Sony eBooks Finally Make the Platform Party

There is a clear move away from the single platform ereader offer, to one that is capable of rendering ebooks on all platforms. This doesn’t kill off the dedicated ereader devices and in a weird way, if anything, makes them more relevant. The question you must now ask is why would I buy a ebooks that only play on one device?

Amazon long understood this and along with others such as Google, Kobo and Barnes and Noble now have a platform offer. However many who entered the market from the hardware perspective now find themselves with a delimia – are they hardware manufactures or booksellers or platform service providers? This starts to separate the serious contenders from the also rans. The devices, from the service.

The only viable glue which offers the manufacturers some opportunity to extend their services is Adobe’s DRM ACS4. ACS4 is very prevalent in the eInk world, was born in the PC world of Adobe’s Digital Editions and now, thanks to developers such as Bluefire and TxTr, is becoming available in the mobile world. The question is what or who is driving the extension of the platform and who owns the service as it moves multi platform?

Today we read that Sony, who along with Overdrive, were one of the primary instigators of ACS4, have finally got their offer onto a mobile. The offer includes ACS4 but today is restricted to Android 2.2. We find ourselves asking yet again where Sony are going? Like those dull people you hate to strike up a dialogue with at a party, try hard to project themselves as interesting and someone to be with they, but continue to be dull and follow not lead. Unfortunately, one fears that like their other past products, such as Betamax, they have lost the plot, or like Walkman, are now past their sell by date.

The Digital Reader reports that they have apparently made a mistake in saying their app is available on the iPhone and IPad, which it should be if they are using Bluefire to develop it. Alas, it apparently isn’t . The question of which Andriod platform supports the app is also a mute point, given that a significant number of smartphones have yet to reach 2.2 and are languishing on 2.0 and 2.1.

Mobiputing have a review of the new apps performance and look and feel and we were somewhat taken aback to learn that it takes up 8MB of storage after moving it to the SD card, which anyone with an Android phone will realise, can be a significant issue.

The challenge for Sony is not extending the service for existing users of the Sony Reader Store to allow them to synchronize their bookmarks, highlights, and reading between mobiles and Sony readers, but getting new users to use their platform and buy ebooks from them and also buy their ereaders. However, there appears to be little compelling reason, or differentiator for people to buy ebooks from Sony’s relatively small selection of titles (we dismiss the Public domain fillers that they even charge for) and their devices are just the same old eink ‘lookie likies’.

We would ask Sony where they see their ebook offer going and what is compelling about their offer today and tomorrow?

The Man from Sony Say…

Sony has a history of getting things both right and wrong. They got the walkman right, they got the betamax technology right, but then they positioned it woefully wrong and it was beaten by inferior technology - VHS. Today they are making a big play to be ‘the player’ in the ebook space. They claim to show the greatest emapthy with the market ,but to-date have got much more wrong than right.

However, when you are Sony you probably believe you can walk on water.

Steve Haber, president of Sony’s digital reading business division, thinks Jeff Bezos and co. have made some critical mistakes, but is he right, or is he just playing to his audience of Amazon bashers?

Speaking this week in New York, Haber entered the debate on ebook pricing, "The $9.99 price point is not a money-maker. Certain bestsellers are sold at that price for retail, competitive reasons. But you need to have a range. You could go from $10 to $20 even to $100 for an e-book. There's no sweet spot and it's certainly not $9.99."
On what does he base these words of wisdom? Some may suggest that his 21 years in consumer electronics is hardly a qualification to lecture publishing, but there again this is SonyWorld. Some would argue that the price of the reader is his issue and the price of the content is beyond his remit and control. ebooks and their pricing is just a sideline and Sony makes money is on the sale of tin (reader) not the content.

Sony is unlikely to offer the next iTunes (Sony missed that one too) and buyers who stumble across the Sony bookstore are unlikely to be impressed either by their offer or its pricing.

So are they retailers or just tin manufacturers?

Sony believe they have demonstrated leadership on the emotive question of DRM and standards. After all they were the first to back epub and Adobe and when they launched demanded and got a DRM exclusive and still fail to recognise Adobe ebooks as being on a par with epub. Their initial proprietary stance clearly says much about their views. Today they clearly believe epub and DRM gives them the edge over Amazon but they fail to recognise that with epub and Adobe DRM being available from everyone there is little to distinguish them from the pack of ‘lookie likie’ eink readers.

They are a single offer platform in a multi platform world. Won would have thought that they would have offered a constant offer across their mobile, games , PC and even TV platforms but that’s big corporate divisions for you. Haber continues to believe DRM is the key, "You need an orderly process to sell books and DRM makes that possible, mainly because it allows content creators and distributors to make money from that content." Again one will question whether they understand the market or are merely making sound bites to today’s publisher audience.

Amazon are a bookseller, sell on multiple platforms and love them or hate them they at least understand and live in the book market.

Sony view Google as a fellow Amazon basher and ally. Haber says that Google’s platform is "super open and it ties in very well to the reader experience we’re looking for." However does Google have the same empathy and love of Sony and is it a marriage built on respect and long life, or is it just an affair of convenience? Haber says that, "As long as they stay an open platform, we’re happy to work with them. If that ever changes, we’ll have to make a different decision." So how will he feel once they have their own phone, netbook and maybe reader?

We however would agree with Haber when he suggests that publishers could promote piracy by delaying the release of books in digital formats and that their businesses will prosper if they embrace ebooks. But there again ebooks sell tin and he needs to sell tin.

LG Offer eBook Readers Solar Power

LG has announced that it has developed a solar panel for a Sony e-book reader. The chip is less that 1 mm thick, 10cm wide and 10cm long and weighs 20 grams and will be on show at the International Meeting on Information Display (IMID) in Seoul. The question is whether eInk devices that already have a long battery life need a solar panel. Will it result in obviating the need to ever recharge the battery and to claim the ultimate green credentials. However, we wondered whether it could prove useful for the iPhone that is constantly in need of recharging.

LG claim that 4 to 5 hours exposure to sunlight would be sufficient to run the e-book reader for 24 hours. The prototype is 9.6% efficient and LG expect to increase this to 12% in the next 12 months and then to 14% by 2012 when it is envisaged that it it would be ready for commercialization.

Bol.com Offers Dutch eBooks

Bol.com has had an interesting journey from those heady days when it was to take on Amazon and was claimed by some to be the real global ecommerce site for books. Well it did conquer Holland, changed ownership and has now launched its ebook serviced backed by Sony and eBookHuis (Centraal Boekhuis).

The noise is obviously about Sony readers but given these work with Adobe’s ACS4 DRM server the news is that it should be open to all and not exclusive to one.

A wide range of Dutch International Writers works are available worldwide and the ebooks will be about 20% cheaper on average than a physical copy and Bol.com already works with many writers and publishers in their distribution channels through Centraal Boekhuis. This new European initiative will ensure that its not just US and UK etitles in the Dutch market.

Sony to Stack eBooks and Readers High and Sell Them Cheap

Sony are to launch onto the US market a PRS 300 $199 ebook reader. The aim is to obviously take on Amazon on price that is $100 cheaper, to also pre-empty iTablet move and to beat the 'tortoise' that is Plastic Logic to market. The readers will have a 5” screen, which probably enables the reduction in the price.

Sony will also introduce a larger PRS 600 touchscreen brother which will sell for $299 and so compete head to head with the Kindle.

The plan to stack them high and sell cheap through outlets such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy may be a wise move but the question is whether the deals were exclusive and the volume that has to be shifted to achieve the margin. It also plans charge $9.99 to $11.99 for downloads of best-sellers and new releases, so competing head to head on prices with Amazon.The question this raises is whether these prices can only be achieved via Sony's ebook store and how that will fair with any retail partnerships Sony has established with publishers, retailers and other players. Although this is a US launch the question of its Uk base which it built heavily on Waterstones will be an interesting one to watch.

Unlike the Kindle and the Plastic Logic reader, Sony's new devices are not wireless which means they still, like today's models, need to be tethered to a PC to copy downloaded files.

So is the price going to secure the market for Sony or is it likely to just lead to the other eInk 'lookie likies' entering a price war. With both the price of device being heavily discounted and the titles being sold at bargain prices the market could be stimulated. However discounting before the demand has really taken off could be seen as an act of desperation and just add to consumer confusion.What will early adopters feel about the prices paid only yesterday and the apparent discontinuation of models which they may view as 'new'?

It is easy to see ebook prices tumbling further and devices following and we then have to ask what's in it for the author?

Sony PRS300 and PRS600 Service Manuals?

Market rumours of a new Sony reader took a further step forward today with the leak of two service manuals on the Internet. The new models appear to be a PRS300 and a PRS600 which would obviously replace, or compliment the PRS500 and PRS700 respectively.

To view the documents as PDFs: PRS300, PRS600

The most depressing aspect of the specs is the continuation of their BBeB format. Sony championed the adoption of the 'open' epub format and Adobe’s ACS4 DRM but seem to forget to mention Adobe ebooks (PDF) which play perfectly in the device and are fully supported by ACS4 and widely adopted and still talk about their own format as if the market cares.

Can't we Count?

We read an interesting article yesterday in the Sunday Times which amounted to a nice advert for Amazon and the Kindle. Today we read a blog Oxford's Evan Schnittman that claims that Kindle and Sony sales could be higher than we think? ‘Looks Like a Million To Me: How I Realized that Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s E-Reader Were Exceeding Sales Estimates’

Ok all news is good news and we are now starting to witness what happens when the market starts to talk itself up and the momentum becomes to be self prophesying. This can only be good for the ebook readers and the market take up but these type of statistics are at best questionable. If these figures are fact and as claimed there is a direct correlation between the eink screens shipped and sales achieved by Kindle and Sony then they are current selling 60,000 to 80,000 units a month and this will increase to 120,000 month later in 2008. Also he notes that there is 60/40 split between Amazon and Sony, which some may say is very generous to Sony.

What ever the reality we are guessing on the units sold and to whom they have been sold – the stuff of urban myths. The truth in the UK is neither device is here today and when they land, in the early Autumn, this urban hype will only grow.

Publishing is not about selling ebook devices, but about selling books. The author gets paid by the numbers of books sold not the number of devices sold and the compilations given away as part of their launch. If publishers can’t say today what files have been sold in what format and through what channel, including promotional titles, then what message does that give to both the consumer and the author?