Google to sell ebooks (NYT)

[EowynCarter]

i'm tired of people thinking amazon is the only one on the e-book market. Lukily for us non us people, they are not.

world outside us is vast you know.

[IgnareAcademy]

Originally Posted by Andybaby

baaaa, baaaa.

where are your riddles three? I didn't know I was walking over a bridge but ill answer them. atleast make them witty and funny.


Rumpelstiltskin

Rumpelstiltskin

Rumpelstiltskin! (just in case)

I did not really expect much seriousness from someone who chose a picture of Al Capone to represent himself.
You are just a boring and weak person, a mediocre fanboy of a fashionable corporation who tries to present himself as a smiling cynic.
You have no backbone, you just go with the wind.
Google makes a lot of wind. Capitalism makes a lot of wind.
It is not possible to have a debate with someone who has no critical distance, who cannot accept rationally negative comments about this society from strong lucid people who can face reality.
There is very good book you should read if one day by miracle you decide to become a philosopher and to know yourself: Peter Sloterdijk's Kritik Der Zynischen Vernunft.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

i'm tired of people thinking amazon is the only one on the e-book market. Lukily for us non us people, they are not.

Who thinks that?

BOb

[zelda_pinwheel]

according to the computerworld article dale linked to,

In a move that seems to target Amazon.com's Kindle business, Google said in a statement that it wants to build and support a "digital book ecosystem" to allow its partner publishers to make their books available for purchase from any web-enabled device, whether it is a PC, a smart phone, a netbook or a dedicated reading device, the company said.

(emphasis mine).

if google plans to make books available in standard formats like epub this could actually be very good news for content availability.

now the big questions are :
will the offer be geographically restricted ?
will the books be locked into a drm scheme (and if yes, which one) ?
what pricing scheme will the publishers adopt ? i find it very interesting that google reserves itself the right to "adjust prices that it deemed "exorbitant."" i guess we just have to see whether google's idea of exorbitant matches the idea of typical readers.

since they plan to launch this by the end of 2009 we should know more soon.

[Daithi]

BOb's point about the publishers dropping Amazon's license to sell certain ebooks exclusively on Google so that they can get higher prices is what worries me. Instead of competition resulting in lower prices it may result in higher prices and have a really adverse effect on the ebook market.

I also found the line about the books being available to read online or offline *via cache* disheartening as well. I hope that Google plans to allow purchasers of ebooks to store those books on their ereading device.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

will the offer be geographically restricted ?
will the books be locked into a drm scheme (and if yes, which one) ?

I'm going to guess:

yes
yes...don't know.

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

what pricing scheme will the publishers adopt ? i find it very interesting that google reserves itself the right to "adjust prices that it deemed "exorbitant."" i guess we just have to see whether google's idea of exorbitant matches the idea of typical readers.

Yes, what do people that are worth billions of dollars or employees that never have to pay for a gourmet meal while at work think is "exorbitant"?

BOb

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Who thinks that?

BOb

Fist reaction was "amazon this, amazon that."
then the frequent mention of "Kindle killer" when posting treads about new e-reader.
Amazon might dominate the e-book market is us. But, tier market share in the rest of the world is close to 0%. At least that avoid the "Ipod phenomena"...

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Fist reaction was "amazon this, amazon that."
then the frequent mention of "Kindle killer" when posting treads about new e-reader.
Amazon might dominate the e-book market is us. But, tier market share in the rest of the world is close to 0%. At least that avoid the "Ipod phenomena"...

I see what you are saying. But, I "expect" of course I could be wrong that while the US is a small % of the worlds population numbers wise it is a large % purchase power wise. So yes the nascent eBook industry is probably 80% or so US based at this point.. so of course most discussion about ebooks sales would focus on the biggest seller which at this time I've got to expect is Amazon.

BOb

[carld]

Originally Posted by Daithi

I also found the line about the books being available to read online or offline *via cache* disheartening as well. I hope that Google plans to allow purchasers of ebooks to store those books on their ereading device.

It looks to me like Google is just going to sell you the ability to read books online. They're available to any web enabled device and viewable via cache, sure sounds like online reading only.

Do I need to even say that this = epic fail?

Who in their right mind is going to pay for online only access to books?

[=X=]

"read books on any device with Internet access"
Based on this quote from the article I'm afraid they will not be supporting ANY format, but instead make a browser reader. Where you would have to connect just to read a page.

Yuk.

I'm also not to excited about the news. If Google will not engage Amazon in a price war but try to compete by providing exclusive content then only the consumers lose.


=X=

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I see what you are saying. But, I "expect" of course I could be wrong that while the US is a small % of the worlds population numbers wise it is a large % purchase power wise. So yes the nascent eBook industry is probably 80% or so US based at this point.. so of course most discussion about ebooks sales would focus on the biggest seller which at this time I've got to expect is Amazon.

BOb

actually bob i don't have any specific numbers but i do know that the ebook market in russia is huge, and has been for years. it's hard to know for sure without anyone disclosing their sales figures but i would not be surprised if russian ebook readers outnumber US readers. perhaps one of the russian-speaking members has some more info on that, i'd be very curious to know how many are sold there.

[vivaldirules]

I don't know what vendor/structure/format/etc to root for and it wouldn't matter if I did since "they" don't care what I think. But I am interested in more books!

[InlawBiker]

This will be good for the end customer - more places to buy means more competition and better services. As a Kindle owner I'm happy to have a new place to buy books, because I can convert ePub to Mobi. I'm assuming Google will use ePub, they'd be crazy to use a proprietary format.

ePub is the logical choice because the open format would be a huge, if not the main selling point over Amazon or Sony. Books would work on a browser, tablet or whatever portable PDA app that developers can dream up in Android. Google has their own distribution channels and software - Chrome and Android + Gears for offline reading, they'll want to use them. If somebody wants to develop an eInk reader that reads ePub they can now do so.

I think this is where Amazon's decision to use a closed system could bite them hard.

Greg

[ProfJulie]

Originally Posted by IgnareAcademy

You lose. Telling someone he is a conspiracy nut is akin to the methods used in the USSR, Eastern Germany, China, Nazi Germany to intimidate people who would go as far as think that the minority of people ruling over the vast majority were not above criticism.
You talk like the perfect slave/citizen in a totalitarian society, like the fanboy of the corporations whose products/services you use.
Too much power in too few hands is dangerous for democracy.
Databases destroy democracy, as was revealed during the last US presidential election. I remember seeing how for example the Democratic party used the very precise files they had on the vast majority of US citizens to deliver targeted political messages when they went door-to-door to try to convince people to vote for Obama. This way, people were convinced to vote selfishly basing their decision on precisely targeted talking-points that targeted a couple of their interests.
A serious voter in a democratic society should instead decide himself which issues are the most important not only for his own good but also for the general interest, and what exactly must be done about those issues. And then analyze by himself the platforms of the candidates to find the right one, already during the primaries.
And serious candidates should encourage people to vote that way, not cynically target people with the help of soulless advertisers.
Instead too many voters are overwhelmed by marketing campaigns that reach deeper and deeper into their minds to manipulate them, for example by inflating out of proportion new emotionally-charged issues like gay marriage, or by repeating key words like "change" ad nauseam, because advertisers found by psychologically studying panels of voters, that pushing those issues/words into people's minds was an efficient way to get many people to vote for one candidate or another.

Give me a break! We're talking about Google not the presidential race! Nonetheless please let me inform you that no democrats came to my door espousing any kind of dogma, but it was the republicans who plagued me with phone calls to the point of my turning off my phone's ringer and letting everything go to voicemail in the final weeks of the campaign.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by InlawBiker

This will be good for the end customer - more places to buy means more competition and better services. As a Kindle owner I'm happy to have a new place to buy books, because I can convert ePub to Mobi. I'm assuming Google will use ePub, they'd be crazy to use a proprietary format.

ePub can be DRM'ed in which case conversion will not be straightforward (and would probably be considered illegal by publishers).

On the other hand, if Google can convince publishers not to use DRM, presumably they would provide automatic conversions for most ebooks to whatever format you wanted, including mobi/azw. Why would they want any barriers to sales?

In any case, this is excellent news for consumers and for the ebook market generally. Apparently ebooks still represent only a tiny fraction of the publishing market, so there is a lot of growth and innovation possible.

I like my Kindle well enough for now, but am looking with interest to future developments and innovations, wherever they come from.