Buying a Sony Reader outside of the USA

[igorsk]

Originally Posted by NatCh

I'm guessing that there may be some pressure inside Sony not to sell the hardware outside the U.S. (like from Tokyo, which may not want an American reader to do better than the Japanese one did ).

I don't think this is one of the reasons. I doubt the american Reader will be of any popularity in Japan, since it doesn't have Japanese fonts or Japanese interface. Also, the Japanese prefer their own gadgets to foreign ones, probably the only exception being Apple.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by igorsk

I don't think this is one of the reasons. I doubt the american Reader will be of any popularity in Japan, since it doesn't have Japanese fonts or Japanese interface. Also, the Japanese prefer their own gadgets to foreign ones, probably the only exception being Apple.

I didn't mean that they might not want the American device to sell better in Japan, I meant that it might sell better at all. Everyone knows that we barbaric Americans don't read, you see.

[grimo1re]

Well, I talked to my boss who has friends in the US and is happy to mediate for me so I'm thinking that over.

I know that you made an offer Geekraver and it's very nice of you, but I don't know you from Adam. No offence intended.

I'm still baffled by this whole US only thing though. It's the same with other content, movies and TV shows and such. I can't sign up for Microsoft's Urge or for Starz because of the regional licensing. You'd think companies understand that we live in 2006 and that I don't want to wait until TV shows or movies hit my region. Can't they see how small the world is these days? First everybody is pushing this 'global village' buzz & hype and when the world really is (pretty much) a global village they don't seem to understand what hit them. Tsk tsk tsk.

/listening to Pandora even though it's supposed to be US only.

[geekraver]

I understand that there is an issue of trust, but I think that's easy for me to overcome for those who are interested (e.g. I can provide my full details, including home/work contact info, my eBay and Amazon Ids so people can see my feedback on those sites, etc). I just don't want to post all that publicly (I've already stretched things a bit with my slightly cryptic e-mail address above, which I plan to edit and remove from that posting in a couple of days). So I encourage anyone who might be interested to contact me and I'll try to address the trust issue.

[ultim8fury]

@geekraver an @ms email address goes a long way towards establishing credentials.

[da_jane]

Here's the deal, I think. Authors sell their rights to publishers. The publishers generally pay US rights and then, if the author does well, worldwide rights. The publishers also had to go to authors and negotiate the rights to the ebook publication because rights revert back to the author after a period of not being in print. With ebooks, you could technically argue that it is always in print and the rights would never revert.

So it may very well be that the authors haven't sold the ebook worldwide rights and therefore sony and the publisher cannot legally sell the book outside the US.

[sarahw2275]

WE SEEM TO HAVE BEEN WAITING FOREVER FOR THE READER TO BE RELEASED AND NOW IT LOOKS AS THOUGH THOSE OF US OUTSIDE THE US AREN'T GOING TO BE ABLE TO GET OUR HANDS ON ONE!!
I HOPE SOMEONE COMES UP WITH A SOLUTION.

[sarahw2275]

I'VE JUST FOUND THE READER AVAILABLE ON AMAZON, AVAILABLE IN 1 - 2 WEEKS, BUT AGAIN THEY WILL ONLY SHIP WITHIN THE US!!

[NatCh]

Thanks for the insight da_jane. You may be onto something there.

@sarahw2275: We appreciate and sympathise with your frustration, but please don't shout (all caps is considered shouting, just in case you don't know that).

Sony has never been bashful about saying they weren't planning to sell the Reader outside the U.S., we've all just been hoping it wouldn't be so.

If you look around a bit here, you'll see that folks are already setting up workarounds, both individually and some hatching group plans. And all that is before any secondary retailers have even gotten started!

I think you'll easily be able to find a way before very long. <fingers crossed>

[sarahw2275]

Sorry NatCh, i'm new to the forum, i didn't mean to shout!!
I hope ur right and i find a way round this. I have contacted one of the forum members so maybe they can help!!

[Alexander Turcic]

Welcome to the forum, sarahw2275.

You're definitely not the only one looking for a solution to ship the Reader to a non-US country. So good luck on your mission

[geekraver]

So it seems Borders don't know when they'll be in store; Amazon will take 1-2 weeks at least to ship, so ordering from Sony seems the fastest right now. Sony are offering free ground shipping until Thursday. Has anyone ordered this way, and did Sony ship already?

I have a couple of people on the list already; I'll probably place an order tomorrow (Thursday) to get the free domestic shipping, so if you want in, let me know soon.

Apparently the package is about two pounds, so Global Express Mail shipping should be approximately $30 excluding insurance (that's based on shipping to the UK; check http://ircalc.usps.gov/default.asp?M...ngle&CID=10150 if you want to see other rates/destinations). So the total cost to get one through me, with insurance and express shipping, should run to about $450-$460.

[Arsenius]

Luckily I have Family in the USA, but what a fussss. I mean what if mine's gonna be dead on arrival or something wrong? I have to send it back to the USA and have my to trouble my fam there with the warranty issues and all.

What the hell is sony thinking anyway? The world is globalising, same goes for those tv shows in the US and the movies.

Finally they nowadays start hitting the Cinema the same day as the USA or even one day early, so those people finally saw what had to be done.

Now the other big companies should open their troubled eyes.. Because no one is going to stop me from getting one.

If I can't get books from the store of sony i'll just get mine in a less legal way.

THAT IS THE CONSEQUENCE OF NOT UNDERSTANDING THE PEOPLE.. SONY

*PISSED TOO

[Slava]

SonyStyle has free ground shipping most of the time. So, saying that it's "until Thursday" - just another cheap trick to make you buy now

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by sarahw2275

Sorry NatCh, i'm new to the forum, i didn't mean to shout!!
I hope ur right and i find a way round this. I have contacted one of the forum members so maybe they can help!!

No worries, sarahw2275, I figured you didn't know, that's the reason most folks do that.

I'm glad you're finding a way, and that you found your way to MobileRead. I've really enjoyed being part of the gang for the past 9 months and am happy when others find a place here too.