Spotted at DFW: Sony Reader vending machine!

[vivaldirules]

I saw one in Houston Intercontentinetal Airport on Sunday but I didn't even have that many quarters. But I did camp out nearby reading my 500 as I watched people go by and ogle the goods inside. No buyers (of anything) after an hour on a busy Sunday evening.

So does Amazon need a kiosk like this for the Kindle or a brick and morter store where potential shoppers can lay their hands on them or is their website good enough. I have yet to see one in the hands of someone else so I don't think "word of mouth" is particularly good for them right now.

[m42]

I saw one at the Vegas airport last week. Maybe it is a good selling tool for them. It took credit cards. My sister wanted to buy one. She's been eyeing mine for a while now.

[pshrynk]

Originally Posted by AJ Starr

What we need now is an Airport kiosk where you RENT the eink device, Sony or other, and then turn it back in at your destination. Similiar to the rental of audio books at the resturant (Country Kettle???) and turn it back in at the next one after you finish it. You get your money back except for a low rental fee.

Any ideas.......

A

There are places where you rent movies and players and drop them at your desination.

[grimo1re]

They need to sell memory sticks with a couple of popular e-books on them, that would work in an airport! But the whole rental thing is a great idea too, then people that would normally be too afraid to take the plunge can check it out and enjoy it and spread the good word an all that.

[TheMooch]

The rental idea is a good one, but unless there are an assortment of current books on it I think it would bust. The notion of bringing your own memory stick to plug into a rented reader is another neat idea, but that would tend to lean in the direction of a more universal format that all readers could use. The Kindle/Sony format wars are only the tip of the iceberg I fear.

[Dr. Drib]

Buying ebooks at vending machines and small kiosks is a great way to sell books*.

Take all the old telephone booths*, tear out the phones, and set up an ebook kiosk.




Telephone booth = a small metal box one stands in while talking on a telephone. Money was often used, except in high crime areas. Telephone booths were most often found in noir films starring people now deceased.

Books = An object with squiggly marks on it. [See: Tarzan*.]

Tarzan = See Burroughs*

Burroughs = See MobileRead*

MobileRead = A place with thousands of free books and a ton (figuratively speaking) of Edgar Rice Burroughs ebooks!

Don

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

BTW, I'm thinking of retirement ideas, because in 4 more years, I'll retire at age 51. So I'm thinking of fun things to do a couple of hours per week, so that I won't turn into my dad. Early retirement made him a very depressed, unpleasant, and unfulfilled man, because he was retired for longer than he worked.[/COLOR]

Wow -- wish I knew how to retire at 51. I wouldn't even have to wait. Wonder if one could make a living by downloading ebooks and putting them on readers for people who don't want to be bothered with the details. Nah ..... those people will just buy the Kindle. (like I did) Actually, it's not what to do during retirement that keeps me working, it's the paycheck. Oh, to be independently wealthy! Then I'd have all day to hang around in MR. Wheee.....!

[tirsales]

@badgoodDeb: Okay. Both of us are allowed to retire now, kay?
I'm in the mid-twenties and I do strongly believe I have already spent too much time working.

@zelda: I agree. I like my work - but I like my free time more. And I would find more then enough to do

[vivaldirules]

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

I saw one in Houston Intercontentinetal Airport on Sunday but I didn't even have that many quarters. But I did camp out nearby reading my 500 as I watched people go by and ogle the goods inside. No buyers (of anything) after an hour on a busy Sunday evening.

Just for info, I returned Friday night and noticed that the same kiosk no longer had any Readers inside. I think there had been two there when I saw it five days earlier. Okay, let's assume 3 Readers are sold each week from each kiosk. There are five terminals in that airport and let's assume Sony has a kiosk in each terminal in two dozen major airports in the U.S. or roughly 100 kiosks. That would be 15,000 Sony Readers sold from airport kiosks each year and I'd say that was a fairly optimistic estimate.

[jerryleejr]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

Wow -- wish I knew how to retire at 51. I wouldn't even have to wait. Wonder if one could make a living by downloading ebooks and putting them on readers for people who don't want to be bothered with the details. Nah ..... those people will just buy the Kindle. (like I did) Actually, it's not what to do during retirement that keeps me working, it's the paycheck. Oh, to be independently wealthy! Then I'd have all day to hang around in MR. Wheee.....!

Maybe you could not only download them for people but for the really lazy read it to them also! They would never know the difference if you skipped a chapter or to.

[JGB]

And before apple, some large factories use a similar system for toolbits/consumables/things people might try to swipe.
instead of a credit card, you swipe an id badge, so it keeps track of who took all the 100$ drill bits home.

From what I saw it was designed to be able to dispense things of varying sizes with 100% reliability, a delay in your candy fix is annoying, a 1 or 2 hour delay of a machine that you are charging 300$ or more an hour for usage is much more of an issue.
I don't know if sony and apple are using the identical machines, but they look pretty damn close.


[QUOTE=DixieGal;203277]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Of course, I think Sny is following Apples lead... it was several years ago when I heard about the first iPod vending machine./QUOTE]


I had no idea Apple did that! I'm learning so much interesting stuff today.

Oh, and kiosk to me is a hotdog cart. Another possible "retirement income idea." Also, I picked up an idea from a man in the Bahamas who had a great business, made $100 in one hour per day, then spends the rest of the day at the beach being retired. I'm not gonna tell what it is, but it involves sand and rum. :-)

BTW, I'm thinking of retirement ideas, because in 4 more years, I'll retire at age 51. So I'm thinking of fun things to do a couple of hours per week, so that I won't turn into my dad. Early retirement made him a very depressed, unpleasant, and unfulfilled man, because he was retired for longer than he worked.

Originally Posted by grimo1re

They need to sell memory sticks with a couple of popular e-books on them, that would work in an airport! But the whole rental thing is a great idea too, then people that would normally be too afraid to take the plunge can check it out and enjoy it and spread the good word an all that.

Like the portable dvd players+dvd's some airlines rent, that would be awesome! rent on one side drop on the other.

The sony would be perfect for the memory stick sale idea, with its two card ports. especially if they sell them on the smallest storage sony sticks as a standard.
have a SD card already in, plug in your disposable book stick(tm), transfer the file to your SD card and eject it again.

[Taylor514ce]

Why couldn't the software of the reader delete the book once the user reaches the last page? A one-time read book. Fill your Rent-A-Book stick with one-time read books. Read, reach the end, delete.

[Patricia]

Well, that would certainly stop people from turning to the end of a detective novel to find out who did it.

[Taylor514ce]

Yes, a side benefit I considered. It would also make the "end" button on the Sony Menu a bit dangerous. But as long as we're postulating unwritten software here, then the "End" wouldn't appear on the menu for read-once books. There, see? It's easy to debug unwritten software.