Find eBook Readers Blog   Reading in the Digital Age

Apparently the Irex DR800SG ereader is more trick than treat; at least if you planned to see it at a Best Buy store near you this month.  The ereader is still a no show on Best Buy’s website, and there is no new information at Irex’s website either.

In an effort to see if I could learn anything new I stopped by my local Best Buy  last night.  No luck there either; a sales associate could find nothing on her computer.

While there I also wanted to have a look at their new Gadgets and eReaders Collection announced in a press release on October 8th.  The ereader display turned out to be a 4 foot by 4 foot display panel with one each of both Sony Touch and Pocket Edition ereader demos, a few covers and AC adapters, etc.  If they do still plan to add the Irex they are going to need a bigger display.

And so I return home,
with empty hands and heavy heart,
with nothing of import to impart.

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Irex’s new DR800SG ereader was supposed to hit Best Buy’s shelves at the end of October  at a price of $399.  Best Buy did have it up on their website very briefly. The DR800SG was listed as backordered with a price of $449,  but has since totally disappeared from their website.  Not sure if the higher than MSRP price was due to exchange rates or if Best Buy thought that they could sell it for a higher price.

The only thing from Irex is their press release of October 19, in which they just say that the DR800SG will be “available later this fall”.  I was starting to think that an October release was  looking pretty suspect,  then I received an email this morning from Irex stating that “The DR800SG will be available end of October at Best Buy”.  Guess they still have a few more days to make that come true.

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In a post on Medialoper, Kirk Biglione reports that many publishers do not like the lending feature of Barnes and Noble’s nook ereader and do not plan to support it.

The nook’s highly publicized LendMe feature is pretty restrictive.  You are only allowed to loan an ebook once and then only for 14 days.  Even so, it appears that it may be crippled even further by being available on relatively few titles.

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There has been an ongoing  sweepstakes at Amazon and this week the prizes are Kindles and accessories.  All you need to do is start a wish list or add to your current wish list.

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• Comparing the eBook Stores

I’ve done a few price and availability comparisons of  ebooks at the various ebook stores before with a handful of titles, but thought it would be useful to do a comparison with a larger sample.   After all, the content provider for a particular ereader is a feature that definitely needs to be considered when choosing which ebook reader you will buy, especially if the ebook reader  in question is primarily confined to one provider for DRM’ed ebooks.

Choosing the Books

First of all I went to Borders and made a list of 110 books.  I chose Borders as they do not apparently sell ebooks (not in the U.S.  anyway) and I didn’t want to know in advance if a paper book was also available as an ebook when I compiled my list.  I tried to stay away from very new books, as most ebook stores make a point of selling current bestsellers for $9.99.  Therefore, you will not find The  Lost Symbol on my list, but Angels and Demons is there.  I chose paperback versions in all but a very few cases where they were not available.

My list totals 110 books, of which 34 are non-fiction and 76 are fiction.  The non-fiction selection contains no textbooks, but rather is made up mostly of history and science titles that might appeal to the general reader.

The eBook Stores

The ebook stores that I used for the comparison were the Sony eBook Store, the Kindle Store, Barnes and Noble and Shortcovers.  The big three because they each support their own ereaders; Shortcovers I added because I have noticed a few titles had very good prices in past searches.

So how many of the 110 paper books on my list were available as ebooks?

I already knew that Shortcovers offers fewer titles; I included them because I wanted to see how well they hold up on price across a basket of books.  I was somewhat surprised that Barnes and Noble had just over 20% less ebooks available than Kindle.  After all, it’s not as if  a lot of the books on my list are obscure titles; many are by popular authors.  If Barnes and Noble’s new nook ebook reader is going to “kill” the Kindle I think they are going to want to stock up with some more ammunition.

Comparing Prices

The chart below shows how much it would cost in total to purchase all of the 66 ebooks available in common at the Kindle, Sony and Barnes and Noble ebook stores.  I have also included the paper book cost from Borders.

Since Shortcovers has a smaller basket of ebooks than the other 3 stores, I  do a separate comparison with the 51 ebooks that they have in common with the rest.

Conclusions

The Kindle Store is obviously the winner, both in number of titles and prices.  In the first group of 66 books you would have saved enough buying Kindle vs. paper books to almost pay for your Kindle.

Sony and Barnes and Noble come in 2nd and 3rd place respectively, until you throw Shortcovers into the mix that is.  Actually the prices on Shortcovers were all over the place – from slightly cheaper than Kindle to more expensive than any of the other stores.  Also, one of the books on my list The Angel Experiment by James Patterson was free everywhere except Shortcovers where it was $8.79.

If your ereader supports Adobe Digital Editions it would probably be a good idea to check Shortcovers’ price on any title you plan to buy as you will probably find some bargains.

Update: For brevity’s sake I didn’t want to include the list of books I used for my sample here.  Instead I tried to put it elsewhere and link to it.  When I tested the link it seemed to be working, but I found out later that it in fact wasn’t – sorry about that.  So I am adding it below.

A couple of notes: Putting together this list was quite tedious and most of it was done late at night.  I tried to put myself in the place of a new ereader owner and not be influenced by what I already knew about which titles were or were not available as ebooks.  Perhaps I got a bit too much in character and included a couple of books by John Grisham who doesn’t release his books as ebooks yet.  After I realized my mistake I decided to leave these in the list as a new ereader owner may very well not realize this either.  Also I threw one title out of the list: The Stand by Stephen King.  This ebook sells for $15.00 (I think it was cheaper when I made my list) in the Kindle Store, $17.50 at the Sony Store and $40.00 at Barnes and Noble.  Sony and B&N label this clearly as the “Complete and Uncut” version, while there are indications that the Kindle version is as well, but I couldn’t be 100% sure.  Also I wasn’t looking for one title with such a huge price difference to skew the results.

My book list follows:

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Barnes and Noble’s nook ereader is arguably the most formidable challenger yet to Amazon’s Kindle.  The nook looks good and is slickly designed to be aimed directly at the Kindle’s weaknesses.  Amazon needs to respond with some new features if they wish to maintain their current leading position in the increasingly crowded ereader market.

For me, the Kindle’s two strongest features remain:

1. Kindle Store: If you discount all of the public domain ebooks at ebook stores such as Barnes and Noble or Sony’s ebook store, the Kindle store has more current and recent titles available. The Kindle store’s prices are almost always lower as well.  If you are mainly interested in reading classics found in the public domain or books on the current best seller lists, then these are available at most ebook stores. But if your reading preferences are a bit more esoteric, then your are more likely to find your desired titles in the Kindle store. And yes, you can of course still read the public domain ebooks on the Kindle but you may need to convert them first with a program such as Calibre or email them to Amazon for conversion.
2. Wireless browsing: The nook and other new ereaders coming to market have a wireless connection, but so far this is only for purchase and delivery of ebooks. With the Kindle’s imperfect but usable browser you can also research what you are reading about on the internet or even check your email if you need to.

For many ereader shoppers, especially those who walk into a Barnes and Noble store and get to touch and play with a nook, this may well not be enough.  To maintain its edge, Amazon needs to upgrade the Kindle’s feature set so that it can again clearly stand out as the best ereader with the most features for the money.  Some new features that would help put the shine back on the Kindle:

• EPUB: If EPUB were a supported Kindle format you could access the Google public domain books without conversion. Also the Kindle could claim more openness without forfeiting their proprietary format in the Kindle store. There is a lot of pressure to make the EPUB format a standard across all ereader devices and adding EPUB to the Kindle’s supported formats would surely win Amazon some applause and good will.
• Built-in PDF support: We want PDF document handling that works. This includes things like schematics and equations, etc. that display properly as well as zoom and pan functions. This is especially important for technicians, academics, scientists, etc. who work with a lot of PDF documents. This is more than a  niche market.   Anyone who has a Kindle ereader even if it is primarily for work will buy ebooks for it.  Technically this is not going to be easy to get right and I would imagine that we will see gradual improvements when it comes to handling PDF’s.
• Touchscreen: The nook has a small LCD touchscreen below the e-ink screen for navigation and ebook selection.   While it looks really cool, we won’t know until we get to use it how well it actually does the job. The virtual keyboard on the nook’s LCD may well not be as easy to use as the chicklet keyboard on the Kindle. I’m not sure if the Kindle 2 really needs a touchscreen, but the Kindle DX definitely does. I’m not talking about the type of touchscreen the Sony Touch ereader uses with its glare issues. We want Wacom Tablet technology that uses a stylus and doesn’t sacrifice readability. This would make for better study tools which are needed if the Kindle DX is going to go to school. It would also be much more convenient  for business use where users need to make annotations, drawings, etc. on their documents.
• Sharing: The nook has a strong new feature that allows you to lend an ebook to a friend for 14 days (if the publisher allows).  Each book may only be loaned once.  This feature by itself may well swing many purchasers to the nook, even though it is not yet known how many publishers will agree to it.  The Kindle allows sharing between Kindles in a family account (usually up to 6 Kindles), but if Amazon can get publishers to agree to a similar plan to the nook’s it would be  appealing for many people.
• Public Library Access: The new Sony ereaders come with the ability to check out ebooks from public libraries that are part of the Overdrive system. At the moment this is mainly a feel good feature as most libraries have few titles available. This should change however as demand increases.
• Kindle store support for other devices: Currently you can buy and read ebooks from the Kindle store on iPhone and iPod Touch. Barnes and Noble’s nook adds to this support for Blackberry, PC and Mac computers. Your ebooks and bookmarks are synced across any of these devices and the nook ereader.   Amazon is already working on this; a free Kindle ebook reader for PC should be available in November, and Kindle apps for Mac and Blackberry should follow soon thereafter.
• Folders: The Kindle needs a better library management system. We need to be able to arrange our ebooks and documents in folders as we wish, and have the ability to move them easily back and forth between folders as needed.  Kindlers have been asking for this one for a long time.

The nook is an attractive and sophisticated looking ereader.  Many purchasers will probably be drawn to it just by its good looks.  Perhaps it is also time for an appearance upgrade for the Kindle,  as long as it doesn’t detract from the primary purpose of the Kindle, which is reading.

With the increasing competition, I think this is more of a must do list than a wish list if Amazon wants to stay on top. What other features do you think are most important?  Leave a comment.

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Amazon has phased out the U.S. version of the Kindle 2.  A note on Amazon’s site says “Due to strong customer demand for the newest Kindle, we are consolidating our family of 6″ Kindles.  We will continue to fully support Whispernet for all U.S.-only Kindles.”  There are still  refurbished Kindles with the U.S. Whispernet available.

The Kindle with U.S. and international wireless has been reduce in price to $259, which is the recent price of the U.S. only version.

This is probably a bummer for people like me who don’t have a good signal relationship with AT&T,  but there were people who had the same problem with Sprint.

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Entourage has an interesting device they are calling the eDGe (somebody really needs to get ereader names under control), which is supposed to be available in February 2010.

As you can see from the photo, it is half netbook and half ereader.

The netbook has internet browsing, can play movies and lets you view pictures from books you are reading on the ereader in color. It has a 10 inch screen and also comes with a video camera and audio recorder.  Wi –Fi is built-in, but 3G requires an optional EVDO or HSDPA modem.   There is a virtual keypad, but BlueTooth is also included, so you could add an external keypad.  There is an SD card slot and you can also use a USB flash drive.  The eDGe is based on Google’s Android.  Battery life is not that great, but the battery is removable so you could carry a spare.

The ereader has a 9.7 inch e-ink screen with Wacom tablet technology.  This gives you a stylus based touchscreen without glare issues.  There appears to be a robust set of study tools including annotations and freehand drawing, etc.  Your are also able to email your notes and journals to others.

Currently only ePub and PDF are supported.   Entourage says they will have their own ebook store, but support for Adobe Digital Editions would add access to DRM’ed content.

Obviously at 2.5 lbs the eDGe would not be good for reading in bed, or for carrying around in your pocket,  and all the bells and whistles the eDGe comes with are not cheap.  The eDGe will sell for $490.

What interests me  is that Entourage was able to put together a package like this for the same price as the Kindle DX.  And if you just look at the ereader half of the eDGe equation it is pretty impressive.  Full on study tools like the eDGe’s ereader has are what are needed in order to be embraced by students in the classroom.  If Amazon is serious about being accepted in schools and used for etextbooks the DX needs to have features like this.  And with Amazon’s much larger resources and sales volume they should be able to bring it to us at an acceptable price.

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Today Barnes and Noble officially unveiled their new ereader.  It is very similar to the photos leaked a few days ago, but instead of the pretty cool name Athena the new ereader is called Nook.

Well, even if the name disappoints,  I am glad that for the most part the photos were pretty accurate.  This is a much more elegant design than another duel screened ereader  shown yesterday by Spring Design.

Some of the Nook’s features:

• 6” E-Ink screen with 16 gray scales
• 5 font sizes
• 2 GB internal storage + Micro SD card slot
• Wireless connection by AT&T; Wi-Fi
• Supports note taking and highlighting
• Built-in dictionary
• Size: 7.7” x 4.9” x 0.5”; weighs just over 11 ounces
• Supported Formats: EPUB, eReader, PDF, MP3, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP
• Use your own photos for screen saver

The 3.5 inch LCD touchscreen below the E-Ink screen is used for navigation and for selecting books to purchase.  Books in your library are shown by their covers on the LCD screen.

If you have B & N’s eReader software installed on your  iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry, PC or Mac your purchased books and your place in them will be synced across devices.  Notes and annotations are also synchronized.  You will also be able to lend most ebooks to friends for up to 14 days.  An ebook can only be lent once apparently, and can only be on any one device at a time.  This also works across other compatible platforms such as iPhone as long as your friend’s device has eReader installed.

The Nook comes with a micro USB cable, AC adapter and quick start guide.  You will need to purchase a cover separately.   Barnes and Noble has priced their new ereader at $259, and it should be available end of November.  They are taking pre-orders now.

Of course we will have to wait to actually play with this new ereader, but it does seem to have some appealing features.  The dual screen approach is a clever method of having the convenience of a touchscreen without its glare problems.  Being able to lend books is really great and hopefully this will become a standard feature on ereaders in the future.   The Kindle store has more ebook titles (not counting public domain) than Barnes and Noble,  but the Nook definitely looks like a much more compelling choice than Sony’s ereaders.

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Today there were several press releases, some of which did not contain a lot of new information and seemed timed more to distract from Amazon’s launch of the International version of the Kindle rather than to provide us with much new material.

Plastic Logic announced that its upcoming ereader will be named the Que and will debut at the CES this coming January 7th in Las Vegas.  They released more photos, but nothing really new: only side views,  no views of the actual display.  In fact we see more of the hand model in the photo than we do of the Que.

The Que will have a screen size of 8.5 x 11 inches and will be mainly aimed at business users.  It will have an e-ink based touchscreen that will be shatterproof.  Supported formats include PDF, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.  AT&T will provide 3G connectivity, and Barnes and Noble will provide books for Plastic Logic’s upcoming ereader.  Wi-Fi is also indicated.

Irex also put out another press release about their upcoming DR800SG, which was supposed to become available at Best Buy Stores later this month.  The press release now says “later this fall”, so not sure if it will still be this month or not.

The DR800SG will also have a larger 8” screen and will be priced at $399.  AT&T will also provide the 3G connection for this ereader, and Barnes and Noble is providing the ebookstore.

A new ereader from Spring Design named Alex was also introduced today. This ebook reader also sports a smaller LCD screen below the e-ink display similar to that shown in leaked photos of Barnes and Noble’s  Athena which is expected to be unveiled  at B & N’s press conference tomorrow.  There is some speculation in fact that this is B & N’s new ereader, although the pictures look different.

Spring Design’s new ereader will feature a 6” e-ink screen and a 3.5” color LCD display.  Not exactly pocket-sized.  There is an SD card slot for added storage.  Spring Design says that the Alex will release to “selected strategic partners” by the end of this year.

The Alex is based on Google’s Android and will have full browser capabilities, so this ereader should work well with Google Editions.  It is more of a multimedia device though than current ereaders like the Kindle or Sony.  I can imagine it being very easy to get distracted from reading with this device.

“This is the start of a whole new experience of reading content on e-books, potentially igniting a whole new industry in multimedia e-book publishing for secondary authors to create supplementary content that is hyper linked to the text. We are bringing life to books with audio, video, and annotations,” said Dr. Priscilla Lu, CEO of Spring Design. “This gives readers the ability to fully leverage the resources on the Web, and the tools available in search engines to augment the reading experience.”

Meanwhile, back at the launching of the Amazon Kindle with US and International Wireless, it seems like more of a tempest in a teapot with little enough  thunder to go around.  Looking at Amazon’s websites outside of the US it would be hard to know that something “groundbreaking” was taking place.  The Kindle is not displayed on Amazon UK’s homepage, nor can it be found on the electronics or books category main pages.  It was also MIA at other Amazon international sites I looked at until I finally found it in Japan.  I guess if you are big in Japan……

It is increasingly looking as though the launch of Kindle International is aimed primarily at Americans travelling abroad.  It also seems as though the international release was a rushed job because of the competition from all of the recently announced new ereaders which will be coming to market soon.

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