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will e-books ever take off?

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Originally posted by: Ctrackstar126
I have a sony ebook reader and i love it. I have a lot of trading books some tech books and a few novels i read on there and I find it worthy if you know where to find ebooks. I actually save money on it because of the amount of books i read and a lot of the books I read I cant get at a library.
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Anarchist's Cookbook? 😀
 
it would be good for students if readers were a bit bigger and had input ability...i mean instead of carrying a crapload of textbooks everything you needed would be on one ebook reader.
 
I think that e-books should be noticeably cheaper, but it doesn't seem that they are yet. The consumer is basically paying the printing costs and overhead costs for shipping, stocking and distributing the book. Currently all that extra money is just going into the pockets of the publishing companies.
 
>By connecting the Sony Reader to their home computers, customers will

What a joke, they are trying to sell a reader without built in cellular data access to buy the books? I laughed at the "capable of storing 160 tomes" part, since my Kindle basically has infinite books as long as I have cell reception.
 
Originally posted by: ppdes
>By connecting the Sony Reader to their home computers, customers will

What a joke, they are trying to sell a reader without built in cellular data access to buy the books? I laughed at the "capable of storing 160 tomes" part, since my Kindle basically has infinite books as long as I have cell reception.
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The cellular data capability is neat and all, but I'd rather have a reader that was cheaper and just sync to my PC via USB or Bluetooth.
 
The Kindles are great and actually doing very very well, Amazon has a real (but v1) product. I now buy books whenever I can via the kindle marketspace. I had the Sony but found it too awkward, the Kindles 'Wispernet' (Sprint EVDO) is great, you can sit somewhere and boom you have a new book to read 😉
 
Originally posted by: frostedflakes
Originally posted by: TheInternet1980
I think it will only catch on when they change the name to iBook.
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Fix'd
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I would be irritated if this becomes the scenario.

Just stick a lower case i on the front of your product, make the casing flat white and "stylish" and BINGO, profit. :roll:
 
Except I'm an idiot, I just remembered they already made an iBook (laptop, not reader).

Anyways, an Apple ebook reader probably won't happen. IIRC Steve Jobs has said that they have no interest in that market, because kids today don't read. It's all about audio books, podcasts, etc.
 
Originally posted by: frostedflakes
Originally posted by: ppdes
>By connecting the Sony Reader to their home computers, customers will

What a joke, they are trying to sell a reader without built in cellular data access to buy the books? I laughed at the "capable of storing 160 tomes" part, since my Kindle basically has infinite books as long as I have cell reception.
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The cellular data capability is neat and all, but I'd rather have a reader that was cheaper and just sync to my PC via USB or Bluetooth.
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agreed, give me a pdf that i can back up and reuse without 'authentication'.
 
Originally posted by: rezinn
I would rather read an ebook than a regular book. On a plane you needn't leave the light on and disturb your neighbors, you don't need to turn pages and hold books open or find a place to store 160 books.

The questions I have are how much do the ebooks cost (they'd have to be like 80% less for me to actually buy one of these), and how is the quality/readability of the screen.
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Not all e-book readers have backlighting.

Originally posted by: Inspector Jihad
it would be good for students if readers were a bit bigger and had input ability...i mean instead of carrying a crapload of textbooks everything you needed would be on one ebook reader.
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I like this idea, assuming we wouldn't have to pay as much for an e-textbook as for a hard copy, or could at least sell the license for it afterwards. That just goes back to the DRM mess though, I can see just see some geeks on campus selling bootleg e-textbook copies. :laugh:
 
I won't buy one, so no, it has no chance of succeeding.

Seriously though, I like the idea and had actually thought an e-book would be great to have about 20 or 30 years ago. They'll be more commonplace as the years go by. They do need to do something about costs and universal compatibility though or it will remain in a niche market.

Oh, and I still won't buy one unless they make them fairly impervious to destruction. I'm pretty hard on books.
 
Prices needs to come down. I'm willing to pay about $20 for an e-reader and $4 per book. Otherwise it's a no go.
 
If I buy a book, I'll be able to read it 30 years from now. If I buy a Kindle (or some other ebook reader), it'll most likely be sitting in a landfill in 30 years as a useless piece of junk.
 
My uncle has a Kindle. I played around with it and thought it was pretty cool.

He loves to read, but has to fly 2-3 days a week for meetings. He says it's the best dvice he's ever had because he never has to carry books around anymore.
 
The kindle is nice, but as long as they have all the DRM garbage, I won't be buying any of that. I'll wait for kindle v2 and DRM free products before jumping into that market.
 
I have been using eReader ever since it was Peanut Press. The mobile phone version allows you to buy and download books via your phone and I'm happy with the new version of the iPhone client.

I don't like Kindle/Sony Reader etc. as they are yet another device I have to carry. I'm carrying my phone anyways (like most people) and if ebooks will ever get critical traction, that will be the reason.

Michael
 
Personally I have no desire to read an e-book. I've tried to do it with PDF manuals, tutorials, etc for my job and I just hate it. When I want to read a book I like the tactile experience of turning pages, having the paper crinkle between my fingers, etc. That and the fact that the book itself doesn't need batteries 😉
 
i sure hope not unless LCD tech gets 100000000x better so i can stand reading something on a comp mon for more then 10 min
 
I wanted the Sony PRS-505 for my trans-pacific flight but decided not to get it. I still want one however but a few things have to happen:

1. Lower price. $250 for the 505 is still a little too high.
2. Higher resolution.
3. Faster refreshes for flipping between pages.
4. Cheaper books.
5. Integrated backlight.
 
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