Has Sony lost the e-book battle against Amazon?

[acidzebra]

Originally Posted by jakewastaken

I got paranoid about leaving the sd card in (battery consumption) so I need to finally admit defeat and snag a memory stick too. I started fully shutting down the unit the same day I stopped leaving the sd card in (it was blank). What I'd like to know is whether or not the sd card drain (with books/comics and also blank) is negligible or a genuine concern. This is a little out of place for this question, sorry. Would you recommend the memorystick, acidzebra?

As a techie I must say I expect both SD and memorystick to add a little drain on the reader, however, I have not noticed any significant loss of reading time using either or even both (currently I have two slots filled). That said, I am the type of geek that gets home and plugs in his blackberry, ipod, and reader immediately so my automated sync scripts can kick in and do their thing. From that POV, I might not be the best source of battery longevity information.

I have heard that the SDHC software implementation in the new firmware is a little buggy, but I have not been able to confirm this myself - the 8 Gb memory stick is serving my needs well at the moment.

[TallMomof2]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

I have both. I also prefer the button placement on the PRS-500. But I was talking about the PRS-505. There are two large buttons at the bottom of the 505. Left-hand one is a page-turner. Right-hand one has the button that replaced the joystick and the up-down-left-right selector (which I find generally useless). The left side has the smaller buttons for bookmarking and changing the font size. The right side has the smaller button for going back a step to the menus.

I hold the Reader at the bottom left hand corner and turn pages with my left hand. I seldom hold it as shown in the pictures at the top of this thread.

I tried out the 505 at Borders and didn't care for ergonomics especially the way it felt in my hands. Since I'm anti Sony, except for TVs, the 505 would've had to have completely blown me away before I would've purchased it. As a lefty, the Kindle's ergonomics are the best for me.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by Alisa

LOL! But really, I think a huge market for reading devices could be romance & erotica. There are plenty of people who don't particularly want to tote around books like these in public. Porn on VHS helped fill the same sort of need: privacy.

Romance is, I believe, already the #1 e-book category by sales estimates. If Harlequin, et al, provide their catalogs in either Sony's or Kindle's formats, we could be talking about a major coup for the format of choice.

As to porn: I'm convinced that it will become a major selling format for e-books... but only when they go color.

[HarryT]

I have to honestly say that there's never been any book I know is available as an eBook that I've not been able to find on FictionWise or BooksOnBoard. Yes, I know that in theory Amazon have very many more items available, but the books that I've wanted - even obscure "back catalog" stuff - seems to appear in all the eBook stores at pretty much the same time.

It would be interesting to know the 100,000 "additional" items that Amazon carries over FW/BoB actually are.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Romance is, I believe, already the #1 e-book category by sales estimates. If Harlequin, et al, provide their catalogs in either Sony's or Kindle's formats, we could be talking about a major coup for the format of choice.

Romance is, apparently, the #1 best-selling category at FW by a wide margin. Not my cup of tea, but it obviously has a lot of fans and Steve, the owner of FW, made the point recently on the FW mailing list that many Romance fans buy huge numbers of books - not uncommonly 50 or more in a month.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by TallMomof2

I tried out the 505 at Borders and didn't care for ergonomics especially the way it felt in my hands. Since I'm anti Sony, except for TVs, the 505 would've had to have completely blown me away before I would've purchased it. As a lefty, the Kindle's ergonomics are the best for me.

As a left handed person, you would have been happier with the ergonomics of the 500.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Romance is, apparently, the #1 best-selling category at FW by a wide margin. Not my cup of tea, but it obviously has a lot of fans and Steve, the owner of FW, made the point recently on the FW mailing list that many Romance fans buy huge numbers of books - not uncommonly 50 or more in a month.

You have to wonder how those people get anything done...

or maybe, what it is they're doing...

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Romance is, I believe, already the #1 e-book category by sales estimates. If Harlequin, et al, provide their catalogs in either Sony's or Kindle's formats, we could be talking about a major coup for the format of choice.

As to porn: I'm convinced that it will become a major selling format for e-books... but only when they go color.

Romance is highly prevalent at the libraries that carry eBooks.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I have to honestly say that there's never been any book I know is available as an eBook that I've not been able to find on FictionWise or BooksOnBoard. Yes, I know that in theory Amazon have very many more items available, but the books that I've wanted - even obscure "back catalog" stuff - seems to appear in all the eBook stores at pretty much the same time.

It would be interesting to know the 100,000 "additional" items that Amazon carries over FW/BoB actually are.

90,000 copies of Moby Dick and 10,000 copies of self-published works.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

You have to wonder how those people get anything done...

or maybe, what it is they're doing...

I suspect it's largely the "bored housewife" market; I believe that Romance is primarily a female readership (and authorship, too).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I suspect it's largely the "bored housewife" market; I believe that Romance is primarily a female readership (and authorship, too).

Mostly yes.

[HarryT]

Coincidentally, there's an amusing article about the romance fiction market on the BBC News web site today:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7516672.stm

[=X=]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I have to honestly say that there's never been any book I know is available as an eBook that I've not been able to find on FictionWise or BooksOnBoard.

Well I can name a few. I'm very interested in the first 3 books if you find them else where please let me know

• Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
• Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings
• Dynamic Hedging: Managing Vanilla and Exotic Options
• How I Made $2,000,000 In The Stock Market

=X=

[slayda]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Romance is, I believe, already the #1 e-book category by sales estimates. If Harlequin, et al, provide their catalogs in either Sony's or Kindle's formats, we could be talking about a major coup for the format of choice.

As to porn: I'm convinced that it will become a major selling format for e-books... but only when they go color.

What? Steve, I'm shocked that you believe color can convey more than the printed word.

[=X=]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Romance is, I believe, already the #1 e-book category by sales estimates. If Harlequin, et al, provide their catalogs in either Sony's or Kindle's formats, we could be talking about a major coup for the format of choice.

Right wasn't there a study that showed women where the no one consumers eBook reader.

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

As to porn: I'm convinced that it will become a major selling format for e-books... but only when they go color.

I have heard from serveral women Romance is Porn without the pictures. So with that premise it is the major selling format.
=X=