Would Sunrise viewer be worth $19.95 to you?

Colin Dunstan · 03-18-2005, 06:45 PM

As many of you know, Laurens, the guy behind the wonderful Sunrise tool for Plucker, is working on his own e-book viewer.

If you are currently using Sunrise in conjunction with Plucker, and knowing that future (improved) versions of Sunrise won't be Plucker-compatible anymore, would you be willing to buy a single user license for Laurens' forthcoming viewer for $19.95? Too much? Too little?

This is a poll. Make sure to vote with 'yes' or 'no' and if you have a second, please comment your decision.

(In case it matters to you, I voted with YES).

rlauzon · 03-18-2005, 08:27 PM

Well, for $30, you can get WordSmith, which is a full word processor - not just an eBook reader.

Then figuring that Plucker and many other readers are free.

My vote would be "No". $20 is too much for such a product.

lesliefranke · 03-18-2005, 09:07 PM

My thinking is that a price of $19.95 is probably on the high side of what I would pay. Considering there are quality, free alternatives a price of $14.95 would seem to be about right. That being said the suggested price is right in line with what iSilo costs. I guess it comes down to what exactly is the feature set.

Chaos · 03-19-2005, 12:33 AM

No, because I'm happy with Plucker... And Sunrise is Windows-only...

I'm sure it's a good tool, but I can't exactly use it, and Plucker is currently more than enough for me.

ignatz · 03-19-2005, 01:55 AM

I am eager to see it. I think $15 is more like what I would like to pay. But a lot of work went into it and I'm inclined to support Laurens so he'll write more cool stuff.

Alexander Turcic · 03-19-2005, 05:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ignatz

I am eager to see it. I think $15 is more like what I would like to pay. But a lot of work went into it and I'm inclined to support Laurens so he'll write more cool stuff.

Ditto. I'd say to begin with, $14.95 sounds like a good price. Over time, as more features are added to Sunshine viewer, a price such as $19.95 sounds more realistically.

Brad · 03-19-2005, 07:09 AM

The devil is in the details. You mention an ebook reader for $20, but the post is about an offline news reader more than anything. What will it do for me that the others can't?

Sorry, I just don't see the need for another proprietary ebook reader.

gadgetguru · 03-19-2005, 11:45 AM

It really would depend on how much better it is against both iSilo and Plucker. Since I have both installed, I don't need another one unless it can do what the others don't. If it's much better than those two I mentioned then $20 would be worth it. On the other hand, if its just on-par or less functional, or buggy then even at $10, I wouldn't consider it.

AS I see it, Sunrise's commercial brethren would be better off as a good offline reader since most people already uses Palm Reader or Mobipocket for ebooks, both of which has free functional versions. For offline readers, the choices are Avantgo, iSilo, Handstory, and Plucker. Avantgo is mostly limited to its own partners, Handstory works better as a swiss-army knife reader/viewer than offline Reader. Isilo and Plucker are therefore the premier Palm offline viewers and Sunrise's successor main competitor. iSilo has a good desktop companion in iSiloX, while Plucker rely mostly on Laurn's own Sunrise tool. So how much better than those would determine whether $20 is worth shelling out for the next version of Sunrise.

opinari · 03-19-2005, 01:05 PM

I would buy Sunrise for $19.95, depending on the improvements, and IF it supported Plucker. Since it doesn't, then I doubt I would buy it for $4.95, let alone $19.95.

TadW · 03-20-2005, 05:31 AM

If Sunrise Viewer will be better than Plucker of iSilo, I am willing to pay the $19.95. However, from a marketing point of view, I think a price below $15 to start with would be wiser.

tovarish · 03-20-2005, 06:53 PM

for 20$ it must be really much better than Plucker in funtionality. This means to be able to customising reading of text that I really want to read and not the other stuff in webpages. Sunrise desktop already does a lot in this direction.

tovarish

mercedes · 03-20-2005, 10:01 PM

I guess the price would be justified if registered users of the viewer would get new and updated SDLs. I think the SDL has some value too because they have to be updated and tweaked. For example The NYT Tech and Circuits text edition SDLs are broken and I don't have a clue how to fix them. Well, in a sense only registered users would be able to use new and updated SDLs because eventually plucker support will be dropped from the Sunrise converter tool.

One thing that I would like to see in the sunrise viewer is the ability to save individual articles. When I use the export to memo function in plucker I only get whats shown on the screen and not the whole article.

Ernie Longmire · 03-22-2005, 09:18 PM

I'm open to the idea of a commercial version, but for now I voted no since Sunrise Desktop + Plucker already do everything I need. I don't have any use for any of the feed management options that seem to be the main benefit of the proposed commercial version, and I have absolutely zero interest in supporting Yet Another Proprietary Document Format in any case.

I'd pay $10 for Sunrise Desktop though, provided it kept all of its current functionality (including the ability to export in Plucker format) and there was a commitment to continue maintaining it over the long term.

Francesco · 03-23-2005, 07:26 PM

Laurens should post what we would get as an improvement to the current sunrise+plucker combo.

maceyr · 04-03-2005, 04:32 PM

It all depends on what features are offered in the software. I agree that I'm more inclined to paying $14.95 for it than $19.95.

If there are enough features to justify paying for it compared to the freeware version then I would pay for it.

View Poll Results: Would Sunrise viewer be worth $19.95 to you?
YES!	8	36.36%
No, because...	14	63.64%
Voters: 22. You may not vote on this poll

03-18-2005, 06:45 PM	#1
Colin Dunstan Is papyrophobic! Posts: 1,926 Karma: 1009999 Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: USA Device: Dell Axim	Would Sunrise viewer be worth $19.95 to you? As many of you know, Laurens, the guy behind the wonderful Sunrise tool for Plucker, is working on his own e-book viewer. If you are currently using Sunrise in conjunction with Plucker, and knowing that future (improved) versions of Sunrise won't be Plucker-compatible anymore, would you be willing to buy a single user license for Laurens' forthcoming viewer for $19.95? Too much? Too little? This is a poll. Make sure to vote with 'yes' or 'no' and if you have a second, please comment your decision. (In case it matters to you, I voted with YES).

03-18-2005, 08:27 PM	#2
rlauzon Wizard Posts: 1,018 Karma: 67827 Join Date: Jan 2005 Device: PocketBook Era	Value Well, for $30, you can get WordSmith, which is a full word processor - not just an eBook reader. Then figuring that Plucker and many other readers are free. My vote would be "No". $20 is too much for such a product.

03-19-2005, 07:09 AM	#7
Brad Zealot Posts: 107 Karma: 201 Join Date: Sep 2004 Device: Cybook Gen3 / EB1150 /iPhone	Details... The devil is in the details. You mention an ebook reader for $20, but the post is about an offline news reader more than anything. What will it do for me that the others can't? Sorry, I just don't see the need for another proprietary ebook reader.

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03-18-2005, 09:07 PM	#3
lesliefranke Member Posts: 10 Karma: 28 Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: United States	My thinking is that a price of $19.95 is probably on the high side of what I would pay. Considering there are quality, free alternatives a price of $14.95 would seem to be about right. That being said the suggested price is right in line with what iSilo costs. I guess it comes down to what exactly is the feature set.

03-19-2005, 12:33 AM	#4
Chaos Evangelist Posts: 418 Karma: 281 Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Canada Device: Assorted older devices	No, because I'm happy with Plucker... And Sunrise is Windows-only... I'm sure it's a good tool, but I can't exactly use it, and Plucker is currently more than enough for me.

03-19-2005, 01:55 AM	#5
ignatz mechanoholic Posts: 582 Karma: 1000217 Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Sarasota, FL Device: Nook STR/iPhone 4S/EVO 4G	I am eager to see it. I think $15 is more like what I would like to pay. But a lot of work went into it and I'm inclined to support Laurens so he'll write more cool stuff.

03-19-2005, 11:45 AM	#8
gadgetguru Addict Posts: 214 Karma: 6370 Join Date: May 2003 Location: Asia Device: Tungsten T5	It really would depend on how much better it is against both iSilo and Plucker. Since I have both installed, I don't need another one unless it can do what the others don't. If it's much better than those two I mentioned then $20 would be worth it. On the other hand, if its just on-par or less functional, or buggy then even at $10, I wouldn't consider it. AS I see it, Sunrise's commercial brethren would be better off as a good offline reader since most people already uses Palm Reader or Mobipocket for ebooks, both of which has free functional versions. For offline readers, the choices are Avantgo, iSilo, Handstory, and Plucker. Avantgo is mostly limited to its own partners, Handstory works better as a swiss-army knife reader/viewer than offline Reader. Isilo and Plucker are therefore the premier Palm offline viewers and Sunrise's successor main competitor. iSilo has a good desktop companion in iSiloX, while Plucker rely mostly on Laurn's own Sunrise tool. So how much better than those would determine whether $20 is worth shelling out for the next version of Sunrise.

03-19-2005, 01:05 PM	#9
opinari Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2005 Device: Tungsten T\|T	I would buy Sunrise for $19.95, depending on the improvements, and IF it supported Plucker. Since it doesn't, then I doubt I would buy it for $4.95, let alone $19.95.

03-20-2005, 05:31 AM	#10
TadW Uebermensch Posts: 2,583 Karma: 1094606 Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Italy Device: Kindle	If Sunrise Viewer will be better than Plucker of iSilo, I am willing to pay the $19.95. However, from a marketing point of view, I think a price below $15 to start with would be wiser.

03-20-2005, 06:53 PM	#11
tovarish Enthusiast Posts: 34 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2004 Device: HTC Touch Pro2	for 20$ it must be really much better than Plucker in funtionality. This means to be able to customising reading of text that I really want to read and not the other stuff in webpages. Sunrise desktop already does a lot in this direction. tovarish

03-20-2005, 10:01 PM	#12
mercedes Apple and Sony zealot Posts: 30 Karma: 2204 Join Date: Jan 2003 Device: TH55	I guess the price would be justified if registered users of the viewer would get new and updated SDLs. I think the SDL has some value too because they have to be updated and tweaked. For example The NYT Tech and Circuits text edition SDLs are broken and I don't have a clue how to fix them. Well, in a sense only registered users would be able to use new and updated SDLs because eventually plucker support will be dropped from the Sunrise converter tool. One thing that I would like to see in the sunrise viewer is the ability to save individual articles. When I use the export to memo function in plucker I only get whats shown on the screen and not the whole article.

03-22-2005, 09:18 PM	#13
Ernie Longmire Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2005	I'm open to the idea of a commercial version, but for now I voted no since Sunrise Desktop + Plucker already do everything I need. I don't have any use for any of the feed management options that seem to be the main benefit of the proposed commercial version, and I have absolutely zero interest in supporting Yet Another Proprietary Document Format in any case. I'd pay $10 for Sunrise Desktop though, provided it kept all of its current functionality (including the ability to export in Plucker format) and there was a commitment to continue maintaining it over the long term.

03-23-2005, 07:26 PM	#14
Francesco Aficionado Posts: 391 Karma: 710 Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Denver, CO, USA Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Touch	Laurens should post what we would get as an improvement to the current sunrise+plucker combo.

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04-03-2005, 04:32 PM	#15
maceyr Palm Discoverer Posts: 37 Karma: 2139 Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Canada Device: Treo 650 & Zire 71	It all depends on what features are offered in the software. I agree that I'm more inclined to paying $14.95 for it than $19.95. If there are enough features to justify paying for it compared to the freeware version then I would pay for it.