Amazon’s Kindle DX is sweet, but overpriced. (How many times will we have to pay for the same R&D.) Predictably, the other kids on the block step in to steal a bit of thunder.
Sony is making its eReaders available to purchase online through BestBuy.ca and Futureshop.ca. Check out the press release here. This is a great move because Sony’s Readers are not tethered to the U.S. market with Whispernet the way that Kindle is and any new technology needs to be available everywhere to be fully adopted.
These companies need to get their eBook Readers into the consumers’ hands. Traditional books go hand-in-hand with, well hands, and people need to touch an eBook Reader to get the picture. They’re just newfangled thingamabobby phones or gameboydealies, otherwise, yah?
And Rupert Murdoch confirms that he is indeed working on his Mystery Machine again. Read the story here at the Guardian UK. Flushed out of the lab by Kindle DX’s arrival, the article suggests Rupert has refined his plans for an eReader. (Though his discerning observation: “The current days of the internet will soon be over” has us concerned.) Other than past glories he’s thinking newspapers and magazines and broadsheets. Oh… he also plans to start charging for online content again…which will not work in a million years…unless he plans to subvert the free Internet as we know it. The truth is the business has changed and it needs a new business model. Profits will never be the same for poor Rupert. Sniff…
