Has Sony lost the e-book battle against Amazon?

[nesagwa]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

You've clearly handled different Sony MP3 players than I have. Design, yes. Operability? No. But everyone is different... which is why the Sony reader could stand evenly with the Kindle, if Sony wants to put in the work do get it there.

I used to use (still have it, just dont use it - got an ipod) NW-A1000 walkman.

Love the hardware, the long battery life, the design, the mirrored screen, just about everything about it was great.

Except for two things. 1) Software. 2) No peripherals.

I couldnt get an FM transmitter made to fit into its data slot nor could I find a dock (Im assuming nobody made any.)

And Im sure we all know how bad SonicStage is/was (strange that they never updated the software to actually remove the Connect store from the main screen and turn it into a pure itunes type app, but thats Sony for you.)

No mac or linux support (not even through third parties like the reader gets) also killed it for me.

The reader suffers the same sort of problems. The library software is in a word awful. It crashes, is slow, looks like it was designed in 1996 etc etc. The store is hard to navigate on top of that.

Software is Sony's Achilles heel in just about everything they make and the Reader is no different.

[vivaldirules]

Originally Posted by rhadin

If content is king, then Sony and Amazon should be neck and neck. The Kindle is essentially tied to Amazon for books so when you count book availability you count what is available on Amazon.

Sony, however, is not tied to the Sony Connect store and when determining availability, you should count alll the books available at all the stores that sell content readable on the Sony.

Comparing the Amazon bookstore with Sony Connect is not comparing apples with apples -- Amazon's business is book selling, not Kindle selling; Sony's business is Reader selling, not book selling.

The real content question is not Amazon bookstore vs. Sony Connect but rather the number of books available for purchase (or free) to be read on the Kindle vs those available for the Sony regardless of the seller.

rhadin, can you say what sources of content you are considering that is readable on the Sony Readers and not sold by Sony but which is not readable on the Kindle? I personally don't see these as "neck and neck" but maybe there are sources that I'm not aware of.

[slayda]

I hope neither one wins since they both are promoting their own proprietary format. We need ebook readers with more open, non-proprietary formats & preferably non-DRMed.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by Skaukatt

Could a company succeed if they brought out their own connected e-book device to the market and then paid for puff reviews? Probably not, most people would see right though it.

Actually, a significant segment of the public does respond to ad campaigns and "puff" pieces... which is why they are used. Such marketing strategies could easily turn the tide for the marketed device.

Originally Posted by slayda

I hope neither one wins since they both are promoting their own proprietary format. We need ebook readers with more open, non-proprietary formats & preferably non-DRMed.

Well, since ePub is making inroads on both models, the problem isn't as severe as it was.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by slayda

I hope neither one wins since they both are promoting their own proprietary format. We need ebook readers with more open, non-proprietary formats & preferably non-DRMed.

Sony already has that with ePub. Kindle? Nope.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Well, since ePub is making inroads on both models, the problem isn't as severe as it was.

Where is ePub for the Kindle? I don't see it.

[HarryT]

ePub is trivially convertable to MobiPocket, which the Kindle can read.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by HarryT

ePub is trivially convertable to MobiPocket, which the Kindle can read.

See? I do more than just hang in the Lounge and flog pirates...

[Alisa]

I won't speculate on who's won the war. I don't think it's entirely clear yet. However, while I think Sony has done a great thing for consumers with its new format support, it's not good for their content business. It encourages people to go somewhere other than Connect. Maybe they want to get out of the content business and concentrate on the device which, IMO, may not be such a bad idea at least eventually. My only concern is the timing. The hardware costs are still rather high at the moment. I doubt there's much of a margin there.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by HarryT

ePub is trivially convertable to MobiPocket, which the Kindle can read.

No, only a subset of epub is trivially convertible to mobi. And the only reason the mobipocket desktop software exists, I suspect, is that Amazon didn't always own mobipocket. Amazon seems to have an utter disregard for inter-operability:

1) They completely unneccasarily introduced a new file type even though it is mobipocket under the hood
2) the actually *removed* support for the Kindle from the mobipocket desktop software
3) They have made absolutely no noises (that I'm aware of) about supporting epub
4) they charge for delivering free content to their users. This doesn't really have anything to do with inter-operability but it is my pet gripe

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

ePub is trivially convertable to MobiPocket, which the Kindle can read.

Not DRMed ePub. That's not trivial yet.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

4) they charge for delivering free content to their users. This doesn't really have anything to do with inter-operability but it is my pet gripe

The charge is for the delivery, not the content. Data traffic over Sprint costs real money - someone has to pay for it.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

rhadin, can you say what sources of content you are considering that is readable on the Sony Readers and not sold by Sony but which is not readable on the Kindle? I personally don't see these as "neck and neck" but maybe there are sources that I'm not aware of.

What I mean is that you can go to to virtually any ebook seller, or to any of the free book places, and download a book in a format that the Sony can read. As I understand it, and I'll gladly admit that I may be wrong, you cannot do the same for Kindle.

When it is said that there are 145,000 titles available for the Kindle but only 45,000 for the Sony, the Sony numbers exclude, for example, those titles that Sony doesn't carry but Fictionwise, Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, etc., do carry that are easily downloaded to and read on the Sony. I would expect Amazon whose primary business is bookselling to stock more titles than Sony whose primary business is electronics, but overall availability is what counts when discussing content, not availability from a single source.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by rhadin

What I mean is that you can go to to virtually any ebook seller, or to any of the free book places, and download a book in a format that the Sony can read. As I understand it, and I'll gladly admit that I may be wrong, you cannot do the same for Kindle.

You can't buy DRM protected content for the Kindle anywhere other than Amazon, but DRM-free content can easily be obtained, since the Kindle uses the standard MobiPocket file format.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Alisa

I won't speculate on who's won the war. I don't think it's entirely clear yet. However, while I think Sony has done a great thing for consumers with its new format support, it's not good for their content business. It encourages people to go somewhere other than Connect. Maybe they want to get out of the content business and concentrate on the device which, IMO, may not be such a bad idea at least eventually. My only concern is the timing. The hardware costs are still rather high at the moment. I doubt there's much of a margin there.

You are saying the hardware costs for a 505 is too high and yet you paid MORE for a Kindle. Makes no sense.