Quote:
Originally Posted by markm
An e-book reader is an example of technology that makes no sense, at least not to a consumer. An e-book reader costs $400 + maybe $40/year in electricity to keep it charged. At $9.99 each, books are the same price or more expensive in digital format than paperback.
|
The $9.99 price is for new release hardback best sellers. The price of the corresponding paper books is normally in the $ 16 range.
Forty dollars a year to keep it charged sounds like quite a bit--where are you getting that number?
Most of the time the Amazon e-book is cheaper than the corresponding paper book. The margin isn't as great with paperback books--usually a dollar or two instead of six.
On rare occasion, the e-book is more expensive than the paper book. In my experience this has been when the paperback was recently released and the Kindle price hadn't yet "caught up." I usually solve this problem by checking back in a week or two.
Quote:
Originally Posted by markm
Much more expensive if you factor in discount pricing (e.g., Costco, Sams Club, B&N discount, etc...), used book resale, and borrowing from the library.
|
I'm perfectly okay with factoring in these things as long as we also factor in free public domain e-books available from Manybooks.net, Fictionwise, and MobileRead. And as long as we factor in free e-books available from the public libraries that have such things (the one in my area, doesn't, alas, but maybe someday; in the meantime, many MobileRead readers are enjoying the fruits of their public libraries). And as long as we factor in free e-books from the Baen Free Library, and free e-books given out as promotions, like Tor's recent spate of them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by markm
Once purchased, a digital book cannot be resold.
|
True.
Quote:
Originally Posted by markm
I cannot stack my digital books on shelves in my library.
|
I'm sorry, I thought you were listing disadvantages?
Quote:
Originally Posted by markm
I cannot sell, loan or donate my digital book when I'm done reading it.
|
You already said that above. I grant you that it is still true.
Quote:
Originally Posted by markm
If my e-book reader dies, something it will surely do every 3- to 5-years, I may not be able to re-read my digital books on my new device.
|
True, and this is actually something that even I see as a serious drawback. Of course, the free public domain stuff and the stuff from Fictionwise and the Baen Free Library is DRM-free, and thus widely readable. Reading books bought from Amazon on a non-Amazon reader (should I decide to get one) would require breaking the DRM, though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by markm
There are some specialized applications where an e-book reader might make sense, but those applications can just as easily be satisfied by a Tablet-PC, Netbook or Notebook-PC without requiring the user to carry a second electronic device. For general situations, ink on paper yields the best value and availability.
|
Not for me. Not until tablets or netbooks come the size and weight of an e-book reader, with e-ink screens, at which point they'll *be* e-book readers, so why bother?
Just for one example, I recently moved into a house with a serious dandelion problem. Every morning I spend 2 hours pulling dandelions. This job got a lot less tedious when I started putting my Kindle in a shoulder bag and having it read to me while I worked. I don't think I would enjoy that with a laptop, supposing a laptop could even do that, and could do that for 2 hours while folded up in a shoulder bag without overheating or battery life issues.
Furthermore, either I'm not the only one who finds an e-book reader a good value, or we're all a pack of fools, and why are you hanging out with a pack of fools, again?