Google Set To Tackle eBook Market 170
Mike writes "Google's latest decision to try its hand selling eBooks promises to make life in the eBook world more interesting, and will likely spur a standards war that in the end may prove beneficial to many consumers. Google's eBook store will pit it directly against Amazon and Amazon's Kindle — an enormously popular eBook reader. This will push many companies to create eBook readers to take advantage of Google's new store, and will flood the market with tough choices. Google does not have a dedicated eBook reader yet, but it seems a logical next step for the search giant."
Obvious next step... (Score:4, Insightful)
I seem to remember people saying the same thing about cell phones, but Google is not a hardware company. I'd look for an API and not much else.
Cost (Score:5, Insightful)
Lets hope they can bring the price down to 'every man'. 400 for a kindle is pretty steep for a lot people, even during the best of times.
Re:android/touch screen? (Score:2, Insightful)
Really? (Score:5, Insightful)
Amazon's Kindle an enormously popular eBook reader.
I'm not sure the description "enormously popular" is deserved. Just because it is out selling other eBook readers doesn't make it "enormously popular"; how many of these have actually sold?
It doesn't seem that the eBook market has really expanded to the point of anything yet being worthy of the "enormously popular" status, AFAIK.
Re:Cost (Score:4, Insightful)
Forget about proprietary eBook formats (Score:4, Insightful)
I want an eBook device that can read the eBooks I already bought and own.
They are in PDF and some on CHM format.
If I am going to spend $300 or more for an eBook device I might as well buy a Netbook that can use PDF and CHM formats for the same price.
Re:Why do we need stores? (Score:3, Insightful)
Attention. If I can look at and search for thousands of books in one place, I am more likely to notice your book if it is there.
One way to look at it is like this: how much are you currently making on the books that you are not selling that Amazon is not taking a share of?
Re:Why do we need stores? (Score:3, Insightful)
You need the publisher less than you need a retailer.
A publisher (mainly) provides publicity, editing, manufacturing, and, the only thing they are really good at, getting your dead tree into brick&mortars. You can contract editors, you can do publicity on the internet, and small run print options have almost reached parity with bigger presses. Most bookstores will even order PoD books now and some even take PoD returns on the theory that if you were interested enough to order it at a store, someone else might be interested enough to make a casual purchase.
Having your publisher be your store would limit you to people who mainly read books from your publisher, as opposed to readers of your genre. Doing it directly yourself would be even worse, unless you were already a name. I'd rather not fill in my CC info on a few hundred authors' websites, or even a dozen publishers'.
And you probably don't want to have to deal with CC payment processors, especially with the chargeback fees that retailers generally eat for you. I haven't read the Kindle contract closely, but I don't remember it being as binding as most publishers' contracts. Their PoD services seemed a little demanding on minimum quantities.
PS, put your books online, if you are at all popular, otherwise someone else will first. Probably a "fan".
Re:This is like... (Score:4, Insightful)
i can see it now (Score:4, Insightful)
along the right side of each page in the ebook.... yep "ads by google" :D
Re:Obvious next step... (Score:5, Insightful)
The whole "can't you get a netbook instead" thing has been beaten to death, twice, with a dead horse tossed on top the second time. I mean, seriously. People have suggested this, the iPhone, the Nintendo DS, etc. Yeah, yeah, they do oh-so-much more. Different products. If you can read for extended periods of time on an LCD, and have a place to recharge it conveniently, then get a netbook.
The rest of us will enjoy immitation printed paper, with weeks between charging.
Re:Obvious next step... (Score:5, Insightful)
This is really, really, huge. We've had a number of articles on slashdot that clearly point out the danger Amazon poses to the e-book market. They're following an iTune-like model, with similar DRM, similarly ham-strung hardware, and they're waging a war to control e-book distribution. Google has the muscle to turn the tide in this battle, and to open the e-book market to many players, not just Amazon and Sony.
Consider an Amazon Kindle vs an Eee PC. The Eee PC has a bigger screen, costs less, has real wifi, and is a freaking great e-book reader. The only problem? F**king Amazon and Sony have locked up rights to distribute many of the most popular e-books. Screw e-book readers, IMO. Netbooks running a real OS (Ubuntu in my case) is the way to go. E-book readers like the Kindle are just another trap for us to fall into, where we lose choice, and pay outrageous prices for massively limited hardware and software, just so we can read the book we actually want to buy.
Re:Why do we need stores? (Score:3, Insightful)
Attention. If I can look at and search for thousands of books in one place, I am more likely to notice your book if it is there.
The more you think about it, the less that actually makes sense. The more books that are there, the less likely you are to notice my specific book.
Having tried to find decent apps in Apple's App Store (especially free games), I know that eventually volume becomes more of a negative than a positive. I wind up searching the net for people's "top X list of free iphone games", etc. So in reality, what I'm looking for is a content portal with reviews and discussion groups done by area of interest that can then directly link to a publisher or author's store.
No Kindle outside the US (Score:5, Insightful)
The original article seem to focus entirely on a Amazon vs Google battle. But in that article is missing one point: Kindle is not available outside the US. That is: you need an USA registered Credit Card with a USA address to buy one. Yes there are work around - but why should I support a flawed business model.
So for me living outside the US I had to look else where for for eBooks. And if you do you will soon notice that there are better eBook reader then Kindle and that there are better eBook shops then Amazon. Amazon is largely capitalising there good name here. In fact currently it is more like Amazon vs the rest of the world.
For me there is no doubt who is going to win in the long run. While USA is a large marked but it does only represent 5% of human population. Well, unless Amazon changes there business model that is.
Re:Obvious next step... (Score:4, Insightful)
There's no reason you can't have e-paper on a netbook.
With existing tech, it would make it pretty useless for everything but, well, reading text. With refresh rates measured in seconds, you can forget about scrolling, for example; or animations.
Re:Obvious next step... (Score:4, Insightful)
And what about the battery life? The fact that the Netbook probably weighs twice as much? The free WWAN connection you get with the Kindle? Seamless integration with Amazon's eBook store? How about booting up the laptop (or even waking it from sleep), entering your password and opening the eBook every time you want to read a paragraph or two on the bus? As a matter of fact, don't you think most people would look at you pretty strangely if you pulled out a netbook on a bus? :p
Sure, you can use a netbook as an eBook reader (I do, at least for large PDFs and other crap my smartphone can't handle), but it's always a bit of a hack. If you're only planning on reading in places where you'd have your netbook out anyway, I guess it's not a problem - but for people who like to read in the back of a taxi or in the john or on the bus, pulling out a netbook every time is just plain annoying.