I stopped telling my friends about ebooks

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by Over

Your problem is not ebooks. It's your initial choice for an ereader. You can help your friends by pointing them for ereaders (which you call liseuses) that are available and supported in Europe (Cybook, BeBook, iRex's, etc).

That's a ridiculous claim to make, the situation with the sony store means that the experience for european sony customers is poor compared with the north american one, but to try and make the claim that it is not available or supported in comparison with those you list is bizarre.

Incidentally, check any french store that sells ereaders, nobody is using the l-word other than a few people on here.

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by kazbates

I'll grant you that that information should be upfront (I've often felt that retailers should be much more forthcoming about their products) but I still maintain that you cannot blame Sony for the Geo restrictions. They can be laid directly at the feet of publishers.

You can blame sony for simply not bothering to do a european version of their own bookstore to give those customers an equivalent experience.

There are plenty of online stores that manage to sell books and by this point sony should have done likewise rather than the half-arsed urls launching somebody else's site we currently have, why not partner up with overdrive and get a properly branded sony eu ebookstore.

[Over]

Originally Posted by Crowl

That's a ridiculous claim to make, the situation with the sony store means that the experience for european sony customers is poor compared with the north american one, but to try and make the claim that it is not available or supported in comparison with those you list is bizarre.

Incidentally, check any french store that sells ereaders, nobody is using the l-word other than a few people on here.

I don't understand what's your problem. The Cybook and others don't have a proprietary format. A format that in the case of Sony, is almost "denied" to non-USA people.

[Superlucky]

Originally Posted by Over

I don't understand what's your problem. The Cybook and others don't have a proprietary format. A format that in the case of Sony, is almost "denied" to non-USA people.

Sony Readers can utilize multiple formats. There is no "Sony" format.

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by Over

I don't understand what's your problem. The Cybook and others don't have a proprietary format. A format that in the case of Sony, is almost "denied" to non-USA people.

You are aware that lrf/lrx support isn't at the expense of something else aren't you?

While a european owner of a sony reader is worse off than their american equivalent they can still use ePub quite happily just like any of those other devices when they want to buy some ebooks.

[Over]

Originally Posted by Crowl

You are aware that lrf/lrx support isn't at the expense of something else aren't you?

While a european owner of a sony reader is worse off than their american equivalent they can still use ePub quite happily just like any of those other devices when they want to buy some ebooks.

Including (DRM) mobi, a very common format?

[Superlucky]

Originally Posted by Over

Including (DRM) mobi, a very common format?

No mobi. According to this thread, mobi's on its way out.

LRF/LRX is on its way out as well (the Sony store is going all epub).

Most international booksellers use the epub format.

[Dylrob]

Originally Posted by Over

Including (DRM) mobi, a very common format?

Mobipocket/Amazon will only license their secureMobi format to device makers with the condition that no other DRM can be supported in the same firmware.

[fugazied]

I feel for you because I am in the same boat. Ebooks will be great in a few years but at the moment we have some bad pricing structures, publishers who demand draconic DRM, numerous publishers owning a book license in different geographic areas.

SO whilst I have gotten a few relatives onto Kindles, I'm hesitant to recommend the value and benefits of ebook devices them to my 'techy' friends. They just find it easier to use pirate bay for books, however they are the kinds of people who use iTunes to buy music and TV shows so are not opposed to paying for media. Just the initial overhead of the reading device + the publisher issues don't make it worthwhile for most of them.

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by Over

Including (DRM) mobi, a very common format?

A format that prevents you from having secure ePubs though and given that most european stores seem to be going for ePub I thought it fairer to the non-sony devices to ignore it, especially since new hardware and/or firmware removes its support anyway.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Dylrob

Mobipocket/Amazon will only license their secureMobi format to device makers with the condition that no other DRM can be supported in the same firmware.

Which is a reason they will lose out.

[Dylrob]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Which is a reason they will lose out.

It honestly wouldn't surprise me if Amazon wants Mobi to fail. It would mean one less competitor to the "Kindle format".

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Dylrob

It honestly wouldn't surprise me if Amazon wants Mobi to fail. It would mean one less competitor to the "Kindle format".

I thought the Amazon format was based on MOBI (and perhaps they had licensed the format)?

[Dylrob]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I thought the Amazon format was based on MOBI (and perhaps they had licensed the format)?

Amazon bought out Mobipocket. And AZW (the Kindle Format) is essentially MOBI's identical twin, except that they made a couple minor tweaks to render the DRM officially incompatible.

Now as a wise soul mentioned in another thread, it could be that Amazon's long term goal is to become primarily a content provider. Licensing the AZW format on a variety of devices. But at the same time remaining the sole supplier of content in this format (the one thing that isn't possible with MOBI).

[BlackVoid]

eBook readers are only worth for the free content and maybe from a few specialised dealers (like Baen). For everything else, paperbacks are much less of a hassle, CHEAPER, and more versatile. Or your local library.

Buying DRM-ed books at the same price (or more) as the paperback is DUMB.