[mgmueller]

Just a general thought:

I very often read about budget for buying a reader and such.
I always ask myself:
If people have to calculate, whether they can afford another 20 Euro for their hardware: How can they ever afford the content.
Maybe I'm a bit extreme in my spending frenzy.
But for me, content is way more expensive than hardware.
For each new gadget, I easily spend a few hundred Euro in the week after purchase. Some stuff I re-purchase (had it on another platform and want to have it again. Navigon for example I have at least on half a dozen of platforms), some stuff is new and one of the reasons for the new gadget to begin with.
Isn't this alone indicator enough, how wide spread pirating content is?
I have the feeling, members in mobileread are far more willing to pay for their enthusiast's hobby, than the general public.

My calculation:
One is using a reader maybe 2 years. (Personally I don't, I will have a replacement in a few months. But people who plan their invest that carefully probably use their gadgets way longer).
If one has to take a price difference of 20 Euro into consideration, which comes down to 1 Euro per month of usage: How should they ever buy 10 or even 100 books per year?

Yes, there are public libraries.
And yes, there are freebies from Amazon, Kobo and the likes.
Still: Whenever I read such discussions, follow-up costs are the first thing that comes into my mind.
And, like I wrote before, at least in my limited group of about 10 friends with readers, it's exactly that way...

Personally, I was a bit shaken by such statements of a few friends.
But I don't agree to other of their statements as well, for example: "Okay, then I'll order those 3 readers, test them and will keep one"...