MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - The Land of eBooks - Comparisions in Availability and Pricing of U.S. eBooks

Gideon · 07-21-2009, 12:08 AM

I just finished a rather large chart comparing the prices and availability of ebooks at some of the major stores - Amazon, Sony, Barnes and Noble, BooksOnBoard, and FictionWise.

You can see the chart and full explanation here:
http://blog.gideonaddington.com/2009...and-of-ebooks/

I was motivated to do this because of Sony and Barnes and Noble's insane claims regarding their book selections (and to a lesser extent Amazon's) given that they are including all of the public domain books available through Google - books available to pretty much anyone. Also, I wanted to see what Barnes and Noble was doing and this was the best way to get some answers.

I checked 28 books - the top two from each catagory from the NYT Best Seller lists, and then a group of my recent purchases and things on my wishlist that were not available on the Kindle when I placed them there. So it isn't the most scientific study in the world - but it covers a wide range of material and genres.

Conclusions:
1 book was not available on any platform

Amazon 27/28
Sony 23/28 (big improvement)
BooksOnBoard 20/28
FictionWise 17/28
Barnes & Noble 13/28

Barnes and Noble really sucked here. So you can take a look at the graph as well as more analysis on my blog linked above.

07-21-2009, 12:08 AM	#1
Gideon Wearer of Pants Posts: 1,050 Karma: 7634 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Norman, OK Device: Amazon Kindle DX / iPhone	The Land of eBooks - Comparisions in Availability and Pricing of U.S. eBooks I just finished a rather large chart comparing the prices and availability of ebooks at some of the major stores - Amazon, Sony, Barnes and Noble, BooksOnBoard, and FictionWise. You can see the chart and full explanation here: http://blog.gideonaddington.com/2009...and-of-ebooks/ I was motivated to do this because of Sony and Barnes and Noble's insane claims regarding their book selections (and to a lesser extent Amazon's) given that they are including all of the public domain books available through Google - books available to pretty much anyone. Also, I wanted to see what Barnes and Noble was doing and this was the best way to get some answers. I checked 28 books - the top two from each catagory from the NYT Best Seller lists, and then a group of my recent purchases and things on my wishlist that were not available on the Kindle when I placed them there. So it isn't the most scientific study in the world - but it covers a wide range of material and genres. Conclusions: 1 book was not available on any platform Amazon 27/28 Sony 23/28 (big improvement) BooksOnBoard 20/28 FictionWise 17/28 Barnes & Noble 13/28 Barnes and Noble really sucked here. So you can take a look at the graph as well as more analysis on my blog linked above.