I played with one of these at a Sony store and I have to say I was impressed by the look of the text on the screen. It looked 'soothing' to my eyes, if that makes sense.
I think you made an error in your article, however: "you can, for instance, download John Sandford's Dark of the Moon or Alan Greenspan's memoir at a modest discount ($21.56 and $28, respectively, versus $17.99 and $20.99 at Amazon for the paper versions)."
Did you mean to have those prices in reverse? (That the ebooks are slightly cheaper than the physical books?)
Nice article, Frank. People at work (well, some of them) are very keen on e-readers. I can't imagine using one, but in view of your article, I'm quite tempted to give one a try. Trouble is, I look at a screen all day and in the evening too, so I'm always pleased to read ink on paper for that reason. I too had noticed how strangely expensive downloadable books are on Amazon -- I can't imagine why unless it is to do with how copyable and transferable they are (you can just email them round to everyone as attachments, I guess?). But I am sure you are right to say that the price needs to be much less than a "proper" book to get people started and to get the technology into general use.
I played with one of these at a Sony store and I have to say I was impressed by the look of the text on the screen. It looked 'soothing' to my eyes, if that makes sense.
ReplyDeleteI think you made an error in your article, however: "you can, for instance, download John Sandford's Dark of the Moon or Alan Greenspan's memoir at a modest discount ($21.56 and $28, respectively, versus $17.99 and $20.99 at Amazon for the paper versions)."
Did you mean to have those prices in reverse? (That the ebooks are slightly cheaper than the physical books?)
No, the downloaded books were listed at a higher price than the real books on Amazon.
ReplyDeleteWow--that's astounding. Charge more for a less tangible, lower overhead-cost to produce product. *shrug*
ReplyDeleteNice article, Frank. People at work (well, some of them) are very keen on e-readers. I can't imagine using one, but in view of your article, I'm quite tempted to give one a try. Trouble is, I look at a screen all day and in the evening too, so I'm always pleased to read ink on paper for that reason. I too had noticed how strangely expensive downloadable books are on Amazon -- I can't imagine why unless it is to do with how copyable and transferable they are (you can just email them round to everyone as attachments, I guess?). But I am sure you are right to say that the price needs to be much less than a "proper" book to get people started and to get the technology into general use.
ReplyDelete