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Google Set To Tackle eBook Market
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."
Will they be selling books with or withOUT DRM?
I own a Hanlin V3, and to a great extent stopped using it, as I can't get the books I want for it.
Unless Google teams their ebooks with Apple on a new tablet.
Then, watch out Amazon.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
Came here to say something like this.
Since it's already been said, let me clarify:
Google will not make a proprietary e-book reader. They want their wares on as many machines as possible. Whether it's firmware, applications, 'appliances', or whatever. Eyeballs == data == better targeting of ads == higher profits on ad sales.
Releasing an e-book reader themselves pitches them squarely against the very companies they want to be using their wares, to enable them to sling ads to everyone.
Google is an advertising behemoth. For all the neat-o things they produce and we use, they exist to make money by slinging ads at people. Every business move they make should be considered in light of the fact that they will choose the route that nets them the most eyeballs -- and in this case, this means making an API or firmware for other companies to use. They do not want to alienate ad targets who use other e-book readers.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
And EverQuest was "enormously popular" before World of WarCraft came along. Even if they're currently dominating the ebook reader market, there are still a huge number of potential customers out there who don't own any. IMO, it's way too fucking expensive. Both the reader and the DRM'd books. I mean, if I could save a bundle on something like The New Cambridge Medieval History ($1600 for the full hardback set), I'd buy one in a heartbeat.
CCGs, especially M:TG, have really become a money-making scam. I'd love to play the online version, because I remember it being tons of fun, but that has the same business model. Waste of money.
Yep. I never used iTunes because it didn't run on my OS, and it had DRM (light DRM, but DRM nevertheless). The first time I ever bought music online was from Amazon, and now I'm buying all my music on Amazon. All Amazon had to do to get my business was to offer me the opportunity to pay my money in return for an mp3 file, which nobody else was willing to let me do.
The Kindle is exactly analogous. It has a proprietary format, with DRM. Google says they want to have a format that works on a variety of devices, which presumably means no DRM. If they execute the idea well, I'll probably buy my first electronic book from Google.
Find free books.
I'm probably missing something obvious, but I have yet to understand why we need to insert a middleman store into the chain between producer and consumer.
It seems to me cheaper and more efficient for the publisher of a book (or the author himself) to provide downloads directly.
For physical products, it makes sense to provide some kind of middleman to take care of the hassles involved with delivering the product; but for electronic products, it's not at all obvious to me why such a middleman is necessary.
As an author, I'm still struggling with the question of whether to make electronic versions of my books available; but if were to do so, (and especially having carefully read the contract that Amazon makes you sign to make your work available for the Kindle) I wouldn't be inclined to insert another profit-making entity between me and my readers.
Well, they do have android. I think that it would be pretty trivial for them to make an app for it that is an ebook reader.
"Some books contain the machinery required to create and sustain universes."-Tycho
No, we will see a format war once Amazon has to start considering implementing ePub on the Kindle (because they can no longer ignore other stores, that only carry their books in ePub or DRMed mobi (which doesn't work on the Kindle, because its mobi DRM implementation is different from the standard mobi implementation, even though they own Mobipocket. Can you spell "lock-in"?), or because they want to be able to sell books to people who don't own a Kindle.
Anyway, ePub can technically already do typesetting, as far as that goes in reflowable formats, through CSS. Mobipocket's typesetting possibilities suck. The format is outdated, and although it can be upgraded, it should just go the way of the dodo.
That said, for any book requiring footnotes (endnotes work in ePub), you will need PDF, as I know of no other format that will display them. Reflowable footnotes would be really neat, and are technically possible in ePub, but there is no working implementation yet.
"Can't you get a "Netbook" for less than a Kindle and read whatever you want on it (and then some) DRM free?"
Maybe, if I didn't already have a personal MacBook Pro and a work MacBook Pro.
I suspect a Netbook isn't as good as a kindle for reading-while-walking, nor as good for reading-on-a-very-crowded-bus.
September 2011: Looking for Cocoa/iOS work in Boston area Cocoa Programmer Quincy, MA
Amazon hasn't released any numbers on how many were sold. However, I frequently use the Mom Scale to informally gauge the popularity of a given technology. How it works is like this: if my 65-year-old mom has heard of a piece of technology, then it's popular. If she has purchased or downloaded a piece of technology, then it's enormously popular.
I found out yesterday that my mom just bought a Kindle, hence the Kindle is enormously popular.
The rest of us will enjoy immitation printed paper, with weeks between charging.
No, some of you will enjoy that, the rest of us will enjoy reading a good old fashioned book.
There must be some business logic to Amazon's confining their ebook sales to their own format, their own device, their own network, and their own home country. Don't know what it is though.
I'd be buying my ebooks from Amazon if I possibly could. But I can't. They don't distribute over the Internet so I can't download to my preferred device. They don't make Whispernet available outside the US so there's no incentive for me to ditch my preferred device for a Kindle.
Easy there champ. The simple fact is they are right in that netbooks, iPhones and the iPod Touch can all serve this function. I've been reading ebooks on my iPhone since November and I doubt I'll ever go back. I like the old books but the convenience of having my books with me in my pocket is priceless. If your only advantage is battery life (and you happen to live weeks away from a power outlet) then go for the Kindle. The rest of the world is easily served by the alternatives you listed, which cost much less and do "oh-so-much more".