Why would a book store sell technology that would put them out of business if it takes off? Borders don't have any online presence so it is not as though purchasers of a reader will give them any business by buying books online. Not that anyone can buy from anywhere but the connect store anyway.

Rather, assuming the connect store gets reasonable content, then as soon as someone buys a reader there is no need to go back to borders at all.

Seems like a wierd business decision. I can only guess that sony are paying them a lot of money to sell it for them, or maybe they get some sort of cut from the connect store.

It's a great idea for Borders, and for the ebook fan. Borders has alot of money, and they just might place themselves into the ebook business. This could make them even more money if successful, but time will tell. Maybe the Sony Reader will gauge the playing field for them before they make a decision?

Perhaps a precursor to Connect kiosks. Pay your money and plug in your reader and download books in the shop.

ebooks = more profit

but the lack of content makes this area a little bleak

It's a great idea for Borders, and for the ebook fan. Borders has alot of money, and they just might place themselves into the ebook business. This could make them even more money if successful, but time will tell. Maybe the Sony Reader will gauge the playing field for them before they make a decision?
I agree whit this post. They are partnering with a hardware company to offer software down road. Being a partner with Sony cannot hurt them and I doubt losing a few sales to the Portable Ebook Reader is even a blip in their sales.
Kenal0

For Borders - as mentioned, an excellent (and quite painless) way to get into the digital books market if it should take off.

For Sony (a brand associated with non-print media and *not* with reading) - a chance to link up with a powerful US brand synonimous with books etc. Also this creates an instant brick-and-mortar distribution system for the product.

The name of the game in any market is "make money now".

They win whatever happens. Remember that even if e-readers fail you still have an account there(provided you buy your reader there). You might be tempted to buy something else because you have this account!

Then they have your email address, that can be profitable also.

Then if the readers are popular it's easy for them to jump in the game and set up an e-book addition to their site. What tells us it's not already in the works?

I see the point in it for sony. Its a big plus for them, but how is borders getting into the digital books market? All it is doing is selling hardware that gets its books from somewhere else. Any way you cut it they are selling a competitors product aimed at taking business away from them.

I see the point in it for sony. Its a big plus for them, but how is borders getting into the digital books market? All it is doing is selling hardware that gets its books from somewhere else. Any way you cut it they are selling a competitors product aimed at taking business away from them.
And if you're competitive enough you can manage a fair share of it with almost no effort. And remember that not everybody loves Sony. :furious:

You know about Amazon's Kindle, right?
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7606

Maybe Borders feel they need to have a foot in the eBook market too. Perhaps so that people come to associate them with eBooks before Amazon completely dominates the market.

It's also possible Borders get a cut from CONNECT sales. The margin on electronic books must be huge (they can be basically produced by exporting the electronic manuscript file, very low production costs). So for every Reader Borders sells for Sony, they get a % of, say, 10 online book sales, which is what an average Reader buyer may purchase.

Just an idea.

But Borders doesn't have on-line presence. They sell books online with the help of amazon. Seems like they are the partners. Amazon doesn't have physical store, and Borders have that. That's way they moving along.