the moment, the biggest question mark for many of the people who have purchased books is how to avoid having to repurchase books when formats change or more precisely, what to do with DRM'ed books since that is the only format that isn't easily re-formatted. My hope is that once DRM goes by the wayside, the various companies will provide a method for re-downloading the books at a fair price, but I guess that will depend on the contracts that the content providers have with the copyright owners. As we saw with the high def, dvd format wars, once it became clear which format was going to win, sales for that format picked up dramatically, so if that question gets cleared up, then I think we will see a jump in sales.

I've purchased quite a few books from Sony (around 100 last count), so this last question concerns me. However, I think that if the content provider (Sony in this case) either doesn't provide a solution or is too greedy about it, then a different solution will be available for most of these books.

I'm hoping Sony is getting out of the direct content sales business and will let others (e.g. Amazon) handle that for them. The longer everybody clings to their proprietary formats, the less likely ebooks are to survive.
I'm not sure I'm thrilled by the idea of Amazon being the sole source of licensed electronic content. But in general, I'm not pleased by anybody being the sole source of anything.

I can't believe that Amazon really wants to be in the hardware business, either.
Why shouldn't they be, if they can make money on it?

And they probably can. Amazon has an enormous amount of electronic content, and better pricing on titles available elsewhere--if you have a Kindle. They are using their position as the biggest content provider to leverage sales of their device, and I suspect it's working. Amazon is the 800lb gorilla in the ebook market, and more than happy to use its size and weight to achieve its goals.

Amazon isn't a manufacturer. They contract out actual production of the Kindle to some Chinese manufacturer, and simply handle sales, distribution, and support, which is something they already do anyway as part of their web operations.

The only questions, which we haven't enough information to answer, are how well the Kindle is selling, whether it's meeting their projections, and whether it makes enough money to justify continuing to offer it. Since they are still actively pushing it, it appears the answers to the last two questions are "yes".
______
Dennis

Found this on the net yes it is an old article but it still applies with this recent announcement.

http://www.teleread.org/blog/2007/12/10/daily-blog-mentions-of-the-kindle-vs-sony-reader-as-tracked-by-technorati-for-the-past-30-days/

JJ

Interesting article. So, if books are already available in the .epub format (which I think they are,) can they be read on the Sony or does there need to be some way to convert them?

I think I'm just finding this whole proliferation of eBook formats to be a bit mind numbing and I'm so frustrated with the way Sony's Connect handles their billing, that I really want to find some other source for current books, and I'm not finding much of what I want in places like FictionWise's Multiformat section, so I'm hoping something will come along. In some ways I wish I'd taken more time and maybe gotten a different reader - maybe one that deals in Mobipocket, since that seems to be the most popular. I got the files and such for the de-DRMing script to convert some DRM'd books to a readable format, but I'm apparently nowhere geeky enough to figure out how to get it tor work, the only instructions I've found don't make sense, and and the forums here - appropriately and understandably - don't allow discussing how to find it or get it to work, so I'm just kind of adrift at the moment. Oh well. I've got a bunch of stuff now saved up to read - maybe by the time I'm done with all that something may change :)

Interesting article. So, if books are already available in the .epub format (which I think they are,) can they be read on the Sony or does there need to be some way to convert them?

I emailed Sony about the whole Epub/Adobe issue and got the standard "not at this time" Email.

I think I'm just finding this whole proliferation of eBook formats to be a bit mind numbing and I'm so frustrated with the way Sony's Connect handles their billing

What is the issue with the Billing? If is the fact that you get billed separately for each book? I havent bought from alot of vendors but from what I gather Kindle works the same way, I dont know about the rest though I have see the shopping cart option on a few other sites.

JJ

Ok, hopefully they'll get around to letting us be able to read .epub before too long

It's not so much that you don't get billed for each book, but that they don't always bill you for books you've bought on the day you purchase them. I had talked to someone a few weeks ago about it, but don't have a copy of the response any longer, but they said that they bill in "batches" - and will sometimes wait until you've got several books you've bought (I think he said like 5 to 10 books,) and then they'll bill you all at once. I can understand if I've bought 3 or 4 books on one day putting all of those charges through at the same time - that makes sense, but from what this guy said, sometimes they'll combine orders from 2 or more days together - and there's no way for you to figure out what books you were billed for and when because it won't match any of your receipts.

That ends up being a real headache - for me at least - because I record the purchases as I make them, but it's almost impossible to figure out which books have been billed for on each debit they make, but there's no record to tell me which books I'm now being billed for and which I haven't been billed for yet. It's just aggravating.

Well,
I can see where that could get frustrating but What I do is make a list of books I want and buy twice a month. If something pops up between the two days i just add it to the next purchase list I rarely get done with what I currently have bought by the next time it rolls around. Or you could do the gift card Option that way you only have to track the gift card Purchase.

JJ

Here is something interesting that I dug up, You will have to scroll down the posts to find the reference to Epub, Adobe and Sony.

http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3bc903fe

Here is the original announcement from Adobe

http://blogs.adobe.com/billmccoy/2007/06/adobe_delivers.html

JJ