Amazon’s Kindle and Google’s Book Thing: More eBook Readers
- September 6th, 2007
- 9 Comments
Please, companies, make a good, cheap eBook reader. I really don’t mind having it by my bedside if it cost maybe $100 and books cost about $25 or so, like books cost in “paper form” right now. However, by selling them for too much and then charging a premium for books AND assuming that we’re all trying to steal your eBooks and share them on the Interwebs, you’re doing an entire market a disservice. That said, here comes Kindle and Google, traipsing onto the scene like they’ve never done marketing analysis.
Amazon is launching a $400-$500 eBook reader called the Kindle and will allow you to download books straight from the site. It will also have Wi-Fi.
Google will also start charging for eBooks, but I doubt they’ll make a piece of hardware to read them. How about an eBook reader for the iPhone, guys? Possible? Overall, however, I think eBooks are the way things are headed. But $500 for a screen and some buttons is extremely cost-prohibitive, as evidenced by Sony’s reader.
“Books represent a pretty good value for consumers. They can display them and pass them to friends, and they understand the business model,” said Michael Gartenberg, research director at Jupiter Research, who is skeptical that a profitable e-book market will emerge anytime soon.
“We have had dedicated e-book devices on the market for more than a decade, and the payoff always seems to be just a few years away,” he said.
That disappointing history goes back to the late 1990s, when Silicon Valley start-ups created the RocketBook and SoftBook Reader, two bulky, battery-challenged devices that suffered from lackluster sales and a limited selection of material. The best selling e-books at the time, tellingly, were “Star Trek” novels.
So there you have it: a rant, some bad news ($500 kindle), some good news (Google eBook sales), and a suggestion that eBook readers are nerds. What more could you want on a Thursday in September?
Envisioning the Next Chapter for Electronic Books [NYTimes]
Amazon & Google To Enter eBook Business [TechCrunch]
Travis
1 year ago
Why do we need these things? I know I get so eye strained from looking at a computer screen all day that sometimes it is nice to relac with a paper book and be low tech for a few hours. Part of the fun of reading is having a real object in you hand that you can pass back and forth between friends and family - not a data packet you download to you monocolor craptastic screen and try to read. Paper books forever FTW!
Reply
K.L. Nappier (Who am I?)
1 year ago
John, have I got the e-reader for you. Disclaimer first: I’m a published author in both ebook and paperback. But I am NOT an e-reader sales person. Just a convert (who once thought she never would be) and a true believer.
The Ebookwise 1150 reading device (formerly the Gemstar 1150) is a terrific, basic e-reader, if you don’t mind living without the bells and whistles of Sony and its pricey ilk. Granted, it’s not as light, sleek and sexy at the Sony Reader, but for the avid bookworm it really fits the bill: especially at about $140.00. The screen is the size of a paperback, backlit, etc. It doesn’t do PDF, unfortunately, but it’ll read HTML and accepts personal content, plus a few other things.
The link is: http://www.ebookwise.com/
I’m a serious enthusiast for e-reader technology in general; so much so that, in early October, I’ll be presenting a talk on today’s e-reader technology options at the Necronomicon Convention in Tampa. It’s a travesty that the general public hardly even knows about the technology, let alone ever laid eyes on an e-reader. It’s a technology that’s poorly and woefully under-marketed. A terrible disservice to the reading public, in my opinion. But don’t get me started on that.
At any rate, hope the info about the Ebookwise 1150 is helpful to you and your readers.
Best Regards ~Kathy
David Mackey (Who am I?)
11 months ago
A friend of mine has the Sony ebook reader. I was amazed. I’m not a big fan of ebook readers - but the display is so soft on your eyes. By contrast, that photo looks pretty bad above. I think Sony has the display nailed down, now if only they would add the featureset.
K.L. Nappier (Who am I?)
11 months ago
But why must it be an either/or situation? Sure, I’m sold on my e-reader, but that doesn’t mean I’ve become a paperback hater. I have a collection of hard copies I won’t part with and it will keep building.
I’ve watched as this topic has become an Us Versus Them controversy all over the web. What is up with that? An e-reader is just one more option for the avid reader, nothing more, nothing less. Plenty of room in the world for paperback, ebook, audiobook -what have you- and it’ll be that way for many, many years to come.
K.L. Nappier (Who am I?)
11 months ago
The Sony Reader really is a sexy beast, I agree. But it’s a little too rich for my blood. Until the price begins to drop, I’m happy with my 1150.
Nick (Who am I?)
9 months ago
The Sony Reader and Amazon Kindle are relatively comparable on most levels. The Reader is cheaper and it doesn’t charge you for RSS feeds, but some people can just pay for stuff like that. The specs are laid out here:
http://comparati.com/1125-Amazon-Kindle-vs-Sony-Reader
But… The major differentiators are (and these are very big deals):
1) The Kindle has EV-DO internet.
2) The Kindle has 4x the titles to choose from.
You just can’t argue with those two facts. That’s why the Sony Reader was a dud and the Kindle will pave the way for success in this market.
brandy (Who am I?)
9 months ago
It’s $399 not $500.
mike (Who am I?)
8 months ago
What I have found that converting normal or easy text, word doc or pdf file to kindle is quite easy but if the pdf file consists of lot of images and tables the conversion process does not work properly and the whole layout of the ebook gets change.
Kindle is still in experimental stage in converting the complicated pdf file to kindle format, but very recently I came across one website which provide ebook conversion service along with kindle ebook conversion at very affordable rates, mostly for the PDF ebook which consists of tables and images which are quite tough to convert them to ebook format such as mobipocket, kindle or MS reader, but I have found that the above ebook conversion company converts these type of ebooks in more profession and efficient way at very reasonable rate.
eBooks are not meant to replace paper books. (Who am I?)
6 days ago
I’m not sure I’d pay anything for an ebook rader, can’t most of them be read right from your pc??? So why would you pay for a reader??