Sony Reader and e-book biz spotlighted in mostly upbeat Washington Post column
The Sony Reader is “an improvement in every way” over the old Rocket eBook, writes Washington Post tech columnist Mike Musgrove. “It holds more books, has a longer battery life, a better book selection and a better price.” That’s even without his having snagged the now-$300 Reader as a $100 special at TigerDirect.
“After some extensive ocean-side research,” Musgrove says in today’s paper, “I can report that it does a fine job of withstanding sand, suntan lotion and light rain. The battery lasts longer than you’d think; I made it through a Stephen King thriller and the bestseller ‘Freakonomics’ with hardly a dent on the meter.”
Still limited number of titles
Even so, he correctly recognizes that we’re not quite in a digital nirvana. For example, the Sony Connect store now carries a mere 15,000 e-books compared to 200,000 titles available from a typical Barnes & Noble store.
Oh, and Musgrove apparently feels that prices of e-books could be lower, too. “I bought three books for my vacation reading and saved about $4 off the cost at http:/
“In other words, this device is more attractive for people looking to save shelf space rather than money.”
Sony not out to replace P
The Post piece mentions Sony eBook VP Ron Hawkins (who says he’s not out to replace P) and HarperCollins eBook Senior Director Theresa Horner (noting the 
“lack of respectability” e-books have suffered because of hyped sales predictions). The word from HC is that a more affordable e-reader than the Sony would help. I agree. Let’s hope those $100 prices, and still-lower ones, will be permanent in the next few years
Related: DearAuthor.com and MobileRead on e-book prices—that’s the content kind of “e-book.” DA industriously did comparisons from various sources and found that Books on Board tended to be lower on all books except for those from Simon & Schuster, which offers some nice discounts at its Web site.
August 7th, 2007 at 4:53 am
[...] like having a bookshop that only sold titles with blue covers! As TeleRead notes in the middle of Sony Reader and e-book biz spotlighted in mostly upbeat Washington Post column, we’re not quite in a digital nirvana. For example, the Sony Connect store now carries a mere [...]