Sony Reader in Middle East

[HAS]

Greetings everyone.
I live in the Middle East and I'm considering purchasing an ereader. It seems that Kindle and B&N Nook are out of the question.
I was wondering does anybody have experience with Sony Reader in the Middle East? is a US based credit card needed to buy books? any problems with using laptop to buy and then transfer to the Reader?

I know that I have to buy it from the US (looking at PRS900BC), but wondering whether that also requires US credit card as is the case with Amazon and B&N.

Thanks for the assistance

[grooks]

I believe there is one member who is in Dubai. I do not know if they purchase ebooks from Sony or from other retailers. You can check the book buying policy at retailers like BooksonBoard and Kobo Books

[HAS]

Thank you for your reply. I actually created an account with the Sony Reader Store. It forces selecting either US or UK as the customer country, but when I tried buying a book and it accepted my credit card. I don't know if they do the IP check, but I would guess not because, as you mentioned, you can use the Reader for books from other stores, not just Sony.
I think that the Reader should be useful to me even if there are some limitations on purchases. I have so many pdf books and it would be nice to be able to carry them along so efficiently.

Thanks again

[m-reader]

Originally Posted by HAS

Thank you for your reply. I actually created an account with the Sony Reader Store. It forces selecting either US or UK as the customer country, but when I tried buying a book and it accepted my credit card. I don't know if they do the IP check, but I would guess not because, as you mentioned, you can use the Reader for books from other stores, not just Sony.
I think that the Reader should be useful to me even if there are some limitations on purchases. I have so many pdf books and it would be nice to be able to carry them along so efficiently.
Thanks again

Hi Has, I live in Riyadh. I bought my PRS900 from BH Photo & Video. Got it delivered here via UPS for $62 within a week. I paid with my local credit card (Fransi Bank).
I don't books from Sony Reader Store, but these things (geo restrictions) are easily fixed using a VPN provider. You can get these sort of services for $3-5 per month. It basically gives you a US IP address so to the Sony Story you appear as though you are using the internet from the US.
Send me a PM if you need more info.

Cheers,

m-reader

[zaidshaban]

Hello Has, am the member that lives in dubai :-) my friend i have the Sony PRS 600 so far i didnt buy any books and frankly speaking i didnt buy any online books so far as am trying to finish the PDF books that i have, there is some websites you can download a free ebook and those will keep you busy for a long time, and i agree with m-reader, but stik to this Mobileread comunity as they are the greatest man, once you ask for any thing you will find all the answers they are so nice, any way you can use another service if you wantr you can register to ARAMEX US Mailbox and have any thing from Amazone or US in general delivered to you mail box in US and then the ship it for you for a law cost, and also you can get a prepaid mastercard from them also and you can use it in any of mentioned book stores.

Cheers and good luck.

[m-reader]

Originally Posted by zaidshaban

Hello Has, am the member that lives in dubai :-) my friend i have the Sony PRS 600 so far i didnt buy any books and frankly speaking i didnt buy any online books so far as am trying to finish the PDF books that i have, there is some websites you can download a free ebook and those will keep you busy for a long time, and i agree with m-reader, but stik to this Mobileread comunity as they are the greatest man, once you ask for any thing you will find all the answers they are so nice, any way you can use another service if you wantr you can register to ARAMEX US Mailbox and have any thing from Amazone or US in general delivered to you mail box in US and then the ship it for you for a law cost, and also you can get a prepaid mastercard from them also and you can use it in any of mentioned book stores.

Cheers and good luck.

Hi neighbour

I've been using Aramex for a while now, and it works really well for Amazon and co. However, I found that direct shipping is faster AND cheaper in case of shops like BH Photo & Video.

[zaidshaban]

Hey m-reader its not only we are neighbours i also have the saudi resedency as i lived there for 9 years, about your msg the good thing about aramex is that you can also get the prepaid mastercard and its very safe to use.

[HAS]

Thank you all for your replies. I don't have a problem buying the Reader, I was just wondering if buying books is limited by the Sony store to residents in the US & UK similar to Kindle and Nook. However, I agree with you m-reader that there are lots of other retailers and free epub books out there. Thanks Zaidshaban for your advice regarding ARAMEX, something to look into.
It would still be helpful to know if anyone tried using the Sony reader store in this area. I would definitely be interested in buying new books.
I managed to buy a book yesterday to read on my laptop until I get my Reader; however, I was able to download a few books from amazon for the kindle for pc before they figured out that my IP is not the US after which I couldn't download any books.

Thank you for all your help.

[rlparker]

Hi HAS, welcome to MR!

[HAS]

Thank you rlparker. It's nice to be here. awesome place for ereaders!

[Lynnette]

Hello to all, I'm new here and need some help. I recently moved here in Dubai and have been to big malls here but they dont have Sony PRS 600. I don't have credit cards yet.Can any body help me where to purchased?

[m-reader]

Originally Posted by Lynnette

Hello to all, I'm new here and need some help. I recently moved here in Dubai and have been to big malls here but they dont have Sony PRS 600. I don't have credit cards yet.Can any body help me where to purchased?

I don't think you'll find it in big malls. Here in Saudi there's an on-line merchant which offers Cash on Delivery in addition to credit card payments:

http://www.memega.com/memega/product...megacs%29.aspx

It's worth checking if they have this service for UAE as well.
Otherwise your best bet is to get someone who travels to UK or USA to pick one up for you. This is definitely a cheaper option.
Even after you get the reader, you'll need a credit card to buy e-books. I suggest you look at getting prepaid cards (some banks in UAE surely offer them), or get a debit card.


Good luck,

M-reader

PS: I just found out that Magrudy's book stores used to sell Sony e-readers last year. It may be worth a check: http://www.magrudy.com/

[Lynnette]

hello m-reader, thanks for the info...I have tried Magrudy's Bookshop and luckily they still have a 2 pieces available in store. Though they only have one color-the silver one, not much of a choice for me but i definitely need one so i bought it. I have a debit card now and purchasing e-books in middle east is a big challenge.

Thanks so much for your help. Nice to be a part of this group...learned a lot.

[m-reader]

Originally Posted by Lynnette

Thanks so much for your help. Nice to be a part of this group...learned a lot.

Glad to be of help, I hope you enjoy your reader!

[clibbob]

Originally Posted by HAS

Greetings everyone.
I live in the Middle East and I'm considering purchasing an ereader. It seems that Kindle and B&N Nook are out of the question.
I was wondering does anybody have experience with Sony Reader in the Middle East? is a US based credit card needed to buy books? any problems with using laptop to buy and then transfer to the Reader?

I know that I have to buy it from the US (looking at PRS900BC), but wondering whether that also requires US credit card as is the case with Amazon and B&N.

Thanks for the assistance

I live in Qatar and got a PRS-600 brought to me by a visiting friend. In order to use the Sony store for purchasing books (and to use the credit that came with my Reader), I had to log on to a Virtual Private Network that was situated in Canada in order to register my credit card. The Store could detect, otherwise, that my IP was in Qatar and wouldn't accept my credit card -- for security???? purposes. After that, there has been no problem using the Sony store.