08-15-2009, 09:37 AM | #331 | |
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The question was even answered |
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08-15-2009, 11:08 AM | #332 |
Beepbeep n beebeep, yeah!
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08-15-2009, 01:09 PM | #333 | |
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Odd. btw, Amazon is the only place still currently selling the King Raven trilogy (Robin Hood stories) by Stephen Lawhead. And it's Kindle-only, AZW1 format. Yuck! |
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08-16-2009, 06:09 AM | #334 |
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Sony ePUB move is a good one, overall
I think in general Sony's move to ePub formats is a good one. Anything that tends to reduce the balkanization of eBook formats, over the long run, is a good move. Granted, ePub rendoring and especially some of the Adobe software has some "anomalies" (as an aside, the ADE software I find buggy as all get out, so lets hope that the newer stuff is not), but hopefully over time those will be addressed. The tendency of a competitive market is that you improve or the market moves elsewhere. But as with any transition, I think Sony will be challenged to bring it off without some adverse side effects, crashed readers or forced upgrades. Hopefully they'll work through it and it will be something that will serve as a model in the future, when newer editions of books and book readers include more CSS/typography/color/screen size/screen resolution improvements. Hopefully as eBook Readers and formats evolve and improve, it will become the model that you will still be able to read previously purchased books. We shall see. Some of the earlier .mobi to .epub handling by other vendors went not so smoothly, but that's one of the reasons for buying from one of the majors, at least in theory.
I have to say though, that while competitively forced to try and standardize on something other than Kindle/mobi, I just don't see the Sony back-end store being competitive just yet. Oh, it's adequate enough, I have an account there, it does cover the basics. Still, the Amazon store is so much more powerful and function rich, that I'm afraid all price things being equal (and they're basically not, in my experience Amazon still has the best eBook prices, although the margin & number of books that are cheaper has come down), people are still going to go to Amazon. You have the publishers' reviews, all the lists, customer feedback, wish lists, discussion forums, etc. And ultimately, it's probably just as much the iTunes store as the devices themselves that made the iPod dominant for e-music, so don't underestimate the importance of a good backend store. It's crucial. In fact, even in the ePub format back-end stores, I kind of prefer Barnes and Noble. BN is still not Amazon, but it's a lot closer, and you have to give BN credit, they're trying, and they do know books. If it turns out that an ePub off BN isn't compatible with a Sony ePbub enabled reader, or a Sony store ePub doesn't work on a BN/Plastic Logic reader (granted, certain rendering differences, but in general), DRM or not, then what people really want, i.e. device transparency and portability, preservation of investment, hasn't been achieved just yet. The grass is always greener, and overall the move by Sony to the ePub format is a positive one, but time will tell how this transition all works out. The devil is in the details. |
08-16-2009, 06:13 AM | #335 | |
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08-16-2009, 07:38 AM | #336 | |
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Still, remember that Sony consolidated its Reader effort in the USA, partly because for once, it seems the USA is the hottest market at the moment. That did not follow the cell phone model of Japan-first, for some reason. Go figure, outside of Boston, Austin, and NY, I would have guessed the per-capita reading to be better in Great Britain, but maybe the size of that market is just not big enough. Or maybe it's still difficulties with publishers and DRM/regional requirements. And it's all largely what-if type speculation. Amazon has websites and "presence" overseas, so it's just as likely they could come out with a GSM variant Kindle and sell it in Europe, various other locations. See: http://ireaderreview.com/2008/12/05/...uk-canada-gsm/ and http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/24/k...or-a-sim-card/ for some indications that Amazon is looking at GSM and eventual International sales, even off a Kindle-2 base. It could be, though, that Amazon (and perhaps Sony and/or Apple) is waiting for LTE to become available, and viable, as a cell format, the promise there being more world-wide. |
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08-16-2009, 07:47 AM | #337 |
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Sony currently sell the Reader in the USA, Canada, UK, France, Germany and (I think?) Austria. It's due to be launched in several more European countries by the end of the year.
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08-16-2009, 09:24 AM | #338 | |
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US centric
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Have you considered that Sony just might want strengthen there foodhold outside the US? Especially now that Amazons deal with T-Online and Vodafone went sour. |
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08-16-2009, 09:46 AM | #339 |
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In katewilly's defense, it's sometimes difficult to look beyond the borders of your own country or even your own home. Especially when we are rapped up in our own lives and are concerned about how things effect us. When companies release a new reader or make a new announcement about selling ebooks, I don't think, "How will this impact the European ebook buyer?" I generally think, "Hey, will this mean I can get a better ereader of will the price of ebooks by my favorite authors be cheaper?" I don't think that's US centric, I think it's more SELF-centered.
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08-16-2009, 10:01 AM | #340 |
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Couple of other things. First, the little blurb under her name states that she's in Alabama, and second, the quoted bit says "Amazon's soft side (availability of books) is attractive to me" (emphasis added), which clearly indicates that she's expressing her own personal opinion. When expressing your own opinion, I think it's perfectly fine to use your own POV as a reference. After all, isn't that what an opinion is?
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08-16-2009, 10:06 AM | #341 |
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08-16-2009, 10:08 AM | #342 |
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Oh, and Ireland too. Forgot that one .
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08-16-2009, 10:11 AM | #343 |
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08-16-2009, 11:39 AM | #344 |
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So, it seems like we're basically going to end up with three different ebook formats for NYT bestsellers (i.e., standard paperback/hardback books):
- Kindle (mobi), sold by Amazon and working with the Kindle; - ePub + ADEPT DRM, sold by Sony and others, used in public libraries, works with several ebook devices; - eReader (either their current format or ePub + eReader DRM), sold by B&N/eReader/Fictionwise, works with the future Plastic Logic ebook device It will be interesting if as B&N transitions to ePub, they really stick with their own DRM and don't adopt ADEPT - it seems like right now, unless you're Amazon, the format you need to support as either a device manufacturer or ebook vendor is ePub + ADEPT. As a reader, this type of consolidation is great - being able to shop around for my books is good, and should help keep prices reasonable. |
08-16-2009, 11:50 AM | #345 | |||
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The whole picture
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Ok, note to self: don't cut so much away when quoting. And Switzerland. Quote:
BTW - news hit /. as well Last edited by krischik; 08-16-2009 at 11:56 AM. Reason: manual multi quote |
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