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dhbailey · 11-24-2007, 06:30 AM

Brian is reflecting what I understand about the complicated nature of the ebook market currently. Borders is under contract with Amazon and so can't officially begin with a competitor until the current contract ends in January.

The amazing thing in all of this is how blatantly Barnes&Noble is staying out of the whole ebook marketplace.

I am very hopeful that the Sony/Borders partnership changes things drastically for the better as far as number of titles as well as prices. Whether we can go into a local Borders and buy/download books to our Sony Readers makes no difference to me, I'm happy to do it from home over the internet, but the book-world clout of Borders should have some positive impact.

What I would like to know is who is leaving whom in the Borders/Amazon split? Did Amazon tell Borders to take a hike, since Amazon knew it had the Kindle coming out, or did Borders decide to break with Amazon in an effort to take more control of its web-presence and saw the partnership with Sony as having more potential?

One aspect of the Kindle makes me hesitate (well, lots of aspects make me hesitate, but this one is very important for lots of users) and that is the always-available internet connection which isn't standard wi-fi. There is a monthly fee for using that which Amazon is currently picking up for Kindle users. One report I heard mentioned a fee of something like $50/month for a single subscription. That means that in 8 months, they've wasted the entire income from the Kindle to keep it connected anywhere. Realizing of course that Amazon would have negotiated a much lower per/unit price for that connectivity, it won't be able to keep that service free forever.

What will happen at that point for all the Kindle users who think they're paying only $1/day (or whatever the daily subscription rate is) for reading the NYTimes or WallStreetJournal every morning on the subway, when Amazon stops paying that network fee and kindle users find themselves facing a $600/year subscription fee on top of the $1/day for each paper?

11-24-2007, 06:30 AM	#3
dhbailey Guru Posts: 604 Karma: 733 Join Date: Mar 2007 Device: HP iPAQ211 / PRS 500, 700 and 505	Brian is reflecting what I understand about the complicated nature of the ebook market currently. Borders is under contract with Amazon and so can't officially begin with a competitor until the current contract ends in January. The amazing thing in all of this is how blatantly Barnes&Noble is staying out of the whole ebook marketplace. I am very hopeful that the Sony/Borders partnership changes things drastically for the better as far as number of titles as well as prices. Whether we can go into a local Borders and buy/download books to our Sony Readers makes no difference to me, I'm happy to do it from home over the internet, but the book-world clout of Borders should have some positive impact. What I would like to know is who is leaving whom in the Borders/Amazon split? Did Amazon tell Borders to take a hike, since Amazon knew it had the Kindle coming out, or did Borders decide to break with Amazon in an effort to take more control of its web-presence and saw the partnership with Sony as having more potential? One aspect of the Kindle makes me hesitate (well, lots of aspects make me hesitate, but this one is very important for lots of users) and that is the always-available internet connection which isn't standard wi-fi. There is a monthly fee for using that which Amazon is currently picking up for Kindle users. One report I heard mentioned a fee of something like $50/month for a single subscription. That means that in 8 months, they've wasted the entire income from the Kindle to keep it connected anywhere. Realizing of course that Amazon would have negotiated a much lower per/unit price for that connectivity, it won't be able to keep that service free forever. What will happen at that point for all the Kindle users who think they're paying only $1/day (or whatever the daily subscription rate is) for reading the NYTimes or WallStreetJournal every morning on the subway, when Amazon stops paying that network fee and kindle users find themselves facing a $600/year subscription fee on top of the $1/day for each paper?