Sony closes USA and Canada ebook store

[DBDigital]

Sadly my Fictionwise books never made it over to my B&N account either. B&N does have Analog though and Asimov's. They have really great deals too at times. They had one just before Christmas with both of them and 12 back issues for $25 I think it was. Or $32 not sure which at the moment.

I agree always download your books and convert them if they are DRM as soon as you purchase them. You never know when a ebook store will go down. Although most methods you can remove the DRM at your leisure. I don't know if that is true with Sony or not, but most of them you are fine as long as you have the book on your HD.

[pdurrant]

Having checked my Sony (US) account, I find there's only one book I actually bought. I have a Kobo (UK) account, but not a Kobo (US) account. I also have a Sony (UK) account.

I have it downloaded and stripped already, of course, so the transfer is more of academic interest than practical interest to me.

[ProfCrash]

Fictionswise and Booksonboard seemed to have a more Indie flare to them. I never shopped there but I did look at them a few times. I could be wrong about that but that was my impression.

Sony's store has never been good. I remember when the Kindle first came out. I had the Kindle, my brother bought a Sony because he didn't want to support Amazon and EPub and all of that. A year later he regretted the Sony purchase because the book store sucked and Amazon's was so much better. Two years later he bought a Kindle.

He is ethically opposed to stripping DRM, breaks the law and terms of service. We don't agree on that but that is his choice and I respect his choice.

The early Kindle vs Sony posts I remember essentially came down to book stores. When the Nook came out the posts were book stores, sd cards, format, the need for internet connectivity, and Amazon is evil giant taking over the world. Sony was more expensive but had a better build.

I am sad to be losing another bookstore. It sounds like this is a US and Canada only thing. Sony is giving up in the US and Canada but not other locations.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Fbone

We lost Fictionwise, Books On Board and now Sony.

That leaves us Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo, Google and Diesel. The generic epub list does appear to have shrunk significantly.

Yup.
The walled gardens get stronger with every generic closure.The price fix conspiracy is the gift that keeps on giving.
(To Apple and Amazon).

[vivaldirules]

My 550, now five and a half years old, is on its last legs requiring almost daily recharges and a pretty poor screen contrast lately. In the bin it will go along with any unread books on it and I will smile that it lasted so long. It has been a very good device. And then I'll be left with my iPad running iBooks and the Kindle reader which I'm also good with. I can hardly remember all the frustrations we had six and a half years ago with readers, format conversions, and the pitifully miniscule content that was available then.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

Sony is giving up in the US and Canada but not other locations.

For now.
Sony is at the end of their financial rope.
Selling the PC business, spinning off TVs, abandoning ebooks in NorthAm; that's just the beginning.
Sony can no longer afford to throw (expensive borrowed) money at zombie product lines. Their chief assets are the Playstation empire, their patents, their Spider-Man movie license, and their fading brand. Their liabilities are everything else.
Expect serious retrenchment.
They might even get out of the lead acid consumer battery business!

More seriously: I doubt there will ever be a T4 and I suspect they'll shut down the other ebookstores once they clear out the T3 inventories.

[bevdeforges]

Originally Posted by Alfy

On a side note, the Sony store was the only place where it was easy for someone without an American credit card to sign up to. I'm wondering if my account switching to Kobo is going to raise some red flags.

Was wondering much the same thing myself - especially give that I have a sizable credit still hanging in the Sony store whereas my Kobo account is denominated in euros.

Just went through my wishlist and compared the prices in the Sony store to those at Kobo. Even with VAT added, Kobo is now consistently cheaper than Sony on all but 3 of the titles I've been watching for months. Perhaps I'll spend down half my remaining credit now and see what happens on the transfer.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by benham

I take it we need to remove the DRM by March 20 in order to read the books we downloaded?

The email from Sony says "you'll be able to transfer your Reader Store eBooks to your Kobo account so you'll continue to have access to them in the future" so I assume that means we'll still be able to read the books we already bought and downloaded from Sony?

[PurpleStar]

Originally Posted by Fbone

We lost Fictionwise, Books On Board and now Sony.

That leaves us Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo, Google and Diesel. The generic epub list does appear to have shrunk significantly.

Don't forget about Baen. And they are all DRM Free. All hail Baen!

[sakura-panda]

I am sad about the Sony store closing as it was always the first place I checked when purchasing ebooks. My favorite feature was that it had a cart -- I could fill it up with as many books as I wanted before I paid, instead of buying them one at a time. I don't know of another ebook store that will let me do that.

They were also the easiest store for me to download my purchases, because they did it automatically through their software (I use their software for B&N and Kobo downloads too.) I suppose I'm going to lose that functionality as well. I *always* have trouble with the ADE software and have been happy having a different option.

I have a Kobo account, and some of my series have individual books that I was not able to purchase from Sony (or had a significant price discount compared to Sony) and it will be nice to have all of my books together in one store. I also have a couple of books that I regret purchasing and would not be sad if they don't make the transition. (Likewise, I will be unhappy if they *do* make the transition. )

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by benham

I take it we need to remove the DRM by March 20 in order to read the books we downloaded?

No... that's not how DRM works. If you've downloaded them and they work now, they will work in March. Also, you can transfer ownership over to Kobo.

Originally Posted by Fbone

We lost Fictionwise, Books On Board and now Sony.

That leaves us Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo, Google and Diesel. The generic epub list does appear to have shrunk significantly.

There's also Smashwords for indie books.

---

Sony was my first reader... but since I got the original Kindle I never looked back... and the Kindle Eco system pretty much gives me access on any device including PC, Kindle, Phone.

Sony hasn't said they are dropping the Readers, but as someone else said, the writing is on the wall. With the divestiture of the PC business unit, which I expect the readers were a part of I don't expect to see any more Sony Reader models. That's too bad... I think the Kindle/Sony/Nook competition was good for customers. It seems that the Nook eInk devices are no more. So, it's pretty much Kindle/Nook for eInk devices at this point.

I also think eventually LED displays will get so much higher res and power efficient and batteries will get better (graphine) that a passive display tech like eInk that doesn't support nice vibrant color will move into store displays, watches, bill boards etc.

Sony, thanks for the memories.

BOb

[benham]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

The email from Sony says "you'll be able to transfer your Reader Store eBooks to your Kobo account so you'll continue to have access to them in the future" so I assume that means we'll still be able to read the books we already bought and downloaded from Sony?

It also said some books might not transfer, which makes absolutely no sense, whether Kobo carried the book or not.

I have never tried removing the DRM from a book, but if you bought the book, can't see why it would be illegal. I had Cailbre on my last computer, but haven't downloaded it on this one yet. When HP bought Palm, the only books I was able to save were the ones already on an SD card. HP did not save the online library.

Pilotbob, you posted while I was composing. Thanks for that info.

[GreenMonkey]

Originally Posted by benham

It also said some books might not transfer, which makes absolutely no sense, whether Kobo carried the book or not.

I have never tried removing the DRM from a book, but if you bought the book, can't see why it would be illegal. I had Cailbre on my last computer, but haven't downloaded it on this one yet. When HP bought Palm, the only books I was able to save were the ones already on an SD card. HP did not save the online library.

Pilotbob, you posted while I was composing. Thanks for that info.

Circumventing DRM is most likely illegal thanks to the DMCA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-circumvention

Any time there's a closure like this IMO you should crack the copy protection on your books and keep a backup. I go one bit farther and strip ASAP before reading at all. It's like rebates - send them out before playing with the toy and forgetting about it. I strip the DRM before I'm allowed to read the book, otherwise I'll forget. :P

The Fictionwise transfer worked OK for me although they transferred the books to the wrong B&N account and didn't understand / wouldn't fix it. And I only had a small handful of books. I'm sure some of you folks will lose some stuff in the transfer.

My only Sony ebooks are freebies that I'm pretty sure I have on either my Amazon or B&N accounts anyway.

[6charlong]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

For now.
Sony is at the end of their financial rope.
Selling the PC business, spinning off TVs, abandoning ebooks in NorthAm; that's just the beginning.
Sony can no longer afford to throw (expensive borrowed) money at zombie product lines. Their chief assets are the Playstation empire, their patents, their Spider-Man movie license, and their fading brand. Their liabilities are everything else.
Expect serious retrenchment.
They might even get out of the lead acid consumer battery business!

More seriously: I doubt there will ever be a T4 and I suspect they'll shut down the other ebookstores once they clear out the T3 inventories.

I've wondered who developed and manufactured the Kobo ereaders: did Sony have a hand in it or is Kobo just the only logical place to send ePub customers.

[FacebookVirus]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

Sony's store has never been good. I remember when the Kindle first came out.

When I bought my 505 in 2007 I read that here and took it at face value. Bought my books elsewhere, mainly Fictionwise.

Later, with the T-1, I decided to give the Sony store a chance. I was surprised at how often they had what I was looking for, and I almost never read bestsellers.

I think their store is better than it's often said to be.