Quote:
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Originally Posted by bingle
Well, when I say "platform", what I mean is that the company develops a piece of hardware not for the sake of the hardware itself, but rather to make money selling content for it.
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Ah! Now I follow. You're saying a
marketing platform! I was thinking in terms of a
hardware platform, but I'm with you now.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by bingle
Now, Sony doesn't have a book publishing business, and allowing txt, pdf, and rtf formats seems to indicate that they're open to other people's content being on there. But I'd feel more comfortable if the Connect store didn't exist. I'd rather my hardware provider and content provider be separate entities; that way I know they're not screwing me over for their own benefit.
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I see where you're going and I see your concerns, even find them somewhat compelling.
On the other hand, I find it slightly encouraging that the Connect store is primarily Sony's answer to iTunes, so it's really geared toward selling music first, with the etexts being something of an afterthought as it were. Combined with how insular Sony's various divisions seem to be, both in general, and from your comments on your own observations, I think the relationship to the Readers (hardware) may be more like (really) close partners than the same company. At $350, they aren't giving the readers away, certainly -- that's the best price HanLin can ask for theirs too, and they (presumably) have the subsidization of the entire Chinese government at some level, anyway.
As a further point, the Reader plays both mp3 and
AAC files (hellooo, Podcasts!), which leaves you open to buying content from not the Connect Store. Between that and supporting RTF/TXT/PDF files, I think it may be a tacit acknowlegement that they've realized they
can't lock us into only their content. I realize that there are some who won't really trust the Sony device to play those files until they see it for themselves, but I've become satisfied that it is indeed so.
I know, I know, I have been extremely vocal in the (recent, even) past in my skepticism about Sony's attitude on this topic, but the things I've learned recently about the hardware itself, and what it supports out of the box are swaying me.
Even when I was most leaning toward the HanLin reader, I was wishing that the Sony Reader would be more open, and that there would be some evidence of it. Well, the evidence is coming out, and I'm leaning back the other way.
Perhaps it's wishful thinking, but I expect that seeing the hardare and playing with it -- even if I can just get a few minutes in a store (just me and my SD card and the Reader
) -- will give me a good read on just how wishfull my thinking is.
I wish Sony and HanLin would release, already! And I still want to see an iLiad for myself, even though it's dropped to 3rd place in my considerations. (No, I'm not stalking you, iLiad owners ... I'm stalking your
iLiads! 
)
Maybe we need a
generic meditation thread for us poor, frustrated, non-iLiad folks....
