Mike Cane changes his opinion and becomes a Sony Reader fan

[stobs]

part4 is online now: http://mikecane.wordpress.com/2006/1...r-part-4-of-4/

-Stobs

[ultim8fury]

To his credit he does seem to finally "get it" where a lot of tech journalists/bloggers don't.

[Jake]

He does seem to get it now - this last part is especially interesting. And it gives a lot of food for thought. When I say "I like books" what do I really mean? Physical heft, smell etc.? The content only? Walking into a Barnes & Noble to browse (I really do love this). Interesting stuff ...

[NatCh]

Now that I've finished reading it, I think that may be the best write up I've seen. I agree, Jake, he clearly put a lot of thinking into his evaluation, and I applaud him for taking the time and effort.

The fact that I happen to agree with him is purely coincidental.

[WilliamG]

It's an interesting read, but the Sony Reader is NOT the iPod of books. The iPod is an icon now. The Reader, will never be. Why? Because more people will listen to music than anyone will ever read. Today's generation, as sad as it is to say, is more illiterate than ever before. You ask your average Joe which he'd rather have: A Sony Reader or an iPod.

Sadly, I wish Joe would pick the Reader.

[da_jane]

My opinion of Cane's review is that he misses the boat. A device to read books that costs $350.00 must offer more than the convenience factor.

[NatCh]

Convenience is the primary factor that draws me to e-books in the first place.

Different folks, different priorities, I s'pose.

[ojleblanc]

What does the iPod offer but convenience? I can listen to music on my old portable CD player, too, but the iPod (actually, iRiver for me) allows me to carry a lot of music around with little bulk. I can also switch from one cd to another or from one artist to another without having a bunch of CDs with me. Same is true of the Reader-- a ton of reading material without the bulk. And the outstanding battery life of the Reader is much more convenient than that of an mp3 player. If I had to manage battery life on one more electronic device the way I have to do for my Treo and iRiver, I would not have purchased the Reader. But because I can charge the Reader and forget about it for weeks made this device super convenient. I think people will pay for convenience, I certainly did.

[Leaping Gnome]

Any time you talk about the price of an item, it's all relative to your unique position. For someone making $35,000 a year $350 might not be worth what it offers. Someone making $350,000? 'Sure, why not, I'll try it out' is probably the attitude. I never like arguments about price as it all boils down to that person's perspective.

[NatCh]

Excellent point, LG, the price is viewed as a function of disposable income. I've always thought that the prices were the biggest sticking point on these things. I'm hoping that as e-ink usage goes up, volume will drive the cost down. But, until then....

[BuddyBoy]

Originally Posted by Leaping Gnome

Any time you talk about the price of an item, it's all relative to your unique position. For someone making $35,000 a year $350 might not be worth what it offers. Someone making $350,000? 'Sure, why not, I'll try it out' is probably the attitude. I never like arguments about price as it all boils down to that person's perspective.

The other thing is that depending on your marginal or hourly income, the theoretical time savings of not driving to the book store, standing in line, driving home, manhandling a ton of paper, etc can make the reader pay off.

Of course, my problem is now I spend more time reading happily and ignoring my work, which kind of blows the theory.

[vrf]

Originally Posted by da_jane

A device to read books that costs $350.00 must offer more than the convenience factor.

yeah, like good books.

I think I'm sold on the Reader hardware, but it's not going to get my money without some decent new content (comparable to a real bookstore).

[da_jane]

I was just thinking of an easy way to read my existing library. I am really frustrated with my inability to transport my existing library to the Sony Reader. I should say I am frustrated with my inability to create nicely formatted books to read on my Sony Reader.

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by da_jane

I was just thinking of an easy way to read my existing library. I am really frustrated with my inability to transport my existing library to the Sony Reader. I should say I am frustrated with my inability to create nicely formatted books to read on my Sony Reader.

You're right that is why we need a good software converter that bridges with the reader's native language.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by WilliamG

It's an interesting read, but the Sony Reader is NOT the iPod of books. The iPod is an icon now. The Reader, will never be. Why? Because more people will listen to music than anyone will ever read.

I question even this basic premise (it may be true in the U.S. and Europe with A LOT of people, but not everywhere). Also, remember that novels, which may be decreasing in sales, aren't the only things people read. If you add magazines and newspapers, for instance, I'd bet people spend more of those than on music. There's a market for you.

So if/when the Reader can support magazines and newspapers, it will have a larger global market (and profit base) than music has right now.

Based on the article, two things occur to me: One, the Reader may need a redesign to deal with some of the physical limitations/laments that users have; and Two, that color displays would add considerably to the variety and quality of available content (newspapers, magazines, manga/comics, etc).

What One and Two add up to is this: The present Reader could be a Live Market Prototype, a testbed designed to perfect the ultimate product, Sony Reader Mark II. (To make clear, I have no evidence that Sony is following this strategy... just that, if I were Sony, that's what I'd be doing.)

My final comment is this: It's a shame it doesn't support HTML... maybe it will in the future (or Mark II will!)... but at least it will support RTF, which I can convert my novels to with very little trouble. So even if I don't get the chance to sell my novels through the Connect store, I can still sell them in RTF for customers to self-load onto the Reader. That's cool.