Will e-books ever be a best-seller?

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e-Books are a Rip Off

As this article points out, and I think most consumers are aware, the readers are actually pretty nice, but the content is a rip off. Most e-books are priced the same or only fractionally lower than their printed formats. However, there is almost no overhead in digital printing. No paper, no binding, no distribution, etc. Until the price of the content comes down, I will stick with the printed copy.

I will say that I am happy to see someone take on Sony in this market. Sony, in nearly every product launch, tries to make things proprietary and have the entire industry conform to its way for the massive royalty payments they would receive if they succeeded in defining the market. However, when was the last time that worked? Remember the mini-disc? The memory stick? What a pain. I can?t remember the last time I bought a Sony product for this very reason. If they don?t make an open format that is easy to use, provides choice in the market place, and doesn?t lock consumers into paying higher prices, then don?t be surprised when consumers won?t buy it.

Frankly, I do not care what Sony does, but their actions have set the e-book market back and given skeptics and the media reason to believe that consumers are not interested in e-books. It is not that we aren?t interested in e-books, it is that we are not interested in Sony e-books.

Best of luck Amazon.

Posted by: rjpeterson   Posted on: 11/19/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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