E-Readers

[Questor]

I'll look into Bookshelf. Stanza was the first one I tried and it was so great I couldn't find anything to replace it. Getting books from Baen is easy enough; the Stanza desktop app opens the LIT files just fine (I used the LIT files from their CDs).

Like I said earlier, it's probably not the best, but once I had it, I've never disliked it enough to go looking for a replacement. I tend to be a "good enough" consumer, even with inexpensive stuff.

[Freefall]

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/ ... antage.ars

According to the link there, that was a poll conducted by only 2,800 participants. It's not a bad, but it's not huge, and who knows what kind of selection bias there was. If it was targeted at technophiles, I would expect there to be a disproportionate number of iPad owners.

Another thing that bugs me about it is how it seems to be treating the iPad as an e-reader in the same sense as the Nook and Kindle, when it is much more comparable to a laptop. And if the iPad is included, why not computers and smart phones, which can also function as e-readers? It also only seems to account for hardware sales, whereas the sale of digital books is a related, yet separate entity. If people buy iPads but get all of their e-books through the Kindle store, then it seems like that should still give points to amazon as far as actual digital reading goes, even if it's done on another platform.

Some googling of my own suggests that neither Amazon nor B&N have released hard sales figures for their devices, so market share is basically taken at their word, or an estimate. From what I could tell, at least as recently as August, Amazon was convinced it had 70-80% of the e-book market, which would conflict with the chart you linked to. I even found an article where Amazon indicated some suspicion over Apple's claims of 20% market share, basically saying they were being selective in their data. http://www.electronista.com/articles/10 ... wn.device/

On the B&N side, they seem to consistently claim that they have a higher share of the e-book market than they do of the physical book market, which seems to put it between 17 and 20% (and has got to be higher than 4% if they're right), and while there may be some personal bias involved, I simply find it very hard to believe that Sony actually has greater market share than B&N, even if they have had their readers out for longer.

To me, the claims of Apple taking a large chunk out of the e-reader market reminds me of claims that the iPhone has taken a huge chunk out of the handheld gaming market. While the iPhone can be used for gaming, it seems flawed to view it as an actual video game system competing directly with Nintendo and Sony. Likewise, directly comparing something like an iPad to dedicated e-readers also seems flawed. I'm sure there is some degree of overlap, but I really doubt it is even close to 1:1.

[Ypoknons]

Well, Amazon should have known that profits from hardware sales were going to be squeezed out eventually, since anyone can make an e-ink E-PUB reader with Adobe DRM compatible with the Sony and Kobo stores, and that ecosystem is really quite competitive, as well as the tablets and phones that can also read books. That's just something they're going to have to accept. I see the Kindle 3 as more of a defensive move to make sure they still have a viable and well price e-ink reading solution while they continue to get income from selling content. Kindle hardware marketshare isn't the problem going forwards, Kindle platform (as opposed to Apple and E-Pub at large) penetration on all devices is.

[Freefall]

I believe they did, which is why Amazon released free Kindle reader apps for so many different platforms. I believe their proposed view is actually that their primary goal is actually having the largest e-book library, and the the Kindle devices were actually more a means of allowing people to access and comfortably read all their digital content. In an interview with the Amazon CEO, I think he even said he felt it would be perfectly reasonable for them to make Kindle reader apps for other companies' e-readers, if they really wanted them.

[Lord Pounder]

Last Christmas I got a Sony PRS350. It always did the job for me, however the Sony catalog is very limited and expensive. I'm working CS for Amazon.co.uk at the moment and as part of the training we got to spend a few days playing with the Kindle 3. Suffice to say I've ended up giving the Sony to my girlfriend and she is buying me a Kindle 3 for my birthday.

The Kindle community actually make all the difference. I check the forums periodically and they offer great recommendation for books under £1.00 and the are great freebies from indie authors self publishing. I got the app for my phone and it's a great extra, it'll even sync so that when I read from my phone it'll update the Kindle and you can carry on from were you left off.

[Stark]

Hey guys, this is probably a dumb question... but can e-readers render HTML? I ask because I have some books in HTML format that rely on hyperlinks. I guess you'd have to use the dpad or whatever to follow links, but I'm curious if the software even allows you to put it in.

[Stark]

GHETTO - How does the 3G business work with travel? Does it work internationally? Since I imagine it does, are the different 'regional versions' just a way for them to track sales? You can't get white ones in Australia, you see....

[TimothyC]

Hey guys, this is probably a dumb question... but can e-readers render HTML? I ask because I have some books in HTML format that rely on hyperlinks. I guess you'd have to use the dpad or whatever to follow links, but I'm curious if the software even allows you to put it in.

The Kindle can while the Nook* can't. Wikipedia has a good chart of the formats that the different readers can display.

*which is weird as the Nook is running Android.

GHETTO - How does the 3G business work with travel? Does it work internationally? Since I imagine it does, are the different 'regional versions' just a way for them to track sales? You can't get white ones in Australia, you see....

The Kindle uses the GSM derived 3G so it works globally.

[Stark]

Does a K3 have any browser functionality?

Cool about the 3G, though. I'll have to get my Mexican to ship an American K3 out to me.

[Freefall]

The Nook can handle HTML just fine if you drop the index file into calibre and tell it to convert to EPUB. I have something like 300 books on my nook that were converted this way, and they work fine, hyperlinked footnotes and everything.

Of course, Stark is in Australia, so a nook wouldn't be a good option for him anyway.

[phongn]

Does a K3 have any browser functionality?

It has a WebKit-based browser.

[Ypoknons]

K3, Sony PRS-950 and Nook Classic (latest firmware update) all have browser functionality.

I use a Nook Color in Hong Kong, a bit of a toy, can't buy off the B&N store without a proxy but I buy books off Kobo, local content using Adobe DRM and DRM-free publications, from whatever stores will sell to me. The web-browser and strong pdf capability work well for me since I'm an urbanite and I stay indoors, away from strong sunlight and close to power sources. If you read outside and need endurance for burning through paperbacks, I'd say e-ink is necessary (no color for magazines/web browsing and a bit of pdf pain I suppose). Kindle does seem to have the best international content though, they might be bargaining harder for international rights than say, Kobo/Borders.

(edit) Stark - can't you just get Amazon to ship you the K3 direct?

[Stark]

They don't ship the white ones too Australia. Probably afraid they'd incite racial tensions!

[Freefall]

Why do you want a white one? I'm not sure, but I was under the impression that the K3 only comes in graphite, which would make the white ones K2. Not that that means it is a bad e-reader or anything, but some of the details discussed so far in this thread may not apply to the K2. The web browser, for instance, I would definitely double check on, because I think that was a fairly recent addition to Kindle.

I've got to say though, web browsing on an e-ink screen isn't the greatest experience. It works for checking email and stuff, or if you have no other options, but it certainly wouldn't be my fist choice. I've used my PSP more for web surfing than my Nook.

[Stark]

Because it's a gift and they want a white one?

And I only need the browser to work with links and everything will be fine.

[Freefall]

Ah, I see. It looks like I was wrong anyway though, the K3 wifi + 3G is available in either white or graphite. It's just the K3 wifi only that is only available in graphite.

[Stark]

Yeah. I should never have mentioned the white one and I wouldn't be in this situation.

[Lord Pounder]

According to the information I saw the white Kindle 3's are only available to the American market.

[Gurachn]

I've been reading electronically almost exclusively for 3 or 4 years now. It's gotten to the point where it almost feels odd to hold a paper book.
Rather than using one of the fancy ebook readers, I have been using my old Dell Axim x51v pda, with a program called uBook. It seems to handle almost any damn format I throw at it, though to be honest I have gotten into the habit of just converting everything to .rtf (I get my books from a variety of free sources on the internet, with a similar variety of formats).
The software provides enough options to format books to a consistent font size and a pleasing, minimal-strain background.

The Kindles and such look nice, but in addition to just being a pocketable book reader, my Axim is basically a full computer which makes it a much more multipurpose solution (everything from car navigation, to editing documents for work). I think I would find it frustrating to buy something with was only (or primarily) just a reader.

Besides, I think I may have a subliminal fear that the kindle may be a fire hazard.