Comments on: Walter Jon Williams and James Strickland on DRM http://www.teleread.com/drm/walter-jon-williams-and-james-strickland-on-drm/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Wed, 15 Feb 2012 03:55:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Michael http://www.teleread.com/drm/walter-jon-williams-and-james-strickland-on-drm/comment-page-1/#comment-903741 Michael Sat, 13 Sep 2008 05:04:55 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/09/12/walter-jon-williams-and-james-strickland-on-drm/#comment-903741 Completely off-topic here, but I just wanted to drop a line with a forecast regarding the upcoming Sony Reader announcement. I've been doubtful for some time about a big hardware change. It just doesn't feel like the time is right, yet. The big screens (letter-sized, flexible) aren't supposed to be out until after Christmas, and I don't think they would mess up Christmas sales with by pre-anouncing a new platform. they could be making other announcements, such as wireless to equal the Kindle, but yesterday I saw an article about the Sony e-reader hitting Target stores on Monday: http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/09/12/sony-reader-coming-to-target-stores/ Now, I really don't think they would sell a model for two weeks and then announce it is outdated. Target would be hit with returns and quite upset. Therefore, I also doubt it is revised hardware with the same screen size. So, my forecast is that the announcement is on the software side. Say the ability to read mobipocket. Or something with digital editions. Or an agreement with a major publishing house ... more books to equal the Kindle, or possibly more books preloaded as a Christmas bundle. Or even an agreement with a major newspaper publisher. I don't think its hardware, and I think software/content would make more of a difference for Sony. A more prosaic guess would be in terms of distribution. We already know about Target. Maybe add-in Walmart, Sears, and such. Anyway, that's my two cents. Michael Completely off-topic here, but I just wanted to drop a line with a forecast regarding the upcoming Sony Reader announcement.

I’ve been doubtful for some time about a big hardware change. It just doesn’t feel like the time is right, yet. The big screens (letter-sized, flexible) aren’t supposed to be out until after Christmas, and I don’t think they would mess up Christmas sales with by pre-anouncing a new platform.

they could be making other announcements, such as wireless to equal the Kindle, but yesterday I saw an article about the Sony e-reader hitting Target stores on Monday:
http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/09/12/sony-reader-coming-to-target-stores/
Now, I really don’t think they would sell a model for two weeks and then announce it is outdated. Target would be hit with returns and quite upset. Therefore, I also doubt it is revised hardware with the same screen size.

So, my forecast is that the announcement is on the software side. Say the ability to read mobipocket. Or something with digital editions. Or an agreement with a major publishing house … more books to equal the Kindle, or possibly more books preloaded as a Christmas bundle. Or even an agreement with a major newspaper publisher.

I don’t think its hardware, and I think software/content would make more of a difference for Sony. A more prosaic guess would be in terms of distribution. We already know about Target. Maybe add-in Walmart, Sears, and such.

Anyway, that’s my two cents.

Michael

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