Later this month, Sony will start selling a $199 ebook reader through Walmart and other retailers ($100 less than the Kindle). They're also dropping the price of new releases to $9.99, which is what Amazon sells ebook licenses for. [Consumer Reports]
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Not to quibble, but the kindle device is DRM free. It is capable of reading DRm, but it also reads DRM free files just fine.
The kindle STORE is DRMed, but it's a DRM wrapper around the standardized mobipocket format. Kindle will read undrmed Mobi files just fine.
I agree that the DRM is abhorrent, and a HUGE PITA. However, it's not as likely to be Amazon that is pushing the DRM. For them, it's the same problem as apple - DRM always tends to be a losing game. As soon as the hackers break your DRM you have to update your hardware & software. Apple, as I recall, was contractually obligated on iTunes to respond within a certain period of time to DRM cracks.
But on the same token, Amazon and Sony are most likely required to impart DRM by the publishers to get rights. Sony has their foot pretty firmly in the DRM game with things like Bluray. If anyone is likely to shake off DRM it would be Amazon.
However, we need to be putting pressure on the companies that actually own the rights. Not just to allow DRM-free versions of their content to be sold, but to demand it. The hardware / ebook vendors aren't likely to have a whole lot of say in the matter, and I don't think any of the eBook vendors have enough market cap yet to pull what Apple did and demand a shift off DRM completely.
Won't make any difference...I still won't buy it. I just KNOW I'd drop it in the bathtub or lose the damn thing.
their state of the art ebook reader will cost less than the hardware in their 5 year old PSP system.
Sony doesn't even try to cover up how badly they rob their gaming fans.
what they don't tell you is that this "ebook reader" will also play video games, UMD movies, accept memory sticks & be dubbed a "PSP".
@mac-phisto: Actually the Sony eReaders are less of a hassle when it comes to formats and DRM then Kindle. Color me surprised. (I certainly was.) I purchased the Sony 505 a few weeks ago during a great Border sale. I got it for $200 + tax!
@mac-phisto: I wish. Last I checked, though the PSP can do audio and video RSS, it can't even do text RSS, much less freaking eBooks. (Yes, it has an Internet browser, but I'm referring to the RSS Feed icon in the XMB.)
@OminousG: When you look at the PSPgo and compare its features to its competition (and even the current PSP model on market), I think $249 is a fair price. The PlayStation Portable line may be five years old, but the PSPgo will be an improvement on the system.
I paid $599 for a launch PS3, and I still feel like that price is justified given what hardware it contains.
@mac-phisto: Well, I'd never by either of 'em. I'm a dead tree, line the bookshelves (or zip to the library for throw-asides) sorta guy.
But if I were, and if Sony had a DRM-free one, I'd hands-down get one over the laughably draconian Kindle. And that's not even getting into Amazon's business model, which simply replaces one exploiting boss for another over the ink-stained wretches.
@OminousG: Yup, a totally fair comparison since the components that go into both are completely identical.
@Chris J. Stone:
If by improvement, you mean charging more for less hardware. Sure! If by improvement you mean moving people over to DRM laced downloadable games. Sure!
I myself own an 80Gb PS3, bought on Walmarts 15 free bluray movies Black Friday. How awesome this system is has nothing to do with the PSPGo. The new slim will be looking at a $299-$350 price tag. Considering that the PS3 now costs 70% less to manufacture then it did at launch, Sony is still milking their supports.
The simple fact is that Sony lives in its own little fantasy world of pricing. What was their loss last quarter. Admiting the PSPGo was priced with a "premium" because its a new hash on old hardware.
If Sony's game division was aggressive as their bookworm division, Microsoft might had an actual problem for shipping a console with a 60%+ failure rate.
How is this a good idea?
Real books are much cheaper and you don't need any special reader to access them, plus they have these nifty places you can go and borrow books for free!
@OminousG: I brought up the PS3 because it involves a controversial price scheme by Sony Computer Entertainment (which by the way, is less connected to other divisions of Sony Corp. than you may think).
The most notable differences between the main PSP line and the PSPgo are, yes, the lack of a UMD drive and a slightly smaller screen size, but there will also be Bluetooth and 16 GB internal flash memory (as opposed to zero). With digital distribution becoming more and more prevalent lately, this system will be an improvement over the current line if that's the route you wish to take. Is $249 too much of a premium? Possibly, but I think it does make sense to price it above the current line.
The most important thing to remember about the PSPgo, though, is that it's not replacing the $169 standard PSP. So it's unfair to say that the 5-year-old PSP is more expensive, because it's not, it's just that a new model of it will be. It's not really much different than having a $399 and a $499 PS3.
@I Love New Jersey: ONCE AGAIN, this argument is about portability. If you travel often and are a voracious reader, how many books do you really want to carry with you? If you are on the train in the morning and want to read the paper and switch over to a novel, carrying an ebook reader beats carrying the paper and the book. If you are on a train and your kids want to re-read the latest Harry Potter, which (in paperback forms) tops out at 784 pages, isn't it much easier not to whip out a tome?
@Trai_Dep: it's just funny b/c you're talking about the company that pretty much pioneered DRM. they're like the darth sidious of content management.
Who the hell buys their children a razer thin $200+ ebook reader in place of a replaceable $10 paperback?
@OminousG: Because it's impossible for parents to buy it for themselves and lend it to their children?"
I wouldn't take one even if Sony offered it for free. That's how much I think of Sony and their neverending quest to make life good for the company and miserable for consumers.
*Throws a virtual shoe at the president of Sony*
The Kindle has won me over completely. I had the Sony Reader but became annoyed once an older model wouldn't work with Vista no matter what I tried so I am not willing to risk dealing with that mess with a new model. If I need a book to be compatible and DRM free for years down the road, I just get a physical copy but for the most part I only read a book once.
As far as reading books on the Kindle it is pretty awesome with the battery life. Or, just get an iPod Touch, put it in a waterproof Otterbox case and the free Kindle App and then you can read it in the tub!
@pecan 3.14159265: "isn't it much easier not to whip out a tome ?"
I agree. You should keep your tome where it belongs and whip it out only when with a consenting adult.
@Chris J. Stone: Add to that, companies that don't price according to demand, not cost, are doomed. Simply doomed.
Chaeper than free? Google books (which the Sony reader, unlike the Kindle, makes pretty easy to download) has about a half-million public domain books free for the downloading. True, most of it is stuff you don't want, but give it time, thousands are being added all the time.
What Sony should do is go the DRM-free route, however best they can. It'd be a huge competitive advantage against Kindle.