Poll: More functionality for more money, or less for less?

[citius]

I'm curious as to the opinion of the MobileRead community... what's more popular?

1 eInk display (8"), iLiad's functionality for $699
1 eInk display (8"), iLiad's functionality, 2 year subscription for $499 + $20/month

2 eInk displays (8"), iLiad's functionality for $999
2 eInk displays (8"), iLiad's functionality, 2 year subscription for $799 + $20/month

The common idea for 'subscription' that I've seen in these forums is something like...NetFlix for ebooks.

People hated Sony's Connect, but...I'm curious as to what they really like - it's so confusing!

[NatCh]

I'm pretty leery of a subscription model for these things, so anything that arranges for me to pay $480 over 2 years is something I'd look at very closely before agreeing to.

[citius]

I personally find this DRM stuff to be sketchy-sketchy, but I remember reading *somewhere* on this site that someone was saying that paying $X/month for access to like...30 million titles or something - was much better than always going out and buying stuff. Besides, it certainly beat the Connect info...

[Robert Marquard]

Sorry, i think the iLiad has far too much functionality. It tries to be a PDA with a display not fit for the purpose. My idea would be a sponsored CyBook at about $100.

[nekokami]

All of these prices are too high for an ebook reader. For these prices, you'd need substantially more functionality than I think any of the present units offer.

$100 plus a subscription might work. If the hardware can't be done for that price... the ebook reader's time hasn't yet come for the mass market.

[RWood]

I agree with Robert, for a subscription model you need far less functionality than the iLiad offers and the price is too high on the front end. Like NatCh, anytime someone wants to put a monthly tap on my bank account I start to worry.

[citius]

I've been in touch with eInk manufacturers...sample displays are easily over $400 - forecasted, since they haven't come out yet - even in volume, that won't come down that much; If you want e-ink functionality without the pricetag, you can't do it.

Do tell - what do you guys mean by 'sponsored'?

[JSWolf]

If e-ink displays are $400, then how can Sony sell the reader at $300?

The poll needs to be edited to have an option that says, none of the above all options too expensive

[citius]

the samples are well over 400 for the 8" screens, the production volumes (if you buy something like 10,000) are probably around half that.

By the way - Sony's selling those readers at a mad discount to get people to join; admittedly, it's a pretty smart idea.

[citius]

How do you edit polls?

[nekokami]

I've heard the production costs for the e-ink screens are around $100 each. But I don't have a source to quote on that. (And that's probably for the current-generation Sony screens.)

[mogui]

I didn't vote. I don't care for the options. I go with Robert's idea:

Originally Posted by Robert Marquard

Sorry, i think the iLiad has far too much functionality. It tries to be a PDA with a display not fit for the purpose. My idea would be a sponsored CyBook at about $100.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If e-ink displays are $400, then how can Sony sell the reader at $300?

The poll needs to be edited to have an option that says, none of the above all options too expensive

The more units you build, the cheaper your parts cost. Yes, I vote for the $100 reader. Sponsorship is a good idea for some. I thought that was what Amazon was going to do with the phantom Kindle.

If you really like the sponsorship idea, visit Filament Books and see their reader. It is basically the ebookwise-1150 under a different name. For $199 you get the reader and two books a month for a year. If the value of the reader is $109.95 as stated here, your eBooks cost you $3.71 each.

If I were buying now and were budget-conscious, I would find that very attractive.

[Jack B Nimble]

Originally Posted by mogui

I didn't vote. I don't care for the options.

...

If you really like the sponsorship idea, visit Filament Books and see their reader. It is basically the ebookwise-1150 under a different name. For $199 you get the reader and two books a month for a year. If the value of the reader is $109.95 as stated here, your eBooks cost you $3.71 each.

If I were buying now and were budget-conscious, I would find that very attractive.

I didn't vote either, for the same reason.

As for Filament and other package deals, you have to be careful of the content provider. When I was looking for my unit, I thought the Filament deal sounded like a great deal. Browsing through their available titles was a real disappointment. I went through the entire Detective Fiction section without recognizing a single author. The Fantasy section was considerably larger, so I gave up after only a half-dozen pages, though I did see one title ("Shadow Puppets") by Orson Scott Card.

Everything is relative, of course. Compared to MobiPocket, the eBookwise selection is pretty limited. Compared to Filament, the eBookwise selection looks like Amazon.

[mogui]

I collect my own content, so the store contents do not move me one way or another. The eBw-1150 linked above is a good deal for $110 and you can add your own content to it. No, I don't own the eBw company

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by citius

I personally find this DRM stuff to be sketchy-sketchy, but I remember reading *somewhere* on this site that someone was saying that paying $X/month for access to like...30 million titles or something - was much better than always going out and buying stuff. Besides, it certainly beat the Connect info...

Do bear in mind, though, that many of us here don't have any particular interest in buying commercial eBooks. My reason for having an eBook Reader is primarily to read out-of-copyright PG (and other) books which I can't buy as paper books, topped up with a few SF/Fanatasy books from Baen. I have zero interest in the Connect store or any other commercial eBook store (except Baen).