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Deja Vu....
A number of years ago, Gemstar thought that they would create the "itunes" of the ebook world. Their readers (one being an updated Rocketbook) were very good, and so was the software. The Gemstar store was better when it opened than the Connect store was when it opened.
Gemstar failed miserably in its attempt, for a number of reasons. First, many buyers wanted to put their OWN content on the device (from Gutenberg, web pages, etc.) Second, the Gemstar store was overpriced. I don't care what anyone says- an e-book should be priced at half of what you can obtain the physical book for at Borders, or even lower. The reason- if Borders can make a profit on their price, a seller should be able to make a profit selling the e-version at half that price, because they don't have to pay printing and shipping costs.
Sony doesn't understand the reading habits of most people who buy readers. Avid readers can't afford to go out and buy the latest hardcovers all the time, even if they make a good income and have a big house to store the books. Sony should realize this, and start offering older, out of print books at vastly reduced prices online. Ereader.com has done similar. And open up their format, or truly make standard pdf's readable on their device.
IMHO Sony will fail with this reader unless they start offering a much wider selection of books at much reduced prices, open up the ebook to developers, and provide software that makes standard pdf's readable (simply because pdf has become a standard), and includes a facility for importing html.
Oh yeah, my other gripe is that Sony is ignoring callers/e-mailers with complaints about the shoddy pdf support.....
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