Sony Reader Lives on with Rowling!

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The thing with lock-in (using amazon & B&N as examples) is that since the two devices do not read the other's format, it's a matter then of trying to get the customer to buy your device. How do you do that? Lower prices and customer experience are two ways to do it.

If you can give the customer a better experience with a similar device, then you may get the sales. Once the customer has your device and enough eBooks, then the customer is not going to jump ship for the other device won't read the eBooks and you have lost your purchases. So if you bought a Kindle and now think the new nook is better, you can't sell off the Kindle and buy the nook as your Kindle eBooks are not going to work. This is why pricing is important. With pricing being the same, it comes down more to the device then anything else.

I agree, and it's why I think Amazon is VERY motivated to break the price fixing.

They can pretty much afford to take a loss on all their Kindle books in the name of locking in customers for a very long period of time.

On the other hand, when everything boils down to device, it gets so much more complicated. Designing and putting out new devices every year is much harder in an innovation sense than just having a permanent sale on all your books. You've got to keep up with and surpass your competitors' devices -- of which there are many -- and you've got to do so without incurring customer fatigue, also known as the "I just bought a K7 and now you're announcing a K8? Screw you, Amazon" syndrome.

I'm fairly certain that Bezos would LOVE to get rid of price fixing. He can undercut B/K/S on eBooks, and he can ride out the loss for far longer than those companies can. But keeping up with the Joneses on the device war front? Much harder to do by simply throwing money at the problem.

[JSWolf]

With the agency 6, it's going to come down more to the device then anything else. And I do think that there is a chance that the HP eBooks could tip the scales in favor or an ADE based device if they do it right.

[ibm650]

A few comments
Dealing with Sony is like dealing with the devil, rootkit on cd, eliminating linux on psx, not protecting user data.
Apple used to add user names to downloads, they stopped
Kindle could support epub if Kindle wanted to
Amazon will probably come out with a new tablet based on android, but locked down so it will be difficult to run full android (but the guys will anyway)
As Amazon sells more ebooks, they will be able to almost give the kindle away - thereby creating their own monopoly on books, using the razor blade model.
Also, has anyone noticed in the US that copyright gets longer and longer?

[Hellmark]

it isn't just the US, all countries keep extending copyright.

[EatingPie]

Originally Posted by ibm650

A few comments
Dealing with Sony is like dealing with the devil, rootkit on cd, eliminating linux on psx, not protecting user data.

MobileRead has remained generally free of the "I Hate Sony!" silliness, but it does crop up now and then. Alas, let's really look at these complaints one at a time; let's give the devil his due.

The rootkit was 6 years ago, and Sony did not write it, First4Internet did. Sony actually removed it from their CDs due to customer complaints (it appeared on approximately 6 CDs!). And now all Sony music on iTunes is DRM-free. Very devilish of them!

Sony removed Linux from the PS3 because it was seldom utilized, and it allowed them to lower costs (the number one complaint about the PS3!). BTW, Apple removed support for "Classic" when they went Intel... and that raised no stink at all. I do wish Sony left Linux on the PS3, but I also am glad the PS3 became cheaper.

And, alas, you end with blaming the victim for the crime. Sony was hacked. They did not "fail to protect user data," they were broken in to by malicious hackers. Sony did not invite the hackers in, or even allow the hackers in. They had security in place, the hackers override that security and stole the data. Oh Sony, you are so positively evil for being hacked!!

I'm actually glad Sony is helping with Pottermore. They have extensive experience with online RPGs, having designed some of the best. I am also hopeful that this means the ePUB books, and if they have DRM, that it will be Adobe ,which is the most-supported DRM (Sony, Nook, Kobo, etc.) out there right now.

-Pie

[elcreative]

EatingPie, you'll have to stop this... actual voice of reason AND looking at facts... very avant garde...

[anamardoll]

Eh. I'm very meh about Sony the company. I did NOT like how they went after Geohot, as well as others, for jailbreaking the PS3s. TOS violation, my @$$, why wasn't Sony spending all those sweet, sweet legal fees on better firewalls. Etc.

But. I'm pretty flexible about my boycotts. I don't buy from the Sony eBook store, but I don't mind owning their reader until something better comes along.

[OtterBooks]

Harry Potter bashers have gone underground, and now it's almost trendy to acknowledge the books as having some literary value. This is partly due to books like Twilight lowering the bar even further.

I'd like to stand firm and point out that they're still uninspiring fluff that "gets children reading" in the same way donuts "get children eating." No matter how Stephen King tries to spin it, Potter is weak writing.

Just in case you thought we were gone. *evil laugh*

[Ditchleyportrait]

Originally Posted by OtterBooks

Harry Potter bashers have gone underground, and now it's almost trendy to acknowledge the books as having some literary value. This is partly due to books like Twilight lowering the bar even further.

I'd like to stand firm and point out that they're still uninspiring fluff that "gets children reading" in the same way donuts "get children eating." No matter how Stephen King tries to spin it, Potter is weak writing.

Just in case you thought we were gone. *evil laugh*

let them eat cake!

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by OtterBooks

This is partly due to books like Twilight lowering the bar even further.

[cfrizz]

Oh please, do get off of your high horse. So long as they are reading fluff or not, that is the most important point. I think it's great that a series of books have been able to get & keep kids attention and interested in reading. It is a habit that will last a lifetime, which will give them time to mature their reading material as well. But whatever they read, they should enjoy reading material that they like. Not what some people like you with their noses in the air expect them to like.

Do tell, what would you replace HP books with?

Originally Posted by OtterBooks

Harry Potter bashers have gone underground, and now it's almost trendy to acknowledge the books as having some literary value. This is partly due to books like Twilight lowering the bar even further.

I'd like to stand firm and point out that they're still uninspiring fluff that "gets children reading" in the same way donuts "get children eating." No matter how Stephen King tries to spin it, Potter is weak writing.

Just in case you thought we were gone. *evil laugh*

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

Oh please

ACK! More AOL type top posting. Please stop and go back to normal posting.

[elcreative]

Blame JSWolf who may read this (although he has threatened to stop reading my top posts... but never seems to tire of rattling on about it). When you get promoted to dictator then we may all bow and obey, until then get a life and stop going on about AOL... never used it, came too late to the party as I'd been using the net long before they even existed and always TOP POSTED unless I considered the quote to be important enough to be a prominent part of a post rather than a reminder if posting after several other comments... and

Originally Posted by JSWolf

ACK! More AOL type top posting. Please stop and go back to normal posting.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by OtterBooks

Harry Potter bashers have gone underground, and now it's almost trendy to acknowledge the books as having some literary value. This is partly due to books like Twilight lowering the bar even further.

I'd like to stand firm and point out that they're still uninspiring fluff that "gets children reading" in the same way donuts "get children eating." No matter how Stephen King tries to spin it, Potter is weak writing.

Just in case you thought we were gone. *evil laugh*

During his lifetime, Robert Rervice was regarded as a subpar hack by much of academia, though he was on the invite list among his literary peers when he lived in France.

Fifty Three years after his death his poetry is still popular, his first autobiography is a beautiful piece of prose, and there are roads and schools named after him.

Time will tell how good Rowling is, not pundits.

[EatingPie]

Originally Posted by OtterBooks

Harry Potter bashers have gone underground, and now it's almost trendy to acknowledge the books as having some literary value. This is partly due to books like Twilight lowering the bar even further.

I'd like to stand firm and point out that they're still uninspiring fluff that "gets children reading" in the same way donuts "get children eating." No matter how Stephen King tries to spin it, Potter is weak writing.

Just in case you thought we were gone. *evil laugh*

The first few books are not well written, and Order of the Phoenix is torturous in terms of characterization, or I should say IN TERMS OF CHARACTERIZATION!!!

But the sixth and seventh are indeed heads and shoulders above the rest. My wife finished Order of the Phoenix and keeps commenting to me that Half-Blood Prince is so much better written. And you can tell in the first description of Harry asleep against the window.

Rowling improved as a writer, and it showed. Anybody reading the whole series will get literature.

Originally Posted by Phogg

Time will tell how good Rowling is, not pundits.

And there you have it!

"The only judge of art is time."

-Pie