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Google Set To Tackle eBook Market

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the as-long-as-i-get-to-download-scanned-content-too dept.

Mike writes "Google's latest decision to try its hand selling eBooks promises to make life in the eBook world more interesting, and will likely spur a standards war that in the end may prove beneficial to many consumers. Google's eBook store will pit it directly against Amazon and Amazon's Kindle — an enormously popular eBook reader. This will push many companies to create eBook readers to take advantage of Google's new store, and will flood the market with tough choices. Google does not have a dedicated eBook reader yet, but it seems a logical next step for the search giant."

13 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. Obvious next step... by Newander · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I seem to remember people saying the same thing about cell phones, but Google is not a hardware company. I'd look for an API and not much else.

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    Jesus saves and takes half damage.

    1. Re:Obvious next step... by fafaforza · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The whole "can't you get a netbook instead" thing has been beaten to death, twice, with a dead horse tossed on top the second time. I mean, seriously. People have suggested this, the iPhone, the Nintendo DS, etc. Yeah, yeah, they do oh-so-much more. Different products. If you can read for extended periods of time on an LCD, and have a place to recharge it conveniently, then get a netbook.

      The rest of us will enjoy immitation printed paper, with weeks between charging.

    2. Re:Obvious next step... by WaywardGeek · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is really, really, huge. We've had a number of articles on slashdot that clearly point out the danger Amazon poses to the e-book market. They're following an iTune-like model, with similar DRM, similarly ham-strung hardware, and they're waging a war to control e-book distribution. Google has the muscle to turn the tide in this battle, and to open the e-book market to many players, not just Amazon and Sony.

      Consider an Amazon Kindle vs an Eee PC. The Eee PC has a bigger screen, costs less, has real wifi, and is a freaking great e-book reader. The only problem? F**king Amazon and Sony have locked up rights to distribute many of the most popular e-books. Screw e-book readers, IMO. Netbooks running a real OS (Ubuntu in my case) is the way to go. E-book readers like the Kindle are just another trap for us to fall into, where we lose choice, and pay outrageous prices for massively limited hardware and software, just so we can read the book we actually want to buy.

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      Celebrate failure, and then learn from it - Nolan Bushnell
    3. Re:Obvious next step... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There's no reason you can't have e-paper on a netbook.

      With existing tech, it would make it pretty useless for everything but, well, reading text. With refresh rates measured in seconds, you can forget about scrolling, for example; or animations.

    4. Re:Obvious next step... by bemymonkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And what about the battery life? The fact that the Netbook probably weighs twice as much? The free WWAN connection you get with the Kindle? Seamless integration with Amazon's eBook store? How about booting up the laptop (or even waking it from sleep), entering your password and opening the eBook every time you want to read a paragraph or two on the bus? As a matter of fact, don't you think most people would look at you pretty strangely if you pulled out a netbook on a bus? :p

      Sure, you can use a netbook as an eBook reader (I do, at least for large PDFs and other crap my smartphone can't handle), but it's always a bit of a hack. If you're only planning on reading in places where you'd have your netbook out anyway, I guess it's not a problem - but for people who like to read in the back of a taxi or in the john or on the bus, pulling out a netbook every time is just plain annoying.

  2. Cost by nurb432 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Lets hope they can bring the price down to 'every man'. 400 for a kindle is pretty steep for a lot people, even during the best of times.

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    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
    1. Re:Cost by DeadDecoy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      At 400$ a kindle, laptops start to look a little more attractive, especially with emerging tech like color eink and olpc's use of eink in screens to lengthen their battery life. I would love to buy a kindle, but its not cost-effective for me, and better products seem right around the corner.

  3. Really? by damn_registrars · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Amazon's Kindle an enormously popular eBook reader.

    I'm not sure the description "enormously popular" is deserved. Just because it is out selling other eBook readers doesn't make it "enormously popular"; how many of these have actually sold?

    It doesn't seem that the eBook market has really expanded to the point of anything yet being worthy of the "enormously popular" status, AFAIK.

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    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
  4. Forget about proprietary eBook formats by Orion+Blastar · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I want an eBook device that can read the eBooks I already bought and own.

    They are in PDF and some on CHM format.

    If I am going to spend $300 or more for an eBook device I might as well buy a Netbook that can use PDF and CHM formats for the same price.

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  5. Re:Why do we need stores? by maxume · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Attention. If I can look at and search for thousands of books in one place, I am more likely to notice your book if it is there.

    One way to look at it is like this: how much are you currently making on the books that you are not selling that Amazon is not taking a share of?

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    Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
  6. Re:This is like... by langelgjm · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Wouldn't the Kindle be more analogous to the iPod? Both can use a proprietary, DRMed format. But both also work with well-known, non-DRMed formats. Also, if Google's formats are really open, then won't people be able to read them on Kindles?

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    "Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
  7. i can see it now by ionix5891 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    along the right side of each page in the ebook.... yep "ads by google" :D

  8. No Kindle outside the US by krischik · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The original article seem to focus entirely on a Amazon vs Google battle. But in that article is missing one point: Kindle is not available outside the US. That is: you need an USA registered Credit Card with a USA address to buy one. Yes there are work around - but why should I support a flawed business model.

    So for me living outside the US I had to look else where for for eBooks. And if you do you will soon notice that there are better eBook reader then Kindle and that there are better eBook shops then Amazon. Amazon is largely capitalising there good name here. In fact currently it is more like Amazon vs the rest of the world.

    For me there is no doubt who is going to win in the long run. While USA is a large marked but it does only represent 5% of human population. Well, unless Amazon changes there business model that is.