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iLiad said to be moving briskly: Kindle effect? ‘Currently out of stock’
January 16, 2008 | 9:33 am
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By David Rothman
“The iRex iLiad is selling much better than expected and is currently out of stock. I tried to get mine at a local (Dutch) bookstore chain (Selexyz) and they told me that new orders are unlikely to be fulfilled before February.” – Email from Walter van Holst.
The TeleRead take: Thanks, Walter! I’ll have a bad case of iLiad withdrawal when I return my loaner. For e-book newbies who don’t know, the iLiad has an eight-inch screen and the best page-changing control in the business. The iLiad allows the use of third-party programs such as FBReader, so you’re not limited to the built in software. Feedbooks has been working to simplify the downloading of public domain works on the iLiad, for example; and meanwhile iRex Technologies, the company behind the iLiad, hopes to make the built-in software easier for e-book newcomers to puzzle out. I’m delighted to see iRex sticking with the machine. Amazon is marketing the Kindle to Americans, but rival e-book gizmos throughout the world are probably basking in the glow of the international publicity that the Newsweek cover boy has drawn.
iLiad update, 1:30 p.m.: Todd Jonz here in the States has had better luck. He ordered one Monday and expects it to arrive tomorrow.
And speaking of FBReader: A new version is out with various bug fixes, including one that interfered with proper parsing of files in the .epub format. Also, as noted before, AdamB is hoping to do a fresh adaptation of FBReader for the iLiad.
Housekeeping: I’ll have more posts later on today; I’ve been distracted. Blame it on my new XO and an persistent desire last night to play hookey and spend less time on RSS feeds and more time on e-books. That’s the great paradox and frustration of doing a news-heavy site—the time it cuts into the very form of recreation and learning that we talk up here. Volunteers are always welcome to spread the burden.
Related: Some wise words from Richard Adin on the need for the technology not to divert attention from books. Both Robert Nagle and I want to see more book-related discussions here. It’s a challenge, I know—since TeleBloggers’ literary tastes range from romance novels to the Edward Gibbon‘s Decline and Fall. Technology is the unifier. Of course, sometimes you can’t separate content from the way it’s displayed. I’m curious. Do habitual readers of classics with long paragraphs tend to be more appreciative of large-screened reading hardware than do fans of, say, chicklit with plenty of dialogue and short graphs. Hold off on discussion. I’ll be addressing this issue in one of my other posts.
And as noted earlier about the Sony: It’s also moving quickly (thanks for the latest, Richard).
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Comments:
David,
FWIW, the Sony Store has also been out of stock of the Sony Readers (silver version) for several weeks. I think Amazon’s announcement of the Kindle sparked an interest in ebooks and ebook readers, causing a high sales volume for the Christmas season.
In the U.S., I think Sony Readers sold very well (and I have no inside information, this is just an observation) for several reasons: Sony ran an ad campaign in October, which is when the holiday buying starts, and the Reader was available at Borders bookstores as well as several electronics chains, including Best Buy and Circuit City, all of which are national chains. I suspect that a lot of buyers who thought Kindle bought Sony because of the availability in the chain stores. Sony itself did a very poor advertising job after those October ads, which limited the sales.
I think this was the holiday season for the ebook readers. Of course, I don’t know whether Ilead, Sony, or Amazon only had stock of 5,000 units or 1 million units, so it is hard to judge the meaningfulness of any of them being out of stock. And, as I have ruminated before, it isn’t the number of holiday sales of devices that matter but the long-term sales of the ebooks. Once the holiday/newness effect has dissipated, how many of the receivers of these readers will continue to buy ebooks, as opposed to only downloading free ebooks or not downloading or buying any ebooks? That will be the ultimate determiner.
Although the Ilead, Kindle, and Reader are expensive toys, it would not be unusual to find a lot of them gathering dust in a closet rather than being used as ebook readers once the novelty has worn off.
FWIW, I placed an order for an iLiad on Monday with iRex’s U.S. distributor, whose web site reads, “iLiads in stock. Orders received by 4:00 PST will ship the same day.” If all goes as expected, I should have my iLiad in hand sometime tomorrow.
Todd, that’s great. I wonder what would explain the different situations. What’s the name and URL of the U.S. distributor you’re dealing with? Meanwhile enjoy your new iLiad! Keep us posted.- David
The Kindle and the Reader both share the same e-ink component as well. Thus the Kindle is causing a shortage that is also affecting Reader.
Kyle, great question you’re raising. Any specific URLs? Sounds logical, but would be fun to check out the specifics if see if there’s a cause-effect. We could be talking about long-term commitments. Thanks. David
[NOTE: Third attempt to get this post past the spam filter. Prices and shipping costs have been expunged and URLs have been removed or obfuscated.]
David asks:
The list of national distributors on the iRex web site pointed me to “eReaderOutfitters dot com.” By tossing in a few extra bucks for second day shipping I hope to have semi-instant gratification tomorrow.
I’m sure I shall. It will certainly provide a better reading experience than my trusty Palm TX, which is about to be replaced by an iPod Touch. Talk about gizmophile heaven — I’ll have two new e-readers to play with by the end of the week!
The reasons for my specific interest in the iLiad are probably probably much different than most folks here. I’m a very active amateur musician, and I’m going to try to unburden myself of several heavy folders and “fakebooks” of sheet music. The iLiad was my device of choice for this application since it has the largest screen currently available and supports annotation. I’m still not sure if the display will be large enough for this purpose, but I’ll find out soon.
What I really want is a Hanlin V9, but according to an item that appeared today on MobileRead there are production problems that will delay it from hitting the street until June at the earliest (and that’s according to the manufacturers’ undoubtedly optimistic estimates.)
Well, Todd, as I’ve said, keep us posted! As for the posting problem, my apologies. Even with the anti-spam Dobermans at work, we still might not be strict enough. In the future you or anyone else should feel free to email me when a post doesn’t go through (drNOSPAMteleread.com). Normally I can dig it out of of the Dobermans’ stomachs, but you can include the post just in case. Thanks! David
It is nice to see that one year later the situation with sales is more pleasant (from a customer’s point of view) – even if Sony or Irex are out of stock, readers can easily choose among other devices, thanks to increased number of the market players toady. New models coming from them often surprise with advantages and original design ideas.