Will Kobo, Nook and Amazon Touch kill Sony?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Anarel

The "They" of which you speak, Publishers, are going to cling to DRM as long as humanely possible, and having only one book format, one DRM to push onto books isn't going to make them throw up the white flag. If anything, having only one book format to sell books with might even make them dig in their heels, extend this stupid war.

Yes, a lot of other ereaders are use ADE and Epub, but it is wholly unfair of you to lay the blame at Amazon's doorstep. There are different versions of Epub out there, with different flavors of DRM on top, so it certainly isn't as if the entire world has joined hands under DRM-less epub and Amazon is just the one being contrary.

There is ePub with different DRM. There is some different ePub, but that different ePub is from Apple and that's non-standard and maybe not really ePub. B&N is the same ePub under the hood that Sony sells. Just the DRM is different. Now, as for the publishers, sure, they'll want to cling to outdated imperial dogma not what's been mandated by the masses. But when we finally have DRM removed, it will be ePub vs. Mobipocket unless Amazon changes things before then. But even with DRM, Amazon is being contrary.

And to be honest, I don't see how touch screens will improve my reading experience. Ok yes, I can tap on a word to get the definition as opposed to scrolling up the screen with a directional pad, but short of that.. what else is a touch screen good for?

Tapping the screen to turn the page is exactly the same as pressing a button, and a finger swipe, depending on the size of the e-reader and the weight, isn't as simple as pressing a button.

Buttons will most likely wear out before the IR touch will. So that prolongs the life of the device by using the touch as much as possible instead of the buttons. Also, with the IR touch, people who have some difficulties with buttons will find the touch to be quite helpful. Also, with the 650, you don;t need buttons on either side to make it handy for left or right handed people. You just set which swipe direction you want. Fingerprints are not really an issue as some would have us believe.

My K3 has a keyboard and it is only slightly bigger than the New Simple Touch Nook, so what on Earth are people complaining about when the keyboard is a waste of space? They have the same screen size, nearly the same weight- certainly not enough of a difference between the two to seriously consider the difference in weight, But there, a touch screen for data input, and what does that do so much better than a physical keyboard that it would make my reading experience so much better?

But in that case, if the physical keyboard is removed in favor of an on-screen keyboard, then the Kindle could be made even smaller and maybe lighter.

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

Perhaps color e-ink (Mirasol??)?

Color e-ink would be nice, but I'm just not that excited about Mirasol. IMHO, going to a non-bistable display technology is a step backwards. The Mirasol display, while needing less electricity to maintain an image than an LCD, does need a constant power flow to keep the image up. Which means you have a much shorter battery life than e-ink, and you lose the ability to have a stand-by screen saver (which is a minor feature, but one I like.)

I can't see me ever using as my primary device an ebook reader without a fully bistable display technology.

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by rhadin

As I've said before, my 505 is 3.5 years old, has been wholly problem free right out of the box, and continues to work perfectly.

I love my 350 (and loved my 300 before it) but I definitely can't say that either of them have been "wholly problem free." I've had them crash and require a hard reboot multiple times, and several times on the 350 it has suddenly told me that there was an internal memory problem and that it was going to reformat itself now (without an option to say "no.") Now I keep a folder on my HD with a set of all the folders on my 350 (as I have them stored in nested folders, taking advantage of PRS+) that I refresh periodically because I never know when it might decide to format itself again.

[Anarel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Buttons will most likely wear out before the IR touch will. So that prolongs the life of the device by using the touch as much as possible instead of the buttons. Also, with the IR touch, people who have some difficulties with buttons will find the touch to be quite helpful. Also, with the 650, you don;t need buttons on either side to make it handy for left or right handed people. You just set which swipe direction you want. Fingerprints are not really an issue as some would have us believe.

My K1 is still kicking- meaning the buttons are all in perfect working order- and Jesus, it has a face and body only nostalgia could love.

But speaking of people with certain difficulties- say people with sight issues- won't a touch screen make it more difficult for them to operate the device? Going all touch screen all the time is certainly going to alienate users who REQUIRE buttons to operate their devices, who navigate them by feel. That is why Amazon implemented the Voice Menu in the K3, probably in part to deal with the accusations that the DX is unfair in a school setting because the sight impaired couldn't use it.

[mvo]

Originally Posted by MaxLV

And as far as I'm aware Amazon does NOT accept orders directly for the Kindle from NZ. You have to go through a third party or 'agent' who arranges your order, and takes their cut.
.

New Zealanders can order a Kindle 3 direct from Amazon - have been able to since late last year - that is how I got mine

[SocialCarpet]

I just got a PRS-350 after years with a Kindle 2 and 3 and I love the Sony for it's superior ergonomics, material quality and more intuitive interface. That said, I think Sony will continue to be marginalized in the e-book sphere unless they really revamp their marketing and fix their buggy store software. Despite being the forerunner in this technology and offering products that are arguably better than much of the competition in a lot of ways, most people won't give them a chance because they either don't know they exist or don't see an easy path to content, i.e. easy store access through WiFi or 3G. Personally I don't care about that anymore, sideloading books is a small price to pay for what is a much more enjoyable reading experience than I ever had with any of my Kindles.