Potentially very disappointed

[IreneDelse]

Originally Posted by delphidb96

Guys,

You're all missing one *CRITICAL* point. The .AZW files are *ONLY* available for purchase by those people who have bought and *REGISTERED* an Amazon Kindle!!! And you have to download the .AZW ebooks through Amazon's Whispernet-which means you have to download it directly into the Kindle via their proprietary cell-phone network!

That creates two problems. First, getting the .AZW ebooks out of the Kindle and into the PC. Second, as this is a US-only phone network, getting those same ebooks overseas.

Yep. The Amazon Kindle is a solution seeking both a problem *AND* a customer base.

And did you all notice the price per book?

Derek

Want to bet that in a few months, Amazon will be complaining a lot about pirated books, cracked from the .AZW format and available for free via P2P?

[silvania]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I hate to say this, but I will anyway, NAEB and Sony are in deep shit now.

The price of books and delivery method for the Kindle is going to be a winner. Plus the selection. Face it, Amazon has one the war in less then one day.

The prices may be introductory only, to gain rapid market share. I have confirmed that the publishers are not giving Amazon different terms than other ebook retailers. That means when they sell a $28 list price ebook for $9.95, they are losing $5 on the sale. And, they may have to be giving Verizon a piece of the action, I can't imagine verizon giving away lifetime EVDO service for just a one time slice of the hardware revenue.

The bottom line: I would not expect that kind of pricing to continue indefinitely, unless the publishers join in the fun and reduce prices as well.

On selection, it's interesting to look not only at the 88,000 number, but also what that includes. About 2/3 of it is nonfiction, the biggest single category that I found was "Science" with over 16,000 titles, of which 7,000 titles are books on sociology.

From what I know of ebook buyer patterns, Sociology ebooks are not exactly flying off the hard drives. About 50% of all ebook sales are romance, fiction. A quick check of the kindle store romance selections proves that it has about the same number of titles as other established ebook stores like ereader and fictionwise.

It appears that Amazon took every title they could get their hands on just to pump up the raw numbers.

[JSWolf]

What Sony needs to do now to keep up with the Kindle is get the 505 out outside of the USA.

[da_jane]

I was wondering what the number included particularly when every publisher (but Penguin who hasn't gotten back to me yet) I contacted indicated all of their ebooks would be in as many formats as possible.

[ashalan]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's the publishers who produce the eBooks with all other formats, so it's a reasonable assumption to make. Amazon are just a "store front", not a publisher.

But then publisher does not equal typographer or printer in the paper book world either ... just because Amazon is not a publisher it does not necessarily mean it is not Amazon itself that creates the electronic version of the books (off whatever source they get from the publisher).

What I tried to say was nothing more or less than: just because a title is available as a kindle edition it does not necessarily mean it will be available in other formats as well ...

Originally Posted by silvania

The prices may be introductory only, to gain rapid market share.

I tend to see it similarly. Just remember for how many years Amazon was willing to lose money and finally coming out as the big winner. I can very well imagine having had a success with a strategy in the past motivates trying it again.

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by delphidb96

Guys,

You're all missing one *CRITICAL* point. The .AZW files are *ONLY* available for purchase by those people who have bought and *REGISTERED* an Amazon Kindle!!! And you have to download the .AZW ebooks through Amazon's Whispernet-which means you have to download it directly into the Kindle via their proprietary cell-phone network!

That creates two problems. First, getting the .AZW ebooks out of the Kindle and into the PC. Second, as this is a US-only phone network, getting those same ebooks overseas.

Yep. The Amazon Kindle is a solution seeking both a problem *AND* a customer base.

And did you all notice the price per book?

Derek

I don't think Harry is actually missing the point. I think many of us are hoping not necessarily that Amazon lets us buy these books at their store, but that the publishers having already gone through the trouble of making an electronic edition, may also sell them elsewhere. If that's the case, it could be good for the Cybook. There's just so little information out right now. At the very least, though, I think many here are going to be watching and waiting before they put their money down.

[hidari]

But what I find more frustrating is when I see a book I want that is available electronically but in the wrong format. It's a "so close but so far" situation. Actually I have bought a few books in formats that I can not use on my PDA and then converted them to txt with software programs. Then you can read your book with no problem. Do you have any conversion software?

[wmaurer]

Okay, so I thought I'd have a look at the Booker Prize shortlist again. Six books, and I've used http://www.digitalreading.net/ to search.

1. Anne Enright. The Gathering.
Found on mobipocket:
http://www.mobipocket.com/en/eBooks/...e=Anne+Enright
Click on the title, and I get the message: 'No eBook corresponds to the ID : 66273'
2. Mohsin Hamid. The Reluctant Fundamentalist.
Found on mobipocket:
http://www.mobipocket.com/en/eBooks/...blisherID=2635
Click on the title, and I get the message: 'No eBook corresponds to the ID : 54531'
3. Lloyd Jones. Master Pip.
Purchased on mobipocket. woohoo.
4. Ian McEwan. On Chesil Beach.
Purchased on mobipocket. woohoo.
5. Nicola Barker. Darkmans.
Not available anywhere
6. Indira Sinha. Animal's People.
Can't find in mobi format. Found on Simon & Schuster's website, but not avalable until Feb 12 2008.
http://www.simonsays.com/content/boo...b=1&pid=619281

Okay, so the reason I've bought the Cybook is because I can't be carrying p-books around during my 18-month bicycle tour from Alaska to Argentina that I'm starting next year. For the same reason, I can't be playing around with conversions. As a software developer I'm perfectly capable, but won't have the resources. I just want to read books, not faff around with them. That's why I was so hopeful about the Kindle Store.

-Wayne

[Alisa]

I don't really have anything helpful to say but Alaska to Argentina! That sounds amazing!

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I hate to say this, but I will anyway, NAEB and Sony are in deep shit now.

The price of books and delivery method for the Kindle is going to be a winner. Plus the selection. Face it, Amazon has one the war in less then one day.

Jon,

I'm not so sure it's won anything. However, I do believe that if anyone is going to suffer over this, it will be Bookeen as well. And the reason I believe this is because now that Amazon has brought out it's own format (yeah, I *know* it's just a mobi PRC) with far more books available RIGHT NOW, I don't really see the need for Amazon to keep Mobipocket open. I believe one of Amazon's next moves will be to kill off Mobi.

Now the problem I see with this is that Whispernet is just here in the US, but as soon as they get it overseas, that means it will have the fastest, easiest method for selling and distributing ebooks - with the greatest number of titles. And don't you think most *major* publishers are going to want to have that part of the retail chain sewn up???

I hope this is not the case because I think the Cybook and PRS are far more flexible than the Kindle, but they're pitching it to the technophobe book readers out there and those people may well be sucked in.

Derek

[CommanderROR]

I talked to Amazon today by email and they don't seem to have any plans for international distribution yet. This does not have to mean anything since they also refused any comment about the Kindle just a few days ago, but somehow I think this is going to be US only for a long time...just like the Sony Reader...

[Liviu_5]

Originally Posted by delphidb96

Jon,


I hope this is not the case because I think the Cybook and PRS are far more flexible than the Kindle, but they're pitching it to the technophobe book readers out there and those people may well be sucked in.

Derek

400$ device plus 10$ per book to technophobic book readers?? I kind of doubt it will catch on. Before Kindle was released I thought it will outsell the Sony by a reasonable margin, but it will be far off from a breakout device with sells in mid hundreds k a year.

Now with all the limitations, unless they change something drastically, I strogly doubt it will outsell the Sony and may not even outsell the Bookeen.
To me the big winners here is Sony since this device makes the Sony reader a much more desirable alternative.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by delphidb96

Guys,

You're all missing one *CRITICAL* point. The .AZW files are *ONLY* available for purchase by those people who have bought and *REGISTERED* an Amazon Kindle!!! And you have to download the .AZW ebooks through Amazon's Whispernet-which means you have to download it directly into the Kindle via their proprietary cell-phone network!

No, Derek, I'm not missing anything. What I'm saying is that if a publisher produces a Mobi book (which is what Kindle books are) they'd have to be pretty stupid to restrict it to the one outlet of Amazon. We can therefore reasonably expect to see those same books showing up in other MobiPocket stores.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by delphidb96

Jon,

I'm not so sure it's won anything. However, I do believe that if anyone is going to suffer over this, it will be Bookeen as well. And the reason I believe this is because now that Amazon has brought out it's own format (yeah, I *know* it's just a mobi PRC) with far more books available RIGHT NOW, I don't really see the need for Amazon to keep Mobipocket open. I believe one of Amazon's next moves will be to kill off Mobi.

That would be a ridiculous thing to do. Right now, any book sold through Mobi is an additional sale, since it's to a non-Kindle device. Why would they want to stop that?

[Tulkas]

I'm looking forward to the day when a decent eBook convertor which strips out DRM is available ~ similar to what's happened with music files.

I have no problem paying for eBooks, don't want to pirate anything but do want to be able to read books purchased on any device and in any format ~ all this propriety crap is just stunting the growth of the eBook market.