Quote:
Originally Posted by pilotbob
I'm curious. Did you buy your Sony before or after it had the ADE support?
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Bob,
I received the Sony as a surprise Christmas gift before it had ADE support. I then found and joined MR because I was thinking about returning the Sony and getting a Kindle. (This was the holiday season when Kindle 1 was released.) I knew very little about ebooks until I found MR.
Anyway, I ended up keeping the Sony for several reasons. First, a friend did get a Kindle and I got a chance to actually see it in person. Rightly or wrongly, it made me think of reading off my laptop. Second, rumors were flying on MR that Sony would be adding ADE support and PDF reflow, which would open it up in a forthcoming firmware update, which was supposed to be "imminent." Of course, the rumors had the firmware update coming sooner than it really did. Third, it became obvious to me as a then ebook newbie that I had lots of other choices for buying books for my Sony than by buying from the Sony bookstore or in the Sony DRMed format. It was not clear that books for the Kindle could be purchased at bookstores other than Amazon.
So, in a nutshell, I received the Sony as a gift a few months before it had the firmware update.
Let me add this: Until I joined MR and really learned about ebooks and the different formats, I assumed -- very incorrectly -- that (a) all ebooks were in PDF format and (b) that regardless of ebook device owned, one could read any ebook on any ebook reading device. I suspect that many buyers of ebook reading devices who haven't come on MR make the same assumptions. These assumptions are important because when choosing a device the uninformed, as I was, make the choice based on factors other than accessibility to ebooks and choice among ebook stores. People buy a Kindle because they have had a good customer relationship with Amazon or trust the brand; similarly with Sony here in the U.S.