I work for a company that sells the Sony e-readers. One of our sales pitches is that we're supposed to say,"Purchasing ebooks will always be cheaper than purchasing a book off the shelves." (We work in a Borders so it's kind of ironic in a way to talk poorly about the books around you and their prices. Time and time again I say this to people because it's what I'm told. In the end I don't know if there's any truth to it. Sony's books are just as expensive as a lot of Amazon's. I personally could never see myself paying more than 30 for an ebook that I could find on the shelves for 10 bucks. Although, I have purchased a textbook for a college course that was an ebook only available for 5 months the course was in session for $50...but the real book would be $90 so I thought it was a deal.

There are only two ways I would buy an eBook, ever! 1) If it cost $1-$2 and I really, really, wanted to read it now. 2) If it were a required text and I could get it for less than half the price of the lowest quality used textbook I would find acceptible for use.

There is no way I would pay anything even remotely close to the price of a print book for an ebook. The Kindle, or whatever, is a reasonably cool concept, but I don't need to haul my library around.

When I go on a trip, I don't need more than two books. I'd rather just buy the books and be able to lend, trade, sell, or even keep the book than have a digital version tied to a device.

Now, if I could get a digital copy for next to nothing, or free, like when I buy a Blu-Ray disc, I'd be greatly tempted to start doing so. As it stands now, I'll just keep buying the old-fashioned paper books.

Cheaper ebooks have always just been a gimmick. Saving you $1 per book is not really going to make you back $300+ you spent on an ebook device.

An ebook reader is only good for 3 things: 1) portability, 2) free books (pirated, library, or classics downloaded for free) 3) when you move, you don't have to pack up 6445345432 boxes of books with you.

As a avid book reader, just 1 and 3 alone is good enough for me. Have you ever been on a plane ride and had to lug 3-4 books with you? I have and it sucks. :(

Amazing, charging more for something that costs only the transimition of electrons over a wire, plus royaltys to the author. No storage fees, no printers or binding fees, no transportation or paper costs, just pure filthy greed.

If a book on a shelf will cost 10$ with all the above costs there is no reason why an ebook shouldnt cost half... oh right, pure filthy greed, forgot that part.

I have the same opinion on this as I do for Downlodable Content on Xbox Live and other DRM-monstrosities: since I can't back it up, sell it, it may "expire" someday, the cost to the distributor/vendor is tiny compared to the physical copy, then it should be dirt cheap. With DRM-enabled digital copies I am only willing to spend the amount of money that I would be willing to spend twice, because I probably WILL have to buy it twice.

A regular book never needs to be recharged, and probably weighs about the same as an e-reader.

I can see an e-book being handy for extensive reference materials, but until e-books are as inexpensive as the storage and shipping costs are to the seller, I don't see the point.

When I'm done with a paper-book, I can give it away, sell it, or even use it to heat my house by burning it (I'm a republican). Can't do that with an e-book.

@Megladon: Maybe its greed, but on the other hand I'm sure Amazon sunk a lot of money into developing the Kindle, and is not making back much profit on the device. So like game console developers, they sell the console at or near cost and make their money with overpriced games... still, the Kindle is pretty expensive already...

@ChChChacos: I love love love my Sony eReader, but the day I spend more on a digital book than the paperback is the day I stop plugging it in to recharge it. Mostly I get books for the average price of a paperback, around $7. My saving grace is the fact that I don't have any pressing urge to buy books when they're new releases, I have such a huge pile to be read that I can easily wait until the price drops.

"Can you see yourself paying $30 for an eBook anytime soon?"

No.

I want a physical book. An e-book has LESS value than a tangible book, not more, and I'm not going to pay more for less. Especially not if it's crippleware.

I find this quite greedy. As mentioned in various other posts, the costs to produce an e-book for the consumer have GOT to be PALTRY compared to the costs of creating the physical book itself. The fact that some e-books are more expensive is preposterous... As well as the comparable pricing to real books.

Amazon sells the Kindle for 300+, and it's main selling point is the portability of more then one book... Saves space... Convenience... and at one time or another pricing of e-books compared to paperbacks... So Amazon wants you to pay a premium for a device that makes readers lives easer... but then they want to charge nearly the same price for e-books? It doesn't make sense at all. I can see if the Kindle was 100 bucks and they charged that kind of $ for e-books... But one could assume that the advantages of paying 300+ for this thing is the long term savings one could realize by buying e-books instead. Witth these prices, those long term savings go bye bye... You'd be better off saving your 300+ ... buy an X-box... and continue buying paperbacks... at one point or another you can pass em down to a child, relative, friend, or even someone who doesn't have the means... With an e-book you could do none of the above...

@steve: I would have to agree with this logic.

@Eyebrows McGee: Agreed one million percent. I always prefer a physical book. My eyes get strained when I look at a screen too long. Also with a book I don't have to worry about a battery running out.

@dragonfire81: I think you should go back and look at ebook readers with e-ink technology.

It's not a "screen," perse, it's exactly the same as looking at a book.

And, since the battery only uses a small charge when the pages are turned, it battery works for an incredible amount of time. You never have to worry about leaving it on or anything, since that doesn't use any power.

I have a Palm TX and I've been reading free books for ten years (since I got my first Handspring, way back when). I am an enormously fast reader, and I positively could not afford to buy books at the rate I read them if I read a new book each time. I don't have a library terribly convenient to me and the one that is nearest doesn't have an especially good selection. They always seem to be out of the one I pick from the catalog.

Project Gutenberg... thanks to them and Blackmask and other free PDA bookists, I can whip the gadget out of my pocket whenever I have thirty seconds to spare. I'm currently halfway through the full Thousand and One Nights, which coincided, interestingly, with a business trip to the Middle East. Fun stuff.

I had to send my PDA in for service day before yesterday (the TX battery is not user-replaceable, which is a travesty) and I started having withdrawal symptoms late yesterday evening, y'all. :(

I'm sorry, but I just don't see the point of a proprietary format like the Kindle when there are a million books you can read on your netbook, smartphone, or even that old PDA lying around.
I don't really even get why buying certain kinds of books (novels, non-fiction) is even a big deal anymore due to Audible.
I get that there are books that will not translate to either ereading or audio format; books that have a lot of art or a collectible nature; but why does ANYBODY buy a hardcover novel anymore?

$30 for a Word document? I don't think so.

Considering that my rights to the content are considerably restricted than books - no ability to re-sell, return, transfer etc, there's no way I would pay MORE for less.

For many books, I only plan on reading then once or twice. They should have some kind of rental system.

Also, there's no way I would buy a device before I'm sure that the content isn't going to be subject to some kind of monopoly pricing. Low ebook prices on Amazon might seem great now, but they have no incentive to keep the prices low - especially if people feel they need to keep buying them to justify their Kindle purchases. Maybe the Google book program will help lower prices.

@Kenneth Mackay: I totally agree. I buy books all the time but when I'm done they only sit on my shelf until one of my brothers comes to visit. They scavenge whatever I have that's new and drop off whatever they've finished reading. Until I can do that with an e-book I won't even be mildly tempted.

@dvdchris: Why buy a hardcover novel? Because it's a dollar at the thrift store and I enjoy having a collection of books by of my favourite writers. For me, it's a pleasure to have an author get excited when I bring out an early printing of one of their first books at a signing, and if that edition cost me less than a cup of coffeehouse coffee it's even better to me.

Yeah, we got mom a Kindle when she started Chemo...kindle book prices have been creeping up and up and up to the point where it's just not worth buying them. Baen books has a HUGE library of free ebooks along with instructions teaching you how to get them on your kindle and then of course and there are other websites that have books.

@dianabanana: Whereas I carry 10 (usually paperbacks and galleys, admittedly) and would rather do that than carry yet another electronic item that'd cost me hundreds of dollars to replace, with the additional thrill that I'm dependent on the manufacturer to replace the contents. To me replaceability factor has direct impact on portability.

one trick i learned to bypass the drm on my sony reader is to drop the file right into the reader itself rather than through the software (which is pretty horrible anyway).

@Jage: It can't be "exactly the same as looking at a book" until you can flip quickly back to that other thing you read fifty pages ago, and keep your finger in the index or the glossary or the end-of-chapter footnotes as you read, and highlight passages, and write in the margins, and make copies of extracts a page or three long for fair-use handouts. So-called "bookmarks" really don't do the same thing.

@dianabanana: That's why for plane rides I choose cheap bestsellers from the used bookstore and slap BookCrossing labels on them - I get to read a new book, only spend a couple books, and when I am done with them I set them free in the nearest airport lounge for some other bored traveler to schlep with them for a leg or two.

@Eyebrows McGee: No matter how good a given e-book reader mimics a book, you still can't take it in the bath. Me, I want books.

Buy a real book used it only costs a buck or two.

It wouldn't be so bad if the author actually got more of a cut, but it's the greedy publishers that get all the money, and get to cut costs at the same time (no paper, no ink). Greed on the part of the publishers, pure and simple, is what is driving the price of ebooks. They're going to start going the way of the RIAA if this keeps up.

I am never without a book; therefore when forced to wait in a line, stuck in my car, etc. time is never wasted and I am never bored because I can read. (This reminds me of the scene from "Gilmore Girls" where Rory brings a book to the prom.)

So the Kindle technology is quite attractive. However the prospect of Amazon keeping book prices temporarily low only to jack them up later is extremely distasteful.

This combined with the other factors mentioned by other commenters will cause me to pass.

Fortunately I have a big purse.

When are people going to realize that the Kindle is just a big scam. Support your local used book shop!

This is why I will never buy a kindle. I'll use my Iphone for reading...and "borrow" any book that is unreasonably priced.

I have a question for the tech saavy on Consumerist:

Couldn't Amazon sell the e-books with a limited number of transfers enabled (like two or three.) ITunes has a sort-of similar system where you can access the songs you have purchased on 5 computers.

At least the obstacle for the people who like to share books with family or friends would be eliminated. My sister and I always coordinate the new books we buy and trade after reading (that way we can buy twice as many!)

On the other hand, if they are selling out of Kindles with the system they have in place now, I guess there is not much incentive for Amazon to do this.

The only benefit I can see to a device like the Kindle is if it can be used as an INEXPENSIVE replacement for college texts.

I remember having to carry around what felt like literal tons of hardcover books from one end of the campus to another...and paying $50 or more for each one. And this was over 20 years ago. If college texts could be made available as, say, $10 Kindle versions (perhaps they could even be tagged to be time-limited use files which would expire at the end of the term), then I could see it being beneficial.

But otherwise, tossing a book in my bag on the way to work really isn't that big a deal.

The actual cost of printing a book is as little as 50 cents. Maybe less for pulp paperbacks. You are paying for the author's fee, marketing expenses, distribution channel markups, and administrative costs. So if you think a paperback can sell for $15.95 and the same ebook should sell for $1.00, you know NOTHING about publishing economics.

@Jage: It's exactly the same as looking at a book ... except that I can't underline and make margin notes. And I have to worry about it expiring. I will admit there are some advantages to e-readers, portability being the main one, but so far the negatives still outweigh the positives for me.

@Jage: It's not exactly the same as looking at a page in a book. The "page" is weirdly gray -- not enough contrast. No thanks, it's not ready yet.

@steve:

Very true. Amazon is a content provider. They are offering the Kindle to sell books. This contrasts with the Apple/iPod/iTunes model which is offering content on iTunes to sell hardware (iPod & Macs).

I think if another competitor (e.g., Google) comes in to become a major player, that should help keep a lid on ebook prices.

@magic8ball: Yeah, I'm not anti-e-reader or anti-e-book, but I'm not going to pay MORE for e-books, that's for darn sure. :)

I want to save $$$ on colorectal cancer!

Can anybody imagine books being pirated like music. It will be cool to read.
Like when i am 80 and nobody cares anyway.

@BLANDspace: Can anyone imagine book viruses? Spam in books? Having books keep track of what words you linger on, or what passages you re-read?

@ChChChacos: but at the end of the course, you can usually re-sell that hard copy for at least $50, maybe even $75

@Eyebrows McGee: Actually, e-books are more valuable than print versions. It's been proven many times over that people will pay $27, $37, $47 and up for the convenience and instant availability of an e-book. Print versions may be more valuable to you, personally, but in the industry, the instant availability of e-books is the reason they are pricier than print versions.

@chatterboxwriting: The industry value of something is not really important to me as a consumer. The only thing that is important to me is how much value I am deriving from a product. I have yet to be convinced that an eBook will ever give me the same value is a paper book and I don't think I'm going to be.

When I can safely read a Kindle in the bathtub, lend my friends my eBook, resell my eBook to a used book store, and not have to worry about electronic malfunctioning or accidents turning my $300 dollar investment into trash, then maybe an eBook reader will seem like a good value to me.

@JulesNoctambule:

I think he was probably referring to hardcovers off the shelf, which are always more expensive than the paperback copy, and often sitting right next to one.

Hardcovers do make better gifts though.

@steve: Slashdot pointed to a story a few days ago about how the Kindle 2 screen took 12 years and $150 million to develop. On the other hand, they pointed to another piece that said the New York Times would save $300 million annually by buying every subscriber a Kindle and shutting down their presses.

@Jage: [thetravelinsider.info] asserts that books are printed at 2000 dpi, while ebooks are 167 dpi. (Specs I've seen for the Kindle are the same.) Those are linear dimensions, so the resolution per unit area of a book is 143 times higher.

Looking at a surface with a print resolution that's 0.6% that of a book is most certainly not "exactly the same as looking at a book."

@dvdchris: Because some people process visual information better than they process audio information. Because with a book it's trivial to skim back through earlier parts to check some detail of what came before. Because many people read faster than speech. Also a print book to me is far more convenient than an audiobook. I can read a page while waiting for the water to get warm in the shower--I can't imagine bothering to put earbuds in to listen for 45 seconds.

I just finished the novel Anathem in hardback. The audio book is a stunning 32.5 hours long *and* cost more than double. Yikes!