The SAG (Sony, Amazon, Google) Wars

Last week Sony and Google announced their eBook agreement.  Under the agreement,  Google Book Search is making 500,000 public domain books available to Sony eReader owners.  All of these titles are in the public domain, meaning that the copyright on the book has expired.

I am a little puzzled as to what the big deal is.  After all, a 100,000 or so of these titles are already available through Project Gutenberg in text or html format that can be ready by pretty much anyone.

Perhaps the big deal is simply that Sony can now say that they have more eBook titles than Amazon.  After all, the Amazon Kindle now only has 250,000 titles available.  Lots of books are a good idea, but just exactly what are they?  For fun, I checked out some of the new titles:

• Explorations of the Highlands of the Brazil By Richard Francis Burton
• The English Dairy Farmer, 1500-1900 By George Edwin Fussell
• Quinquennial catalogue of the Dental School of Harvard University, 1869-1900 By Dental School, Harvard University
• Vivisection By United States, District of Columbia, Senate, Congress
• Alphabetical List of Battles, 1754-1900 By Newton Allen Strait

I don't know about you, but these will not be on my reading list anytime soon.  Admittedly there is some great, classic and readable literature in the public domain.  Some of my favorite titles as a little girl like Pollyanna or Little Women and still current favorite authors like Jane Austin, Jules Verne, Charles Dickens and Mark Twain. But good literature is only a small percentage of the 500,000 titles. Much of this work is heavy duty academic tomes and historical artifacts that are of limited interest to the general reading public.  Quantity is one thing, quality and desirability are another!

I keep wondering why Sony thinks this partnership with Google is a good idea for them?   Yes. they become bigger than Amazon but at what price? They are giving Google a huge boost and while it may  derail the Kindle in the short run, but they are probably hastening the demise of their reader in the long run.

Google is obviously setting the stage for online books.  Books that make proprietary readers unnecessary.  Their goal is to render all eBook readers as interesting artifacts. 

Maybe the answer is that Sony and Google are hoping to create an iTunes-like store with content for eBook readers.  The problem of course is that ultimately the iPhone or something like it will make the eBook reader an interesting artifact without any help from Google at all.

It is fascinating to watch the anti-evolutionary forces in the eBook market join forces to release books from Darwin's period and call it progress.

del.icio.us Tags: sony,google,amazon,sony eReader,Google Book Search

Good News for Sony eBook Readers . . .

As reported a couple of weeks ago the new generation of Sony eBook readers can read protected Adobe Digital Edition eBooks. 

That was great news for those thinking about buying a new eBook and wondering about the Sony. 

The Sony is readily available at Borders.  And at $299,  is about the cheapest eInk reader around. 

The major drawback had always been that if you owned a Sony eReader you had to buy all your books from the Sony Connect store.  So opening up the reader to a new format and other retail outlets was great news for new purchasers.  The really early adopters, those with older Sony readers, however, were still stuck with the Sony Connect store. 

Evidently Sony decided to do something about it has just announced that they are offering a $100 rebate to all first Generation purchasers of the Sony Reader who upgrade to the newest Sony Reader.

MobileRead has all of the details:

• Customers doing the upgrade will buy the 505 first and then send in their old 500 to get the credit. This means you may have to wait a bit to get the credit, but it also means that you won’t ever be without a Reader.
• There is a shipping cost to send back your old unit. But when buying the new unit, SonyStyle.com often offers free shipping.
• This is a Sony-only promotion, which means you can buy online at SonyStyle.com or in person at a SonyStyle store, not third party retailers.
• If you bring the old unit into the store and do the trade right then and there, the credit will be applied at purchase. If you do the trade later or purchase online, the credit comes back when Sony receives the 500.
• This is a US-only promotion. (Not good for UK 505 purchases.)
• Extended warranties do not appear to be transferrable to the new device
• The offer is good until January 31, 2009

If you are the owner of a first generation Sony and wondering if it is worth it -- go take a look at the eBooks About Everything store and see all the great titles you will suddenly be able to buy and read.

How's that for shameless self-promotions?!

del.icio.us Tags: ebook,e-book,sony reader,sony pr500,sony pr505,sony eBook reader upgrade

The Sony eReader, DRM and Literacy

eBooks have been a hot topic this week. Much news about the Sony change in strategy and what it means for the Kindle. I have had a hard time getting this piece together. . . for some reason (probably the heat), I am having a difficult time thinking, much less getting inspired or passionate. But here goes. . .

The Sony eBook Reader now reads Adobe Digital editions eBooks!

Last week Sony announced a new way of thinking. It came in the form of a software (firmware) release. In what appears to be a direct challenge to the Amazon Kindle, Sony opened up the Sony eBook Reader so that their owners can buy from other retail outlets.

Until now, the only way to read a copy protected (DRM) eBook on the Sony was to buy a book in the Sony store. Not true anymore. The latest update allows the Sony reader to handled protected Adobe files and any of the ePub formatted files.

For those who wonder, the ePub format is the new standard proposed by the International Digital Publishing Forum. The IDPF has spent a lot of time developing this "universal" standard as a way to eliminate the confusion caused by many proprietary formats.

I am thrilled that to be able to welcome Sony eBook owners to the eBooks About Everything store!

A few words about DRM

In the beginning, Sony and Amazon created their eBooks with proprietary reading software. If you owned a Sony you could only buy books from Sony. If you own a Kindle you can only buy a book from Amazon.

The lack of a standard eBook format has been even more hampered by the way publishers think about copy protection and their decision to use Digital Right Management.

Make no mistake, I am NOT a fan of DRM, but as a bookseller I am more or less forced into selling DRM protected books. The publishers insist that it will protect their intellectual property and prevent piracy. SO if I want to sell the latest titles from the big publishers like Random House, Simon & Schuster or Harper Collins I have no choice.

Most books in the eBooks About Everything store are offered in four formats -- adobe digital editions, palm eReader, MSReader and Mobipocket. Very cumbersome!

At least 95% of our customer support issues are related to DRM! That is a lot of time and energy.

As much as it might pain me, I agree with Bill Gates about piracy. It is inevitable and probably helps more than hurts:

"And as long as they're going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade. . . They'll get addicted and we will collect."

The music industry has finally given in; it will be interesting to see how long the publishing industry holds out.

The New York Times and Literacy in the Digital Age

The Sunday edition of the New York Times has an excellent piece on literacy in the Digital Age: Literacy Debate: R U Really Reading.

This is an excellent piece on the pros and cons of digital reading and the largely generational divide in attitudes about literacy and online reading. Highly recommended!

del.icio.us Tags: Sony,Kindle,ebook,e-book,ebook reader,piracy,DRM,digital reading,literacy

Buying eBooks in the The UnVending Machine

This photo of the new Sony Machine is in the New York Times.  If you live in Atlanta, Boston or Santa Rosa you can check it out personally.

BTW -- this is not a vending machine.  Oh no!  It is "robotic store."  Funny, it looks like a vending machine to me, but what do I know?

OK, back to this thing, whatever you call it, that sells Sony Products:  batteries, cameras, cassette taps, CDs, DVDs, memory sticks, and MP3 players.  It seems obvious that eBooks will be offered as well.

Get that credit/debit card ready.  Pick the product, swipe the card and wait for the robotic arm to put it in the tray for you.

You can relax about using that card because "remote sensors will confirm that the product has been retrieved by the kiosk's robotic arm and removed from the tray before the credit card is charged."

The only fly in the ointment is returns and repairs. . .you have to box and ship it to a 3rd party (Zoom).  Will be very curious to see how that works.

I remember Kodak taking about something like this 15 years ago, and here it is.  Not by Kodak (remember them) but by Sony. 

Gadget junkie that I am, I can hardly wait to see and use one. 

Technorati Tags: ebook,e-books,Sony eBook reader,sony