the unofficial Bookeen Blog

[K-Thom]

Any options for a poll about the thread name?

I'll go für "Surrogate blog for intensified unconventional therapy treatment of neglected Cybook users"

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by K-Thom

Any options for a poll about the thread name?

I'll go für "Surrogate blog for intensified unconventional therapy treatment of neglected Cybook users"

How about, "I bought a Cybook and now no one remembers me!"



Derek

[K-Thom]

Or - with all due respect to Woody Allen:

"Everything you always wanted to know about the Cybook (But were afraid to ask Bookeen)"

[Snuffi]

Originally Posted by tompe

But if they releay two different firmwares for old Cybook then it would have been more confusing to have a different brand also.

I look forward to having ePub support and I hope MobiPocket will die as a format since it is technically inferior compared to ePub.

Well, considering that the hardware is the same they effectively *DO* relay two different firmwares for the old Cybook as people might install the Weltbild one, e.g. if they buy mostly from one of the publishers preferring ePub.
The different brand would just be useful to help people along (one would have to know which FW they have to effectively help) and avoid confusion when selling a pre-owned Cybook.
It also wouldn't have to be an entirely different brand. A simple "Cybook Gen3+" or "Cybook Gen3 ePub edition" would suffice. People on the forum here could just ask users to read the label to them and would know which type of the Cybook they have.

The only good thing about format wars is that many people realise how dangerous it is to have DRM as they stand to lose all their books when their format dies. Only DRM-free books are a safe investment as there will always be some kind soul out there to write a conversion utility. (I wonder what all those people who bought HD-DVDs and players would have to say to this)

[Snuffi]

Originally Posted by delphidb96

How about, "I bought a Cybook and now no one remembers me!"



Derek

How about "My letter to Santa wasn't answered this year, what about next?"

[emellaich]

Don't know if you all saw the post by Nate the Great up in News:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46695

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I decided to take a few minutes and pass on a few tidbits.

Microsoft isn't here, nor is Amazon or Mobipocket. But I did get a few minutes with Bookeen.

They have a special firmware with both DE and Mobipocket support. Amazon won't let them release it. But I did get few details on their plans. They plan to maintain 2 firmwares, DE and Mobipocket. Both firmwares will continue to be developed, and both will have folder support.

Bookeen is also looking for a brick and mortar retailer in the US, and this is where things get interesting. We were sharing a table with someone from Ingram Digital, and he said that Target has decided to only carry Sony Readers, and that Costco (in attendance at DB09) had already made a decision on which reader to carry. He's under a NDA, so he couldn't tell me which reader.

But he could say that the Kindle has sold just over 300k, and that the Sony Reader has outsold the Kindle by about 25%.

[EowynCarter]

Well, Epub have one BIG advantage, it's an open format, making epub requiers noting more than a text editor, and a zipping program. So, epub >> mobi.

[K-Thom]

They have a special firmware with both DE and Mobipocket support. Amazon won't let them release it.

Sigh, there's a leak for any new blockbuster movie out there. Couldn't this special firmware just "slip" out of somebody's FTP-pocket at Bookeen ...?!

Well, Amazon's decision might make some sense in the US. For Europe this will mean that epub will be the future format. None of the European device producers or online shops (with the exception of mobipocket.com, of course) has any reason to bow to Amazon's marketing policies.

The Kindle isn't sold over here. If Amazon decides to keep PRC out of all current and future e-ink reading devices (and it will come to that because of their restrictive "no other DRM than ours"-policy), it's up to them. Sony won't mind. And the other device producers will switch to epub eventually, if they haven't already. Again, I'm speaking of Europe, not the US.

Amazon might just stand on the brink of losing a market potentially larger than the US.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by K-Thom

The Kindle isn't sold over here. If Amazon decides to keep PRC out of all current and future e-ink reading devices (again, I'm speaing of Europe, not the US), it's up to them. Sony won't mind. And the other device producers will switch to epub eventually, if they haven't already.

They aren't "keeping PRC out of devices". They have - and always have had - a requirement for "DRM exclusivity"; ie, if you want to support Mobi DRM, then you can't support any other DRM format. That's not new; it's the way it's always been.

[K-Thom]

They aren't "keeping PRC out of devices"

As I said, it may finally come up to this. If Amazon is insisting on exclusivity while there are free alternatives available, they finally WILL end up with the opposite by unintentionally keeping prc out of devices.

No hardware manufacturer will see any reason to include prc at all. Why should they since both pdf and epub are much more easier to handle? And Adobe would just be silly to try this exclusivity stunt as well.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by K-Thom

As I said, it may finally come up to this. If Amazon is insisting on exclusivity while there are free alternatives available, they finally WILL end up with the opposite by unintentionally keeping prc out of devices.

No hardware manufacturer will see any reason to include prc at all. Why should they since both pdf and epub are much more easier to handle? And Adobe would just be silly to try this exclusivity stunt as well.

Note that the alternatives are certainly not "free". Eg, a device manufacturer has to pay US$75k per year in order to use ePub with Adobe DRM on a device. That's nothing to a big company like Sony, but it's a hefty up-front payment for a small company like Bookeen.

[EowynCarter]

Note that the alternatives are certainly not "free". Eg, a device manufacturer has to pay US$75k per year in order to use ePub with Adobe DRM on a device. That's nothing to a big company like Sony, but it's a hefty up-front payment for a small company like Bookeen.

Yuuk!

Once again , the drm are the problem.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by Snuffi

The different brand would just be useful to help people along (one would have to know which FW they have to effectively help) and avoid confusion when selling a pre-owned Cybook.

There is already confusion about new Cybooks, from MobiPocket.com Forums:

I had bought my cybook on www.weltbild.de and according to Bookeen, the cybook sold by weltbild has not the proper software version. That why I couldn't read the prc-files on it.

I gave bad advice in the thread, but Amazon and MobiPocket were equally clueless.

[K-Thom]

I gave bad advice in the thread, but Amazon and MobiPocket were equally clueless

Oh me, oh my, this means they could hand over the customers support to us as well ...

@ Harry: You're totally right. For the moment, Adobe DE is essential for any manufacturer who doesn't want to get involved with Amazon's/Mobipocket's exclusivity policy, and it is definitely not a cheap alternative.

We will just have to see how long small companies like Bookeen are able to sustain or survive, anway. The more eBooks become a mass-market the more big players are likely to enter it.

[GeoffC]

Okay guys - I accept defeat ....

"The Thread formally known as the 'Bookeen Blog', becomes "Cybook Free-for-all" .... "

Let it takes its place as the font, or otherwise, of all knowledge as we know it (to date) ....