Quote:
Originally Posted by Mikewolf
Google will likely offer apps as an option, but try to get people to use browsers and enable offline access. A lot more folks will have access instantly to books through a browser than an ePub book app, and that will be Google's preferred method. The only gating factor is capabilities of browser on non-PC devices, and that's where the app strategy might come into play for Google.
|
My ebook reader is incompatible with "apps."
So's my daughter's.
I spend about twice as much money per year on ebooks as I do pbooks--and the pbooks are either reference works (gaming) or niche market books unavailable as ebooks, usually religious books. (And those, I usually chop-scan-OCR & format. I've come to hate reading paper books.)
I spend more than 8 hours a day online. I read, on average, over 200,000 words/week on an ebook reader, and I'd be very happy to never read paper again. I should be very much part of Google's target demographics. I should be at or near the top of *every* ebook seller's target demographics list: someone who used to read friends' copies of books and is just getting used to buying her own, someone who's willing to put a substantial amount of her disposable income towards ebooks, someone who doesn't mind the fact that cutting-edge tech is sometimes glitchy or formatting is sometimes a bit off; just get me words on the screen and I'm happy.
Instead, as far as I can tell, I won't be buying any Googlebooks for quite some time, if ever. They won't be compatible with my reader, nor the one I've picked as my next choice when/if this one dies, nor my second choice. (I'm not looking for wifi in an ebook reader. I wouldn't mind it--as long as it doesn't cost notable battery time--but I'm not giving up other features, including low price, for it.) They might not be compatible with my browser (Firefox), or might require giving access to more of my personal information than I care to hand over to a bookseller.
Most publishers & ebook distributors seem to think their ebook customers should be the same as their print customers, and they're trying to figure out "how do we make pbook buyers switch to ebooks" instead of "how do we tap into all those people who never buy pbooks but would buy ebooks?"