Re: Reading hardware

I've received lots of response to my initial question, some snotty and most constructive. I appreciate it. 

A lot of people in this community have been writing or using eBooks for a long time. You are discussing file formats and technical issues that the average reader knows nothing about. Nor are they interested. All they are interested in is reading books. The vast majority of them want to read The Bonfire of the Vanities, not manuals or off-beat sci-fi. 

When I posed the initial question about what readers people might buy, I wasn't talking about how the readers work or how you can trick a Kindle into reading a file from B&N or whatever. I was asking from a marketing point of view. 

I am interested in reaching the mass market with my books. Not just a select eBook community. And the mass market is growing fast. Right now, I don't think the average citizen knows what to buy. To them, the riddle is whether to choose the Apple tablet or the Kindle. Oh yeah, then there's the Sony. But I think within the next six months, things will sort themselves out and the general public will know where they can buy ebooks online and from which readers to access them. Right now this information is changing by the day. 

I think the market will be driven by what books people can download to their readers. Amazon, like it or not, handles a massive and comprehensive library. Apple contracts individually with publishers, which limits them. 

Will Kindle limit its sales if it only interfaces easily with the Amazon store? I don't think so. Beginning in June, Amazon is upping the commission to writers to 65% of the sales price, higher than B&N or anyone else, encouraging a horde of people like me to send in manuscripts. 

Although Amazon isn't a hardware manufacturer, they do know how to read a book. All the reviews say that the Kindle offers a better reading experience than the Apple iPad. but the Apple product is more versatile....the debate goes on and on. 

To rephrase my question, what reader do you think will predominate among mass market readers who have no technical ability whatsoever and no interest in acquiring any? 



------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------
Post a message:   ebook-community [[at]] *
Unsubscribe:      ebook-community-unsubscribe [[at]] *
Switch to digest: ebook-community-digest [[at]] *
Switch to normal: ebook-community-normal [[at]] *
Put mail on hold: ebook-community-nomail [[at]] *
Administrator:    ebook-community-owner [[at]] *

(* == yahoogroups.com)
-------------------------------------------------------Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ebook-community/

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ebook-community/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    [email protected] 
    ebook-community-fullfeatured-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@public.gmane.org

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    ebook-community-unsubscribe-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@public.gmane.org

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/