I actually payed for an ebook last night (so I'm currently bitter:-)), and I came to the same conclusion as the last time I did it a couple years ago - it's crappy. You see, I like reading ebooks on my PDA (I also like real books, and often buy them even when I have the ebook, but that's another matter). I have a giant pile of free ebooks. They're nicely portable (on a device I carry around anyway), they're easy to share with fellow PDA users (without the risk of a real book being trashed or not returned) and they're easy to download. The temptation to pay money for them creeps in when I want a book right now, especially if it won't come out in paperback for ages, let alone come out in Australia.
Here's where it breaks down. First, they charge almost (and often exactly) the same as you'd pay for a hard copy, even though they don't have to pay for printing and shipping costs - only server space. Then they add DRM (digital rights management) which ruins the few advantages ebooks have. You can't loan it to your friends (like you would the actual, real book), you can't change the format (for example, you get stuck using something like Adobe's Palm Acrobat Reader which sucks so utterly I lack the words to describe it...), and you often have to register online at various stages providing even more information that you don't want to give out. Whenever I do this, I swear never to do it again (unfortunately every couple years I forget in a moment of weakness).
Then they wonder why ebooks don't sell.
I want to buy ebooks. But I want to buy them at a reduced cost and with no shonky security crap. Talk about failed business model. It seems the media types are just not willing to recognise that they aren't giving value for money, and people are voting with their wallets.
It's like the movie/TV show downloading thing. If it comes out in the US or UK a year before we get it here (if we get it at all) is it any wonder people download it in droves?
Why do current media moguls see their customers as the enemy? If they stopped suing us and started trying to entice us things might go more smoothly!
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Here's where it breaks down. First, they charge almost (and often exactly) the same as you'd pay for a hard copy, even though they don't have to pay for printing and shipping costs - only server space. Then they add DRM (digital rights management) which ruins the few advantages ebooks have. You can't loan it to your friends (like you would the actual, real book), you can't change the format (for example, you get stuck using something like Adobe's Palm Acrobat Reader which sucks so utterly I lack the words to describe it...), and you often have to register online at various stages providing even more information that you don't want to give out. Whenever I do this, I swear never to do it again (unfortunately every couple years I forget in a moment of weakness).
Then they wonder why ebooks don't sell.
I want to buy ebooks. But I want to buy them at a reduced cost and with no shonky security crap. Talk about failed business model. It seems the media types are just not willing to recognise that they aren't giving value for money, and people are voting with their wallets.
It's like the movie/TV show downloading thing. If it comes out in the US or UK a year before we get it here (if we get it at all) is it any wonder people download it in droves?
Why do current media moguls see their customers as the enemy? If they stopped suing us and started trying to entice us things might go more smoothly!