Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
The overriding reason to favour the CyBook is of course the short-sighted marketting decision of Sony not to make it officially available to 95% of the planetary population. It remains to be seen whether the Kindle will be marketted in a similar manner, but my hopes are not high.
The other reason I'm going to buy it myself is that it supports the multi-platform MobiPocket format rather than the Sony-Specific BBeB format.
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Yep. I don't think CyBook is particularly setting their sights on the American market. They don't have the visibility here but they've got a pretty level field overseas. It would be a huge and rather risky investment to try to get a foothold here. They'd have to compete with two household names.
I'm in the US, however, so I have my pick. Frankly, the main advantage I see to the PRS-505 is that I could have it now. I'm a dreadfully impatient person. Plus it looks like a good piece of hardware. However, I think that .mobi is a nose ahead in the format race right now and a lot of this decision comes down to picking the winning horse. I'm going to wait and see what the Kindle looks like. It appears a lot of us are. That gives Bookeen a little bit more time to get their act together.
The way I see it, most consumers in the US will be choosing between Sony and Amazon. They haven't heard of Bookeen. Us ebook geeks here are aware of this third choice but that's not a lot of units. Their primary market is unchanged. Even amongst us geeky few, there does not appear to be a mad rush to jump on the 505. Plus, success for Amazon probably means success for .mobi which helps Bookeen and hurts Sony.