Glad to see Amazon Kindles gradually overtake Sony Readers

[Bookworm_Girl]

Well said, viviena. Excellent points!

Since Amazon has a greater percentage of market share, I'm not surprised to see more users browsing the Amazon forum than the Sony forum at any given time. On a weekend or at certain times of the day, the Sony forum traffic is much higher than 50.

I agree that the high price is a turn-off for many potential buyers but that's typical of Sony products. I paid it and don't regret it because I like the quality and the features of my Sony ereaders. Although, anybody else tired of reading reviews where the reviewer says I can't recommend Sony because of the price.... Why doesn't the reviewer just list the features and let the buyers make up their minds what their price-point is?

[SeaBookGuy]

I have a Kindle v. Sony related question ...

Never having used a Kindle, I'd like to know what difference (Sony's) PDF reflow makes in that regard? It's supposed to be one of Sony's strengths.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by SeaBookGuy

I have a Kindle v. Sony related question ...

Never having used a Kindle, I'd like to know what difference (Sony's) PDF reflow makes in that regard? It's supposed to be one of Sony's strengths.

I don't read PDFs on my Kindle. I stick to my Sony for that, especially since I have the 7" screen which makes a difference. I don't really like the zoom and pan feature of the Kindle. And, the Kindle has preset zooms whereas Sony can adjust the zoom with the slider bar. I like the Sony PDF reflow. I can't imagine reading a library PDF on the Kindle. Sometimes I will email a PDF to my Kindle address and run it through Amazon's auto-conversion service to get the reflow feature and make it easier to read. I read a lot of multi-column PDFs. I love the new quadrant feature on the Sony models.

[Xanthe]

I'm wondering if Sony will get with the program regarding updates/upgrades now that they are trying to get back into the Japanese ereader market? Their SOP regarding their devices has always been that the Japanese market gets the updates/new products first. I wonder if that will push them to be more innovative with the ereader now?

[Ervserver]

It's not Kindle vs Sony its Kindle vs Ipad and Ipad is overtaking at a very quick pace

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by Ervserver

It's not Kindle vs Sony its Kindle vs Ipad and Ipad is overtaking at a very quick pace

I'm not too interested in the Kindle versus iPad debate as I see these devices as having very different purposes. I am interested to see how the Nook Color does in the market and how Kindle responds.

I'm still waiting for the Sony app for the iPhone. At least tomorrow is December so it must be coming soon! Sadly I wouldn't expect it to have any book syncing features like the Kindle or Nook apps since Sony hasn't embraced the wireless ecosystem yet with their ereaders. Yes, the 950 has wireless, but Sony hasn't taken advantage of all the possibilities yet and it has restrictions that the other brands don't. Lack of Wi-fi is the other major feature besides price that I think drives away potential buyers.

[kartu]

Originally Posted by db100

Too slow, and too little: How difficulty to add...

Just wondering, does Kindle have folder support? Free games like Sudoku? Can it read epubs? How sophisticated is its PDF viewer, can it reflow? Does it have FB2 support? (guess what, Sony's will have em from 2 different projects, ebook apps & PRS+ (as converter to epub)). Oh and can you borrow a book from elibrary with your kindle?

I guess answer is NO to all the question. So why didn't "amazon SDK" help with it, could you elaborate?

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

I agree that the high price is a turn-off for many potential buyers but that's typical of Sony products.

I'd rather suspect that in this case it's simply amazon is dumping. Sony isn't in the same league as far as selling actual books goes, so they can't play this game. I've seen people talk about "oh, sony is 30$ more expensive!" and then pay 60$ for Kindle cover.

Originally Posted by Ervserver

It's not Kindle vs Sony its Kindle vs Ipad and Ipad is overtaking at a very quick pace

I still cannot grasp this "iPad as ereader" thing, have yet to see anyone switch from eInk to something else.
But you might as well start "Kindle vs Samsung Galaxy Tab" thread, as there were more than 600 000 mentioned gadgets sold in one month.

[lack]

I love to answer to these questions like this:
I am here because I do not like being there with you. Cheers.

[Entu]

Answer its easy, thats happens because Sony user actually go read eBooks while Kindle user trying to solve problems with her beloved .. hardware ... so they actually start read eBooks.


/popcorn

[eriksnoopy]

In my case the build quality alone is enough to pay 100$ extra so I choose the sony over the kindle any day, what concerns the forum, well, as mentioned above we got some relly tallented people and alot of members who know alot about ereaders and are happy to share. besides the price factor I cant really see any other reason to choose the kindle over the sony, maybe if you love the amazon bookstore

[encapuchado]

I chose Sony Touch because it does a better job for PDF files than Kindle.

Kindle has some goodies like wi-fi, better price, and the Amazon library. on the other hand, I don't need wi-fi to read, I could pay the price difference, and I learnt how to liberate azw books. So I went Sony.

[EbokJunkie]

Read here about market share of Kindle and Sony e-readers

[Penforhire]

We may not like it but the iPad is indeed crowding our E-ink e-readers. You say, why does this matter? Because Amazon, Sony, and others will chase the largest market. It may retard E-ink development efforts.

[AJD]

I have a query that is indirectly linked to this thread. My books on Sony ereader outsell Kindle at a 10:1 ratio. I went digital in the spring of this year and expected the Kindle to be the main source of sales, but I couldn't have been more wrong. I have searched the web for some clue to why this should be; the opposite of what most writers experience. My marketing has been directed at Kindle, none what so ever at ereaders. My books are cheaper on Amazon and any reviews I have had have come through Amazon. I would very much like to hear from anyone who could shed some light on this.

[Promotion deleted - MODERATOR]

[grooks]

Originally Posted by kartu

I'd rather suspect that in this case it's simply amazon is dumping. Sony isn't in the same league as far as selling actual books goes, so they can't play this game. I've seen people talk about "oh, sony is 30$ more expensive!" and then pay 60$ for Kindle cover.

I wanted to expand on your comment a little bit.

Maybe we should look at ebook readers the same way people look at cars and take the total cost of ownership into consideration.

Example 1: Person 'A' buys a Kindle for $139. This person reads popular fiction and typically buys ebooks when they are first released. Let's assume they can read a book every two weeks which equates to 26 purchases a year. At a price of $10 per ebook they are spending $260 (26 ebooks x $10). Their year 1 cost of ownership is $399 ($260 + $139).

Example 2: Person 'B' buy a Sony 650 for $229. This person also reads popular fiction but instead of purchasing all of their reading material, they get 1/2 from the library and 1/2 are purchased. At a price of $10 per ebook they are spending $130 (13 ebooks x $10). Their year 1 cost of ownership is $359 ($229 + $130).

I know you can throw any variable you wish into the above equation but I wanted to look at the scenario of an average consumer.

If I were to run this model for my own case then my cost of ownership would be $229 as I get all of my ebooks from public libraries. If there is an ebook I have to have and it's not available from the library, I would typically spend less than $20 a year.