@Bingle -- I missed that somehow -- thanks for the info!
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Originally Posted by markrich
Sell the books on SD cards in the book shops on the high street and you have instant mass market. The reseller is happy as it is able to sell more than one copy of a book, the publisher is happy as there is a market for the books and the purchaser is happy as they can pass on the book when finished with - just like a real book by unloading (unlocking) from the reader.
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This is more or less what I've thought, too, for several years now. If only the pub's would think of it! 1Mb cards would do for the vast majority of texts , and I bet 2Mb cards would be dirt cheap in bulk -- cheap enough, maybe, to still cost less than printing the paper versions. They could probably even work out how to do download business by downloading directly to an SD card and reading the relevant info from the card before download. You could still move the file off the card if you liked, it just wouldn't work anywhere else.
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Originally Posted by markrich
You will need DRM in some form else the market will never grow and if the market never grows then the readers will always cost silly money.
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The pub's are scared that they'll be robbed blind via pirated copies -- that's why DRM is "needed" at the moment. BAEN's successful DRM-less example doesn't seem to sink in, for some reason. (shrug)
I whole-heartedly agree that only mass acceptance can allow the reader prices to drop. They won't be able to reach a break-even point on their R&D investment if they can't sell a certain number of units (whatever that number might be), and they'd have to just fold in that circumstance. It
does bode well for the size of the market that iRex has apparently sold a couple thousand units while the OS/Software is still beta -- and individual sales ain't even their target market!