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Originally Posted by RSaunders
If the publishers make and distribute books using open source tools, then Sony makes nothing per book... They've moved out of a saturated marketplace with small margins (books or handheld electronics, whichever you think the reader is) and into a marketplace with limited supply, one provider, and hopefully higher margins. If they could get this approach to work, like Apple did with iPod, then the Reader will be a business success. If we all decide to run BD on Baen/Gutenberg/... book sources and read those instead they will have the worst case scenario earnings...
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Good point. But with the iPod, you can easily import MP3 files from sources other than iTunes, and this doesn't make for a losing earnings scenario for Apple. Even without iTunes, they've taken the MP3 player market hands-down.
Sony should be able to sell a reader successfully, even if they don't control the content. How? Make a reader everyone wants, and no one can refuse... the iPod of readers. Connect is just icing on the cake. Sony can't assume they can control the content market (I'm 2 steps away from releasing my own novels in LRF format!), so they should concentrate on making the best damned reader possible, at a price point no one can refuse.