When will a wireless e-book device come to Australia?

[AprilHare]

When will the Kindle, Sony Daily Edition or similar wireless e-book device officially come to Australia?

[Sweetpea]

probably by the time it connects to the States or UK physically...

I don't know how the BeBook 2 will be marketed, or the Txtr, as they will most likely be have just an ordinary sim slot and not be sim locked (aka open to all providers). Maybe they'll be officially be available to get in Australia.

[BearMountainBooks]

I hope soon, but yanno, the governments will get involved...and slow things down. I follow a couple of Aussie blogs and also...oh what is the name of that magazine---....---Inflight Space...no...Got it-- Andromedia Spaceways!

Speaking of Australia and reading, just wanted to mention that I downloaded the first Hal Spacejock book (Simon Haynes) from his website and read it. Good, spoofy space book. The first is free and the other ebooks are available. I have the second one, but haven't read it yet.

Here's a link to the freebie for anyone interested:
http://www.spacejock.com.au/Hal1Download.html


Maria
Catch an Honest Thief (sorry, kindle only!)
Sage (oodles of formats!)

[wallcraft]

Last I heard, the BeBook 2 will have WiFi. If you look on the E-book Reader Matrix, the Azbooka 518 and Pocketbook 302 are standard Hanvon and Netronix hardware with custom firmware and both will include WiFi. There has also been talk of a 6" Hanlin with WiFi.

The single-country devices with 3G tend not to have WiFi, and this seems to be a requirement (or preference) of the 3G providers. It also greatly simplifies customer support for the device vendor.

The reason I mention WiFi that it potentially allows worldwide access. This may be a disadvantage to some service providers, but it is a boon to readers. The iLiad demonstrated that WiFi alone was not enough, you also need a WiFi-enabled service. This could just be a web browser, although so far web browsers on EInk have not been all that sucessful.

[Hellmark]

Based on what I know of the infrastructure and government in Australia, it'll be a while. Things don't move fast there. Plus so many companies treat it as a backwater.

[robinoz]

There should have been an option that says "Who cares?"

[nomesque]

*ponder*

For a wireless device like this, what infrastructure would be required? 4G mobile tower? Radio? Satellite?

[pwarren]

Well, from conversations my boss had with Sony, trying to get his prs 505 fixed in Aus: Sony have no plans to introduce eBook readers to the Australian Market.

Far from an official position, coming from tech support, but there you go.

I duuno if we'll ever get it, data cost are stupendously huge for 3g services in Aus, and coverage of the 3G network is for ~80% of the population, which turns out to be pretty much capital cities, and large coastal towns.

We also have a backwards arse government trying to filter, block and regulate just about everything, unless it's approved by Mr Murdoch, or is it Mr Packer, together they own pretty much all the media in Aus!

[Hellmark]

Sony of Europe takes care of Australia, and from everything I've seen, they loathe the job. Lazy bastards.

[RobbieClarken]

A wireless ebook reader isn't particularly useful without a decent ebook store. As long as we have restrictions on parallel importations of books it is unlikely that Amazon or Sony etc will sell to Australians. I doubt there is a big enough demand for ebooks for Australian publishers to create their own ebook store. So if the government follows the Productivity Commission's recommendations and removes the protectionism on Australian publishing we might have a wireless ebook reader by 2012 but probably not earlier. Alas, the way things are going, I'm not optimistic...

I'm hoping people figure out how to hack the Sony Reader Daily Edition to use non-US SIM cards.

[Crowl]

There's no real reason it would take any longer than other non-american releases of the daily edition, but beyond the obvious issue of wireless access you do have to wonder how any of the daily editions sold outside the states or canada will end up working without a fully integrated sony bookstore.

Maybe thats the ideal way for amazon to rapidly overhaul the lead sony has if they ever decide to launch their reader outside north america.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by nomesque

*ponder*

For a wireless device like this, what infrastructure would be required? 4G mobile tower? Radio? Satellite?

If it's a GSM device, such as the Sony Daily Edition, it should require no more than a deal setting up with an Australian GSM telecoms operator.

[mjmcleod]

From the big boys? I'm not holding my breath. It's not that the technical infrastructure isn't there -- it is, all you really need is reasonable wireless data and depending on carrier that covers at least all the major cities and regional centres -- it's that we're a small market so there's limited incentive to make the effort to deal with the legal issues around territorial copyright.

(If Sony can't be bothered selling their current products here, what hope for a future one?)

It would be rather more likely that a local company does a partnership deal with Fairfax or News or both, brings in one of the upcoming GSM/3G-capable units from China, and takes it from there. I would not expect the negotiation with Fairfax or News to be easy or much fun.

And the customer will probably be paying for the wireless service. That can be had fairly cheaply in areas covered by Optus, otherwise companies like Exetel (who bill per kB at $15 per GB) wouldn't be making money, but that's a limited chunk of the country and it's still not the sort of flat-rate deal Amazon has in the US.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by mjmcleod

And the customer will probably be paying for the wireless service. That can be had fairly cheaply in areas covered by Optus, otherwise companies like Exetel (who bill per kB at $15 per GB) wouldn't be making money, but that's a limited chunk of the country and it's still not the sort of flat-rate deal Amazon has in the US.

If all the "deal" covers, though, is delivery of books (as will be the case with the Sony "Daily Edition", for example), there's no reason that couldn't work. The typical eBook is about 300kb; if the operator charged Sony (or whoever) $15/GB, that's less than half a cent to send the book - that's really not a terribly high overhead for the bookstore to "eat". And I'm sure that in reality they'd be able to get much cheaper rates than are charged to consumers.

[mjmcleod]

Originally Posted by HarryT

If all the "deal" covers, though, is delivery of books (as will be the case with the Sony "Daily Edition", for example), there's no reason that couldn't work. The typical eBook is about 300kb; if the operator charged Sony (or whoever) $15/GB, that's less than half a cent to send the book - that's really not a terribly high overhead for the bookstore to "eat". And I'm sure that in reality they'd be able to get much cheaper rates than are charged to consumers.

It all depends on carrier choice. I'm not aware of anyone other than Exetel offering such a deal on mobile data, though presumably other companies could negotiate similar terms with Optus (Exetel resell Optus service). Assuming that Exetel didn't get some really special deal that is no longer available.

However if you want maximum coverage you have to deal with Telstra, and they are quite expensive and renowned for their disinclination to negotiate with anyone smaller than themselves. The other carriers only cover the major cities, and even there the coverage can be a bit spotty.

But yes, given the size of the typical ebook, if the vendor chooses to not deal with Telstra then they may be able to eat the cost. Or they may choose to avoid the whole issue by selling the units without SIM or network lock and have the customer deal with it. Not a great out-of-box experience but probably a lot easier to get going.