Has Sony lost the e-book battle against Amazon?

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by RCR

Oh, Alexander --- what subtle subliminal message are you trying to send us? Your picture of the Kindle and Sony 505 side by side shows a bright white Kindle held by lean, tanned hands, while the dull grey Sony is held by fat, pale paws ---

Heh. I put that side-by-side image together some time ago (about 8 months, maybe?) for another thread. I chose those images because they were the only ones I could find where the two devices were being held in the same way. So if there's any subliminal stuff going on with them it'd have to be engineered by Amazon's & Sony's respective Marketing teams, or perhaps just Amazon's, since their device came out later.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by RCR

Content is king for sure. I currently have 88 waiting-to-be-read books on my Sony, only four of which came from the Sony online store. Living in Australia, could I say the same if I had a Kindle?

Actually, you could. The Kindle will view DRM free Mobipocket eBooks.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by peitsao

Just my two cents on the subject. For me, both fall short of what I am looking for.

I don't like the Kindle for anything more than reading sample first chapters to books I might like to buy, but not from them. I think the Kindle is not going to hold up to heavy use. The blasted wheel is driving me crazy, and the plastic page buttons are starting to warp already. The battery dies when you surf the store a lot or use the limited internet. But their tech support is excellent (Sony's sucks to the max).

Sony's support for their Reader line has been very good. One question nobody has yet to answer is that if the Kindle breaks after the warranty, can you get it fixed or do you have to buy a new one?

Would it be possible for you to take a photo of your Kindle to show us the warping buttons please?

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by peitsao

Just my two cents on the subject. For me, both fall short of what I am looking for.

I don't like the Kindle for anything more than reading sample first chapters to books I might like to buy, but not from them. I think the Kindle is not going to hold up to heavy use. The blasted wheel is driving me crazy, and the plastic page buttons are starting to warp already. The battery dies when you surf the store a lot or use the limited internet. But their tech support is excellent (Sony's sucks to the max).

So where does that leave me for buying ebooks? I buy very few as I am afraid that if the units die or go extinct, I may not have the money to replace them and then what to do with content I cannot read, unless it is available on my laptop or another source to read? That is where Kindle lets me down. It was a gift, so I will keep it, I guess.

The 3 readers on my Palm are all superior in functionality, but alas, the screen is so small, I'm flipping the pages constantly to the point where I busted the button. I wish Palm would make a reader with a larger screen.

If you buttons are 'warping' you really should notify Amazon. They are good with customer service. I guess the wheel is just a learning experience....I don't even think about it anymore. And what constitutes heavy use? I use mine daily, have for more than 3 months now, and haven't noticed any lessening of power, downloading, or changes in appearance. I charge mine nightly, so that when I do want to 'surf' the battery power is there. I also realize that I bought it mainly as an e-book reader/downloader, so when I surf, its to amazon, mobileread, or other ebook sites.
If it was was a gift, and you've had it less than a month, you can always return it. If you've had it more than a month, you can email them, tell them you are unhappy with it, and ask for options.

[sam1am]

Not hard for Amazon to have 3x the ebook offering when they carry 8 copies of a single book. :/

Seriously though, the Kindle is awesome, but let's consider this: How connected do you have to be for an ebook reader? By definition you're spending a lot of time reading ONE THING. I usually have a list of books to read, I'm not so desperate for content that I need to be downloading new books while walking down the street.

Sure, it's cool - and having RSS feeds is nice, but I don't mind reading short amounts of text on my phone. The Kindle is already expensive, so why did they feel the need to bump up the price by including an EVDO radio? It just seems weird to me. Anyway, I can download books onto my SD card from my phone already anyway - if I just really can't wait until I get home to buy a new book.

Also, the Kindle is ugly as sin. Why do I need a crappy keyboard on my book reader?

And lastly, The Kindle is a newer device than the Reader, so of course it will have more features. In fact, it's the only device Sony has come out with that made me end my personal Sony boycott. The next version will be on par or better than the kindle, probably with WiFi. The Kindle will still probably win the "battle," but that's all marketing and doesn't bare much relevancy to quality of the products.

[KindleMan]

There are a few things that need to be brought up in regards to this subject. (This is almost a repeat of a thread that was active a week or so ago).

1) Books are always cheaper at Amazon.

2) Any book that is SOLD on any website I have found is also available on ALL websites. It appears to me that Amazon, Sony, Fictionwise, eReader etc all get the same books from the same eBook publishers, these companies then convert to their format. I haven't found (yet) that any of the eBook retail sellers have exclusive rights to the eBooks of any publishers. Which means that as far as my preferences in book reading goes it doesn't matter where I buy my books, as I can get them from any and all retail sellers. In which case PRICE dictates where I buy my books. (Please see 1 above)

3. Importance of content depends on what a person's interest is. I'm glad that there are free books available at Gutenberg, Manybooks etc but they are not the books I'm interested in. I like books that have been published recently and/or on bestseller lists. It will be a long time before any of the Harry Potter books will be available free from Gutenberg. So, if a person wants to read Harry Potter (legally) he/she has to buy it.
(Please see 1 above)

This argument about which reader will win out in the end seems a little silly to me anyways. Everyone on this site has a different set of circumstances which influence which reader will work for them. If they're in the US or not, is Whispernet available in their area, how much money can they budget for a reader and books, what type of PC do they own, are they computer savvy enuf to convert from one format to another etc etc. I'm just happy that there is more than one choice of readers and formats out there and that a Sony 505 might make sense to someone who likes the classics, who has a Windows based PC, and likes the lower cost, where as a Kindle would make more sense to someone who has a Mac and doesn't mind the extra cost of buying the Kindle, but knows that he/she will make up for it because of the cheaper books at Amazon(assuming they'll buy enuf!) One thing is for sure. So far in my opinion there hasn't been a reader yet made that is perfect, and I started in Sept 2001 with a Palm M505 and progressed through a couple of Sony Clie's, Tapwave Zodiac's, the Sony 500, 505 and currently have the Kindle. What is important is that a person picks the best option for them as far as their circumstances and just enjoy the pleasure of a GOOD READ! Don't worry if you have the best reader, just READ!

[JSWolf]

I know what would satisfy a lot of people....

Take the 505, add in the wifi, give it a detachable keyboard, and add in AZW/Mobipocket support to what we already have and you've got a winner that should satisfy 505 lovers and Kindle lovers. So we'd have a device that supports BBeB, ePub, PDF, Mobipocket (no-DRM), & AZW.

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by slayda

I believe you must have the PRS-500. I'm a righty but actually preferred the left hand page turn on the 500.

I have both. I also prefer the button placement on the PRS-500. But I was talking about the PRS-505. There are two large buttons at the bottom of the 505. Left-hand one is a page-turner. Right-hand one has the button that replaced the joystick and the up-down-left-right selector (which I find generally useless). The left side has the smaller buttons for bookmarking and changing the font size. The right side has the smaller button for going back a step to the menus.

I hold the Reader at the bottom left hand corner and turn pages with my left hand. I seldom hold it as shown in the pictures at the top of this thread.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by gregr209

Not sure it really matters but the Kindle actually uses Sprint's EVDO network and it isn't 3G like what is on the iPhone.

Greg

Greg,

EVDO most certainly IS a "3G" network!

[TadW]

If anything, Sony failed to impress the market. Only a few months after the Reader came out, everything was back to normal. You may have seen a couple of subsequent "reviews" (which were almost all worded the same, no real personal stuff), but what else?

Amazon, on the other hand, came out with the Kindle, and they blew us away with viral marketing. *Everyone* suddenly talked about the Kindle, everyone who has a say about gadget, and suddenly people became all philosophical about the future of p- and e-books.

It's not so much about the Kindle being superior (which a lot of us disagree with), but about how Amazon has put the Kindle on top of their priority list, while Sony did exactly what... talk about the Playstation 3, Blu-ray DVDs, and flat TVs?

[kesey]

Originally Posted by Skaukatt

Battle? What battle you may ask. And even more important is the question: Why is the The Irish Times reporting on either reader? Neither reader is sold in Ireland.

Interesting viewpoint, Skaukatt, in an age of global communication. Interesting also that a Swiss gives a fine precis of an Irish Times article.

The Sony PRS 505 will be sold in Ireland as of Sept 5th 2008, via Waterstones. I'm in the market for a reader, so I want to read such articles. The Irish Times is giving their readers an analysis of the market as they, or the author, sees it. That is their job, and they do it extremely well. They also have an online edition - so, the world is their oyster: if they have an itch they might as well scratch it.

[hansl]

Originally Posted by acidzebra

I don't live in the US so from an online perspective both the Kindle and the Sony are useless to me by default (this might change in the future). Secondly, I don't want or need wireless on my book reader - I want a reader that I can load a couple of hundred titles on (preferably my entire library), after that updates to my library will be incidental and always in bulk. Thirdly, the Kindle is one fugly mother (although this will hopefully change in 2.0). Finally, Amazon and Sony store are not the only places to get your books from - the Gutenberg, bookfeeds and other places can keep you reading until the sun goes out.

I second that. There are so many free and legal ebooks that I didn't feel the urge to buy one yet. But this might change when the e-ink displays reach real book quality, also for colour, become usable with epaperbacks as well as large format art ebooks while they have flexible reading size and small storage size, and the readers become lighter - to present a modest wishlist.
And of course, wifi without generic Internet access is not acceptable. I usually avoid technology which ties me to a single vendor when other vendors have the same content.

So, I think my ebook focus will remain free books with my current reader until the technology boost will happen. For now, I invested enough money and time on the reader side.

hansl

[grimo1re]

Has anybody used the U-word yet? No Kindle vs. Sony thread is complete without the Kinde-is-butt-ugly argument.

- grim (fanning the flames)

[Mr. Goodbar]

One thing Sony could do to level the playing field a bit is to include wifi and bluetooth. Bluetooth would give them similar capability for mobile access to content that the kindle has without locking them into specific carrier deals while wifi covers you for when you can connect to a wifi network.

The next step would be to work with the various stores which carry epub to enhance the shopping and download experience. Throw a few dollars their way for development work and product placement on their stores, get into some co-marketing arrangements which would be in both of their interests. Do some similar viral marketing and leverage the benefits of the slimmer design over the chunky kindle.

It will be interesting to see which direction this goes and who else emerges as a player. More competition ultimately benefits the consumer.

[Chuckwade87]

I have to say that at this point Sony 505 has been kicked in the nuts by Amazons Kindle. Lets face it Sony isnt a book store like Amazon, Amazon already has 145,000 books and counting, Amazon has already added options to its website so that Kindle users can request a book be made available in Kindle format. What has Sony done?