MobileRead Forums - View Single Post

markrich · 08-25-2006, 09:07 AM

I don't think you'll see a reasonable price drop to a mass-market price (say £150 or €200) unless the costs of said readers are subsidised by book suppliers.

The e-book reader suppliers, as far as I can see, don't appear to be working with the content suppliers. They need to get the big book suppliers (not the retailers - the publishers) on board with a decent supply of books affordable and available everywhere - in the shops and on the web.

The mantra of "if you build it they will come" is not a truism. iRex and Sony need to get their reader prices down and that means getting the book people on board.

When a book is published all the content is on a computer therefore converting that it a ebook is not an unreasonable effort. The problem for the book suppliers is copyright. Unlike a real book which can be given away but the book remains a single copy, ebooks can be copied. Get the protection sorted to allow it to be playable on 1 or 2 readers at a time and the book publishers can be brought on board to subsidise the readers and make them available to everyone.

Similiar efforts should be made to subsidise for students and universities where having all ones reference books in a single place is a clear advantage on weight and availability.

Subsidise is the answer!

Marky

08-25-2006, 09:07 AM	#18
markrich Member Posts: 14 Karma: 580 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: European Union Device: Kobo Aura One, Samsung tablets	I don't think you'll see a reasonable price drop to a mass-market price (say £150 or €200) unless the costs of said readers are subsidised by book suppliers. The e-book reader suppliers, as far as I can see, don't appear to be working with the content suppliers. They need to get the big book suppliers (not the retailers - the publishers) on board with a decent supply of books affordable and available everywhere - in the shops and on the web. The mantra of "if you build it they will come" is not a truism. iRex and Sony need to get their reader prices down and that means getting the book people on board. When a book is published all the content is on a computer therefore converting that it a ebook is not an unreasonable effort. The problem for the book suppliers is copyright. Unlike a real book which can be given away but the book remains a single copy, ebooks can be copied. Get the protection sorted to allow it to be playable on 1 or 2 readers at a time and the book publishers can be brought on board to subsidise the readers and make them available to everyone. Similiar efforts should be made to subsidise for students and universities where having all ones reference books in a single place is a clear advantage on weight and availability. Subsidise is the answer! Marky Last edited by markrich; 08-25-2006 at 09:09 AM.