Comments on: State of the eReader

By: State of ePaper « Kindle Review – Kindle 2 Review, Books

State of ePaper « Kindle Review – Kindle 2 Review, Books — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:52:09 +0000

[...] a recent post that covers the State of the eReader – do take a [...]

By: switch11

switch11 — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 02:50:28 +0000

very good point. i left out a subscription model because i can’t really wrap my head around it. i’ve been trying to figure out how chegg.com is making textbook rentals work and perhaps after that will consider this.

its a good point – if someone can do this well, they’d become an instant top 3 player.

By: Nico Vreeland

Nico Vreeland — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 02:28:29 +0000

Thanks for checking out Chamber Four. This is a great, thorough post, and I agree with a lot of your assessments. One key feature (for me) that doesn’t get a lot of attention is the ability to borrow library ebooks. I hate DRM and I hate paying for media with DRM, so I prefer to borrow ebooks from the library while publishers sort out DRM.

So, combining that with profit, what would you think about a system for renting ebooks? I would be happy to pay $3 to rent an ebook for a few weeks, rather than $9 – $19 to buy it (especially DRMed). Just a thought.

By: switch11

switch11 — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 00:45:36 +0000

good point. will have to think about that. obviously a bundle with ebook included for cheap translates into an extra book.

By: st

st — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 00:21:21 +0000

$1 option to add ebooks to hardcovers and paperbacks.

Wouldn’t this pretty much be akin to selling the ebook version for $1? People would just turn around and sell the physical book if all they want is the ebook. Publishers wouldn’t go for that. They’re fed up enough as it is for there being such a big market for used copies of their books, often just $1-3, brought about largely by amazon, and amazon makes money on each transaction, new or used. Publishers won’t want to flood the used market with a ton of books that people don’t need, driving prices toward zero with great rapidity. They go to the expense of destroying large quanitities of books if they’ve printed too many, rather than let the supply get too big. Part of the reason publishers will be able to be convinced that ebooks can be good for them is that they can’t be resold after they’ve been read.