Sony: Will History Repeat?

[radleyp]

Longshot, the Kindle does not use wifi. It uses a Sprint EVDO connection which is free. Heavens, man, the Kindle is expensive enough as it is.

For the information of all concerned with pdf on the Kindle: I just spoke to a rep at Amazon and told him that I had sent Amazon several pdf files to convert and they had been converted, albeit not perfectly. He told me that the pdf conversion facility is in an experimental stage right now: I expect it to work well pretty soon.

[dhbailey]

Sprint EVDO is not free -- it is underwritten (currently) by Amazon. That is one big factor in my not considering the Kindle at all. Sure Amazon has touted this as free, but there may well come a day when it says "we can't afford to give that away anymore -- sorry, you'll have to pay individually" and from everything I've read, it isn't cheap.

[JSWolf]

We forget the history Amazon has with ebooks. Amazon has a poor track record as far as selling ebooks goes. Sony does not have a bad track record. Take that as you will.

[HarryT]

The CyBook Gen3 will be able to properly handle Mobi DRM-d library books when Bookeen fix a date bug in the next firmware release due in the next few weeks. At the moment it keeps losing its system date, so the books stop working.

[Scarpad]

When I considered the Sony Being able to convert from .Lit as well as but from Sony meant I'd have enough content.

[recycledelectron]

Originally Posted by Kingston

Yes they will continue to support the old readers, but you can bet your booties that Sony will be a fond memory in the ereader sweepstakes within 5-7 years.

I'm not sure they will support anything 5-7 years after they release it. Take a look at the PRS-505's non-replaceable battery. This is NOT meant to last a lifetime.

Originally Posted by Kingston

I am a Kindle owner

LMAO! You depend on a cell phone network, and then claim the Sony might be obsolete!

Originally Posted by Kingston

Bottom line: Sony's ereader division is a tiny portion of this great companies revenue. Bezos and Amazon have a much greater stake in making the Kindle a long term winner. Sony can bow out gracefully in a few years, just as they did with their TiVo and WebTV. They will probably offer a Reader for years to come, but don't expect them to fight a losing battle against Amazon when it is not in Sony's best financial interest to do so.

Now, I am a college professor at a business school, but I would never evaluate a product based on the will power of a CEO, or the market segment they might occupy in the future. That's silly. It's like buying an inferior Dell laptop instead of a great Lenovo laptop because you like what you read about Michael Dell in Newsweek.

I bought a reader that lets me read documents in the open formats that I use. The PRS-505 does that, while the Kindle does not. (I did not consider DRMed formats or books available directly from either company.)

Originally Posted by Kingston

I hope you Sony owners don't take post as an insult. Just an historical review. I got plenty upset when it became apparent that my beloved Betamax was not going to survive against the more popular VHS format. It's still a "better" VCR, for what it's worth. But it is a museum piece, whereas VHS is still around almost 30 years later.

My laserdisc player still works, and "Logan's Run" still looks better on laserdisc. I buy ONLY items that are able to work without depending on digital locks and DRM, therefore, I am not shut down when someone decides to pull the plug at corporate.

Andy

[astra]

Originally Posted by recycledelectron

I buy ONLY items that are able to work without depending on digital locks and DRM, therefore, I am not shut down when someone decides to pull the plug at corporate.

Andy

A very wise decision. I am trying to follow the same way.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by recycledelectron

I'm not sure they will support anything 5-7 years after they release it. Take a look at the PRS-505's non-replaceable battery. This is NOT meant to last a lifetime.

I guess that's a good reason to buy Sony's extgended warranty. I bought a policy yesterday for $70 for 3 years that covers everything, supposedly including my stepping on my Reader and breaking the screen. I hope that's true, although I don't plan to experiment.

[radleyp]

DHBailey, I am quite right and you are quite wrong: Sprint EVDO is free on the Kindle. What Amazon does in the future is anyone's guess, but if you decide to buy a device based on what the manufacturer MIGHT do in the future, I think it probably wise for you not to buy anything at all.

[NatCh]

There's quite a bit of difference between "free" and "no additional cost" -- particularly when Amazon has already said they plan on passing some of that cost (the non-Amazon related data traffic parts) along to their customers at some point.

There is no EVDO Fairy that makes EVDO access out of nothing with just a swish and flick of her wand: somebody pays for it. You can bet that Sprint is billing Amazon, though it's probably at a ridiculously low bulk rate. If Amazon were to decide that it's costing them enough money, you can bet your sweet bippie that they'll start passing that cost along to their customers with a warm smile. Only Santa Clause can operate without revenue in excess of costs.

That being said, I'm not especially concerned that Amazon will start charging for book downloads any time soon (general web-surfing is a different kettle of fish). I expect they're viewing the cost of the download in the same way they've been viewing the cost they eat on free "Super Saver Shipping," only less so, because even at a relatively high rate of something like 1¢/MB, a book download is going to cost them a whole hairy heck of a lot less than mailing a paper book would.

[radleyp]

I always thought I knew the meaning of the word "free": it means that I am getting something without having to spend to get it. I repeat: what Amazon does in the future does not change the plain fact that right now I get Sprint EVDO for nothing. That someone else is paying for it makes no difference. Things change all the time, and that may well change too, but that is the future. If you are basing your decision not to buy the Kindle on what the manufacturer may do, I don't see how you would ever buy it at all. Book prices may go up, Amazon may decide to change the display to something better, upgrades may cost a fortune: where does such concern stop?

[radleyp]

For the record, here is a pretty solid argument against Amazon charging for the EVDO: right now Amazon sells a bunch of subscriptions to newspapers and magazines which are all EVDO-downloaded. I am sure Amazon gets a cut of those subscription charges, and a lot of those would disappear if it forced the user to pay for EVDO from Sprint or anyone else. As you point out, however, it will all come down to money and profits, and what Amazon determines to yield the most profits - free EVDO or a cut of subscription fees - will remain.

[NatCh]

I see what you're saying, radleyp, that you can't just be paralyzed by the fear of "what if they do this or that." And I also agree that Kindle's EVDO is not presently costing Kindle users anything extra to use, beyond the price of the device itself and whatever content they buy for it. And also that Amazon is, for the most part, unlikely to start charging for it, both for the very good reason you cite, and the ones I mentioned above.

The reason we're pointing it out is that this is the sort of thing folks like to know might happen in advance so that they can make an informed decision as to what they think of the concern's likelihood and impact, rather than being surprised by it later. That's all.

You can never know everything, of course, but finding out as much as you can know, and evaluating the various bits of information as to how big a concern they are to you individually, compared to your individual needs and wants is a good way to increase the odds that you won't regret a purchase.

Of course how much research each person will need to do before a purchase to be comfortable with it is going to vary from person to person. As it should -- all of our circumstances are unique at some level, even when they're quite similar.

Just because one person has concerns about whether the EVDO situation and/or it's possible eventual ramifications is right for them doesn't mean it can't suit the needs of a second person to a "T."

If you're happy with your purchase, wonderful: that's the important bit, finding a solution that suits each person's needs as best as possible (I know: I say that a lot ). We're just trying to share as much info as we can so that folks can make informed decisions, so they're more likely to be happy with them. Some folks care about future possibilities, and others wouldn't give a rat's spleen on the point. That's okay, people can usually figure out for themselves whether they're concerned about a given point.

[Fitzwaryn]

Who really cares??

A little over a year ago when the Reader came out there was no Kindle. The only thing available in the US was the old LCD screen Ebookwise which I had. The summer before the Reader came out I bought a Cybook from Bookeen. Both suffered from battery times measured in hours.

Regardless of which WILL be around in 5 yrs (or two years) I've been using the Sony Reader for 14 months and have read a couple thousand books on it. I don't give a rip about format. Whatever format I got a book in I rip it and
converted it to rtf and loaded it. Now I convert it to LRF and load it.

If no other book readers come out I'll be content with the Sony and continue using it as long as it and my spare one last.

In a year or two years or three years if something significantly better comes out I'll buy a new reader and continue to do the same thing. I'm using mine to read with instead of spending time worrying about what I'll be reading on in 5 yrs.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by Fitzwaryn

Who really cares??

That's the thing though, Fitzwaryn, just because the matter isn't a big deal to you or me, doesn't mean that someone else doesn't or shouldn't care.

They have the right to care if they want to just as we have the right not to. The idea is to share the information so that people can decide for themselves how much, if any, they care about it, just as you and I have already done.


To answer your deeper question, though, I think the vast majority of folks upon hearing this particular concern in advance would say, "oh, okay, I don't care about that." But their reaction might easily be less relaxed if it were to blind-side them in a couple of years.

Speaking for myself, I prefer to know about things like this in advance and decide I don't care about them, in advance, rather than having them sneak up on me when I've never expected them. Just trying to give others the same opportunity to do so, is all.