Quote:
Originally Posted by Leaping Gnome
Eh, I would expect the "Borders" store to just be a rebranded Sony store, or even the same store with Sony and Borders logos displayed. I would not expect much if any difference in prices. Would thing that might happen is Borders can use their retail clout to spur publishers to expand their catalogs on Connect.
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That has been my impression and my hope, too. With a major book retailer jumping on the Sony Reader bandwagon this way there will be a more powerful competitor to Amazon, and between Amazon and Borders/Sony the ebook market may finally reach the critical-mass necessary that publishers do several things:
1) make ebook versions available more quickly;
2) make them cheaper than their paper versions right off the bat and realize lots of savings from not having to print, ship, store, account for as many paper copies and still sell large numbers;
3) bring out backlists of popular authors since there will be very little expense involved, especially for those authors whose books have been electronically submitted in Word or WordPerfect format from the start;
4) get things organized more logically and legally so that human readers won't have to resort to Napster and Kazaa sorts of file sharing networks to get new books for their readers and thus the publishing world can learn from the lessons of the recording industry and continue to make a profit with minimal piracy issues.