Touch Nook Simple Touch: First Impressions

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jocampo

Actually, I read an IDC article a few months ago that Pandigital sold had better numbers than Nook Color. It was an article about tablets and LCD devices, no eink.

On a similar but different article, IDC as well, shows on sold devices (no book titles) Amazon keeps having the lead on Europe and of course, USA. And device numbers are easy to track because those numbers are provided by retail stores.

Both articles doe not mention about titles sold but I think it's a fair assumption to say that titles sold are comparable numbers maybe.

Again garbage, Amazon does not release sales numbers. So it's all a guess. And outside the USA, why would Amazon be #1 when ePub is the #1 format outside the USA? I'm sorry, but Amazon has bamboozled the press.

The article I linked to is about ebook sales, not device sales. I won't comment on its accuracy as I haven't a clue not being an industry insider. But it is clearly based on what some of the big book publishers said and/or believe. In other words the publishing houses are saying we sell X% of our ebooks through this company and Y% through that company. At best it is speculative, though perhaps grounded in some truths.

I got a lot of flak for not specifically stating "USA market," but when an article gives 85% to 90% market share to two USA companies coupled with the fact that this thread is about a USA only Nook STR, then it shouldn't be necessary to qualify with "USA only."

I thought the interesting thing about that article, if correct, is that Apple ebook sales have never taken off whereas B&N ebook sales have increased to help them gain in market share. It seems to me that companies like Amazon and B&N, that is companies with large ebook stores, are always going to focus first and foremost on ebook sales and not focus much on customer wish lists for their dedicated ereaders. I don't think anyone knows what Sony is focusing on, including Sony, so I'll put them in the category. But strangely enough Apple seems to be focusing more on their devices, which of course are not dedicated ereaders, and focusing little on their iBookstore. But I guess they can afford to do that because they make a premium for their hardware, as does Sony to a lesser degree, and so they don't need to push book sales to recuperate low or no margin hardware sales. Ditto for Android (non-dedicated ereader) tablet makers.

[JSWolf]

But why even bother to mention an article that could be very much incorrect since actaul number are not released and all we have are guesses?

And SOME publishers are not all publishers. So that also makes the numbers given are incorrect. You'd need every single publisher to chime in with accurate numbers. And you don't have that. You have some which is not all. So really, that's a very misleading article with incorrect numbers and it's just too USA-centric to be of any real use.

The truth is, there are no way to get accurate numbers. Sales figures are not released. So these guess the numbers articles are just a load waiting to be flushed.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Again garbage, Amazon does not release sales numbers. So it's all a guess. And outside the USA, why would Amazon be #1 when ePub is the #1 format outside the USA?

Well, don't forget, Jon, that Amazon do extremely well in other English-speaking parts of the world. They are certainly #1 (and by a long way, I'd guess) in the UK eBook market. ePub is indeed the dominant format in the non-English European market, but I don't know how the size of that market compares with that of the British eBook market.

[anamardoll]

Perhaps the British just really love cabbages?

[HarryT]

Cabbages? I'm afraid you've slightly lost me there...

[trekchick]

Originally Posted by Care

Hmmmm, I don't know if I like that the books from the sd card go into my files instead of library. Did I read that right? Are the shelves the same as the previous Nooks, where you can't do it via calibre or the computer?

It seems like the ghosting might be better or worse on different ones since some don't notice it...

Most of my books are on my SD card, and my library loans are in the Digital Editions folder on the Nook. Everything appears together in my Library with my Nook Books when I look at "All" or "Books". But, I can single them out by selecting "My Files" and tapping either Nook Files or Memory Card.

The shelves are a be-yotch to set up, because it only sorts titles alphabetically. There's no Calibre plugin, like for Sony collections, either. I wish it could sort by author, or most recent, or search and add, or sync shelves with a Nook App or... or something. I imagine that maintaining shelves will be a chore, because I'll have to find a title alphabetically to add it.

I've not noticed any bothersome ghosting, and I didn't notice it on the store demo (which I discourteously hogged for far too long, but since I sold a nook color and a nook touch while I was there, the staff left me alone). I think you may be right that it affects individual units differently. I had a similar issue with e-ink saturation on Kindle 2s. Mine was horrible, but my daughter's was fine. A font hack improved my display, but left too much ghosting. I wound up making exchanges until the third unit I received was a keeper.

Overall, I'm happy with my new nook. I'd like it more if it ignored articles (A, An, The) when sorting by title. And there are a couple of things that seem weird to me, especially the way B&N books are hidden in reserved memory , leaving minuscule on-device storage for other content. I was surprised that library loans aren't differentiated - no overlaid icon, no remaining days noted. And it seems odd that I can't delete a book from the device (I can archive a nook book, but removing side-loaded content requires a USB cable and a computer.

[trekchick]

Originally Posted by Scarpad

when I try to open books purchased at Sony's Reader store I get:

Error Dialog: User Not Activated.

All my other content is fine. I Can open any other material.

Make sure you can open the Sony Store purchases with Adobe Digital Editions (not Reader Library) on your computer, and then connect your Nook to your computer. When ADE detects the Nook, it will ask you to activate the reader (you'll need to be connected to the Internet to complete the activation)

Once the reader is activated, just drag the desired content from the right panel onto the Nook "Bookshelf" on the left.

These will go into the Digital Editions folder in the Nook's main memory.
If there's a way to force them to the SD card, I don't know it.

[JohnnyRocks]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But why even bother to mention an article that could be very much incorrect since actaul number are not released and all we have are guesses?

And SOME publishers are not all publishers. So that also makes the numbers given are incorrect. You'd need every single publisher to chime in with accurate numbers. And you don't have that. You have some which is not all. So really, that's a very misleading article with incorrect numbers and it's just too USA-centric to be of any real use.

The truth is, there are no way to get accurate numbers. Sales figures are not released. So these guess the numbers articles are just a load waiting to be flushed.

This isn't really accurate. Given a sufficient number of publishers, a statistically significant sample size can be obtained, and a fairly accurate approximation reached, without the need to have EVERY publisher represented.

[boswd]

Originally Posted by JohnnyRocks

This isn't really accurate. Given a sufficient number of publishers, a statistically significant sample size can be obtained, and a fairly accurate approximation reached, without the need to have EVERY publisher represented.

yeah but where it gets vauge is how many ebooks are downloading via an app on Android or iOS and how many are on actually ereaders.

I think people automatically equate the number of ebooks downloaded for Kindle is for the actual Kindle.

[JohnnyRocks]

I don't think it matters how/where they are downloaded. When the publisher is paid a royalty, I'm guessing even THEY don't know how that is split up among the many apps, etc. In other words, I doubt that they have a breakdown (nor do they care, probably) whether it was downloaded TO a kindle, or to a Kindle for Ipad app. All they know/care is that it was an Amazon/Kindle generated sale.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

...if you really need an eink device, then maybe you should just go with the Nook STR for now. Syncing last page read is better than nothing...

It doesn't even do that.

[negris123]

This thread has gone way off topic

[anamardoll]

It's Mobile Read. Going off topic is what we DO. Right?

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by SCION

It doesn't even do that.

I've been reading your posts. Very disappointing! I would be upset too. Read anywhere on any device AND be able to pick-up where you left off is an important feature that should work!