Amazon, Barnes And Noble Not Falling For The Same Old eBook Story Again

from the prove-people-want-it dept

Tue, Apr 4th 2006 6:33pm — Mike Masnick

It's been over a decade since we saw stories popping up everywhere about how ebooks were going to change the face of the publishing and bookselling industry -- and yet, it's still remained very much the niche market. There are some believers, but hellish copy protection, clunky readers and a generally bad user experience have still kept the market quite small. Every year or so, we see some report somewhere saying that eBooks will rise again, but there's never much to support that. The latest evidence is that both Barnes and Noble and Amazon have said enough to the hype and have decided not to carry the latest Sony Reader -- noting that past attempts to sell similar items have shown little consumer interest. It certainly could happen that finally a larger market is found, but with so many false starts and false promises, it appears that retailers in the space would like to see a little more proof of an actual market before they jump in again.

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10 Comments

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Tom, 4 Apr 2006 @ 7:00pm

e-b00k
The only good ebook is a free ebook, one that doesn't restrict you to any particulr platform.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Apr 2006 @ 7:32pm

That's gotta hurt
I can see why B&N doesn't want this product taking their shelf space in their bricks and mortor stores. Shelf space here is expensive.

But a web-only store isn't as concerned about shelf space. When Amazon doesn't want your product taking up space in their warehouse-- that has to hurt..

-cmh
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darkbhudda, 4 Apr 2006 @ 7:35pm

ebooks aren't dead, but DRM is a big turnoff
ebooks are good for certain applications. Roleplaying games come to mind. I have the choice of a bookshelf of books I rarely use or a laptop full of ebooks I rarely use. When I go to my friends, I can print off the 5 pages I need rather than lug around a bag full of books. When storage space is an issue, ebooks are a godsend.

DRM is a big turnoff. When Acrobat upgraded versions, it was months before they upgraded their DRM features. If people upgraded, they would have been unable to access ebooks they paid for. What the hell? What if someone needed to upgrade for business reasons?

DRM means we are at the mercy of software providers. At any time Acrobat can make my ebooks unreadable. What's to stop them not supporting previous versions? What's to stop companies deciding that even though you bought the ebook, you are now renting it and forcing you to pay again?
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discojohnson, 4 Apr 2006 @ 8:03pm

Re: ebooks aren't dead, but DRM is a big turnoff
What's to stop companies deciding that even though you bought the ebook, you are now renting it and forcing you to pay again?

welcome to how DRM works in the business world
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Dave, 4 Apr 2006 @ 10:19pm

B&N's joke attempt at ebooks
Another major reason that ebooks have been slow to gain popularity is that companies like Barnes and Noble who claim to have tried selling ebooks a few years back also tried selling them for as much or more than the hardcover editions. The simple fact is that these companies don't WANT ebooks to succeed, because then anyone can come along and setup a competing store and eat into their business. So they put together a lousy selection of books and charge ridiculously high prices for them, then step back after a few months of poor sales and say "See, we told you the public wasn't ready for electronic books, now everybody head on back into our store and we'll sell you a good old fashioned book printed on paper the way God intended them to be." And in the way of all good self-fulfilling prophecies, the uneducated masses take these statements as truth without actually ever trying to make the switch themselves. I'm not trying to argue that this is 100% of the reason that ebooks are still struggling to gain acceptance, but it is certainly a factor.

Things like DRM and the lack of truly good hardware are limiting factors as well, but neither one makes much difference if these companies continue trying to charge the same price for a downloaded file as they do for a first edition hardcover. If ebooks ever do truly take the world by storm, it will be thanks to sites like Mobipocket.com and ereader.com which are at least making some progress towards having a decent selection of titles at somewhat reasonable prices - not the big companies like B&N who are firmly entrenched in the brick and mortar business model, and hand-in-pocket with the publishing companies who make their way in the world by feeding off of the hard work of the authors.
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~g~, 5 Apr 2006 @ 3:58am

Why?
Did everyone forget what the promise of eBooks were in the first place? They are meant to replace paperbacks; the only thing lacking now is the affordable readers for them. Once there is an affordable reader (I have a vision of something sporting an 8x11 eInk screen here) become avaliable coupled with cheap flash memory, eBooks will take off. We are just not ready for them yet. And yes, B&N should be the ones trying to keep this from reaching the streets, it is not good for thier business models.
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Oliver Wendell Jones, 5 Apr 2006 @ 5:09am

Re: Why?
They are meant to replace paperbacks...

I have a vision of something sporting an 8x11 eInk screen here

It's exactly those kinds of mixed expectations that have kept the ebook market from reaching it's expected point. Everyone wants an ebook reader with great big black on white pages that look as good as paper, run forever on a single AAA battery, support every known format of ebook and cost around $19.99 including battery. You have to decide what is truly important - if you want it to replace a paperback book - it should be about the size of a paperback book! That means a page size of what, about 4.5" by 7" or so? There is no need to display two pages side by side - you only read one page at a time. I've lost track of how many hundreds of books I've read on various PDAs over the past 10 years. Starting with my original Palm Pilot 512 up through my Treo 600. I used MS Reader for a few years on a PocketPC as well. Black text on a paper-white e-ink screen is nice, but simple basic black on white text on a backlit screen is easier to read in many situations, especially on an airplane or in bed. I agree with previous posters that ebook pricing is totally out of whack with reality. It shouldn't cost 90%+ of the cost of a hardback book for a DRMed ebook. In my opinion it shouldn't cost more than 50% of the hardback price as a DRMed ebook has much less "value" in that it can't be resold or shared. If a book is available in paperback, then it definately shouldn't cost more than the paperback edition. I'm very comfortable reading on the small screen
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Gerk, 5 Apr 2006 @ 10:48am

too expensive
currently it costs MORE $$ for an ebook than it does for a printed version of the same material. When you take into account that to make that ebooks all someone had to do was push a button it's lame. Factor it against the cost of printing, distruting, and handling a paper book and it makes little to no sense.

You don't get DRM with printed book. I can lend it to friends if I want (which is completely legal) ... hell, I can even give it away if I choose. I don't have to jump through hoops to read it, or use any kind of special "software" to read it.

I can also scan and OCR it and store it on my palm pilot to read it if I choose to do so.

Until they can provide a COST EFFECTIVE and usable ebook format I won't be buying them from anyone.

One thing that gets me with all the DRM these days ... what is the point of having copyright laws if they are not enforced. Instead the choose to have "digital rights" attached to them. What happened to MY RIGHTS? Holy Big Brother batman.
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Clair Ching, 7 Apr 2006 @ 3:25am

Ebooks : Too costly, a bit of a hassle sometimes
Ebooks are expensive, no doubt about it. Unless you get the free ones from the internet.

I agree with the hassle of reading from the screen. The glare hurts my eyes and because I like reading, I prefer dead tree copies.
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Find Ebooks On Genealogy Hobbies Horoscopes, 31 Aug 2008 @ 8:46am

Ebooks To costly
I don't think ebooks are that costly, in fact most of them are cheaper than a regular paper back book. I enjoy reading ebooks on many subjects. But do also enjoy going to B&N to brows around.
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