Everyone Wants a Kindle – But Only for $50
Posted 09/06/09 at 04:14:59 PM by Justin Kerr
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Avid bookworms will swear by their Kindles, but according to a new study released on Wednesday, e-readers will likely never go main stream as long as the price hovers around the current $199-$489 range. "The price points for how most consumers value e-readers is shockingly low -- for most segments, between $50 and $99," Rotman Epps said. "To reach the largest market possible, the prices will need to come way down." Currently the biggest obstacle to hitting the $50 price is the e-ink display itself which costs roughly $60 all on its own. Device makers can be expected to "look for alternative providers of displays if E Ink can't bring its prices down fast enough," Rotman Epps said.
Everything comes down in price over time, but to see the kind of growth that most companies expect, analysts expect e-reader manufactures to explore subsidy based business models, partnering with either network providers, or newspapers to help offset the cost of the device. Rotman Epps said its "a reasonable assumption" that network operators and newspapers will only subsidize e-readers if they can recover their costs by enticing consumers to sign up for long-term data plans that command monthly fees. "
The survey estimated that approximately two million e-readers will be sold in 2009 at current prices, bringing the total install base up to about three million by the end of the year. Forrester also estimates that this only represents about 12 percent of the maximum addressable market at the $199 price point.
What would you pay?
Nada, Zip, Zero, Zilch, until
Submitted by VaMage on Tue, 09/08/2009 - 9:40am
I actually own the books I'm buying for it. NO, "oops sorry but the
book we sold you is gone", and I don't care what the reason was.I buy, on average, 3 paperbacks, and 2 hardcover books a month, plus 3
magazines, not counting AD ASTRA and The Planetary Report. No way on
earth I'm going to pay the prices Amazon wants for them, much less for
only a "license to read them subject to the providers whim". Screw that.When I buy a REAL book I OWN it, unless you come into my home and go
Fahrenheit 451 on it. So no way, at least until the damned DRM is history. I'll think about it when I can copy
it out to disk; so Amazon, or who ever, can't suddenly decide they
don't like me and pull my books, as has already happened at least once,
as reported right here on MaxPC.Why don't people ever learn? I said this for years about DRM music, and now it's
just about history, AND a lot of you are finding out that so is your
music as the RIAA insists it has the right to pull down the DRM
servers. Do you honestly think that these readers will be any
different?Last point, you have how many different competing formats that are 100%
propietary, and 100% incompatible? When the one you picked, and bought a couple hundred books for, LOSES, what-cha-gonna-do?
VaMage
American by Birth, But Southern by the Grace of God.
Submitted by bigbasspa on Tue, 09/08/2009 - 7:34am
Been an avid reader for most of my life and never thought an ebook reader could ever replace the printed page but after using my Kindle for the last six weeks, I love it. After a few days reading the Kindle was no different than reading a 'normal' book. I was concerned that I would not be able to achieve that state where you no longer see the words on the page, when they just go straight to your sub-concious - I guess you know what I mean, well I had nothing to worry about. Once you forget you are reading from a Kindle, you lose yourself in a book just as much as with paper.
However, it's not just that, it's the convenience of being able to read any Kindle book within seconds with 1-click ordering. It's the bonus of getting free downloads of book sample (typically the first chapter or two). It's the convenience of being able to subscribe to newspapers and get nearly all of the news content formatted in a way that makes them easy to read on the Kindle. And, from my wife's perspective, it's heaven-sent as I am no longer adding to the piles and piles of books I already have.
The one drawback for me is that the rate of book conversions to Kindle is not as rapid as I had hoped - there are still many books I want that are not yet available but I am happy to be patient as long as there is plenty of stuff available now, including many free books or books selling for only a buck or two.
I am no Amazon fanboy but unless you have spent a few days using a Kindle you can't really appreciate what an amazing and user-friendly device it is.
Submitted by canman56 on Mon, 09/07/2009 - 8:20am
If they can get the price down to $99 I would buy one in a heartbeat. If it's just a reader, that sounds like the right price point.
Submitted by Balgaroo on Mon, 09/07/2009 - 2:00am
I will when I can get my monthly issue of MaxPC on it! Haveing a color one would also help, just to get the full effect of all the wonderful ads!
Submitted by thafrogggg on Sun, 09/06/2009 - 8:56pm
I prefer them over the hard copy versions now. I have an E-library of about 1500 books now, all on one device. Currently my Dell Axim X51V. For my upcoming birthday on the 12th of this month, I just purchased a Sony PRS-505 Ereader. This was after literally over 6 months of research.
The Kindle, while a great machine, has a lot of things that I really do not need. The Iliad is like "Lamborghini" of Ereaders and you pay the "Lamborghini" price for one. I even looked at some of the upstart Ereaders like the COOL-ER, and the new one from Foxit. They are more in keeping with what I consider to be an E-book reader, but after looking at them and reading reviews from owners, I decided on the Sony because display background is a bit more white and clear, and that makes the text more easily read.
I paid $250 for it through Amazon, so I guess that is about how much I would pay for one.
Also, with any of these readers, you are not "Locked" into buying books from only them. There are some great programs like Calibre out that will manage your ebook collection and can even convert your books to different formats for you. If you like a book that is not offered in a format that your ereader supports, but it anyway and use it to convert the book to a supported format.
Submitted by ETNPNYS on Sun, 09/06/2009 - 8:40pm
I agree with a few of the posts below mine: I would love to have one if it were under $100 and the books cost around $5.
I don't care too much about sharing my books around, and I don't really even care if they're DRM'ed. But the mere though that the creator of the device could just delete all my crap just cuz they want to is what keeps me away. That's insanity. Amazon really screwed the pooch on that one - for the entire product line.
<><
Submitted by MeTo on Sun, 09/06/2009 - 8:19pm
What would i pay for Kindle Ah nothing. If they want me to buy there DRM books give me the e-reader. they want to make money selling the e-readers and the books. They should peddle these like the cell phone company's do with cell phones. Free e-reader if you buy a book a month. Dam i should patient that idea.
I would not buy one of these
Submitted by Jox on Sun, 09/06/2009 - 7:01pm
I would not buy one of these if they were 10 dollars. Call me old fashioned, but I like the feel and smell of a book. I like to be able to put post-it notes in pages of particular interest. I like displaying all my books in a bookcase so that when friends come over they can say "Oh, you read that too? What did you think of such and such?"
I'm a great fan of technology, but I just don't think an ebook is any kind of improvement over a regular book. I cannot foresee a time when I will ever own one of these devices.
-Jox
It's a DRM'd Newton - but less
Submitted by theqman on Sun, 09/06/2009 - 9:12pm
I'm right there with you. I have a library at home with hundreds of titles, both hard back and paperback. Many are like old friends. My favorite authors take a year to come out with something new. So, I'll go back and read from the first of the series over again. I must have read the first book of the Wheel of time series at least 7 times. After that, I felt I knew the story pretty well. But, I've read all the others at least 2-3 more times too.
This just reminds me of the Newtown back around the turn of the century. It was too big to put into your pocket, and just not large enough to do anything else, except be a paperwieght when not being read.
I can read hundreds of books on my PocketPC or Palm just as well (and have, and currently DO). I have about 50-60 books on my palm alone - Courtesy of Baen.com's free library. Most I've read. Some are for reference. Others.. I occasionally check out a new author. Therefore, I never see myself purchasing one of these, or anything like it. Why would I? My downloads never expire. And I can purchase an eBook that will last forever AND that I can put on multiple devices. Some of the books I have have been on the last 4 PDA's I've had. Including PocketPC, Palm, Handspring etc.
The whole DRM thing kills me too. LOL, seriously, you can download, rip or copy hundreds of songs very quickly. They're not that large. But in books, one byte = one character. 1,000 bytes = 1KiloByte or about one page. 1 MB is about 1,000 pages - or,.. "War and Peace". Thousands of books can be copied much faster - but who would want to do that. When was the last time I thought to myself, "Hmmm... self, what quiet, relaxing, or upbeat book would I like to have as my background noise while I work?"
And while I DO have many books on my palm, I too much prefer the book in my hand, sans batteries, that I can dogear, with print large enough to easily read - in both night and day modes - the print never washes out.
==============================
Never send a man to do a grenade's job"
==============================
Not until it's cheaper...
Submitted by naxself on Sun, 09/06/2009 - 5:44pm
I read A LOT, both for pleasure and for work. In order for a Kindle to be useful to me, it has to do everything I need (reading, noting, etc.) and it has to be cheaper. I would pay $50-100 for a Kindle, so long as books were between $5 and 10 (incl. books I need for work). Not only that, but the Kindle needs to learn to display newspapers correctly.
The Kindle has the potential to be a killer app. It just needs to be refined.
Submitted by fnordfnord on Sun, 09/06/2009 - 5:40pm
Let me make one thing clear. I would love a Kindle, love one. But I will not purchase a device in which another party retains the unilateral ability to access files on it.
Period.
I'm only one sale, to be sure, but Amazon lost me forever on this. Customers have longer memories than companies think when they're considering the risk/benefit ratio of shady practices. Iomega's click of death, RealNetworks phoning home, Sony root-kit CD's, and now Amazon Orwellion Debacle. Hope it was worth it to all of them.
D-I-Y Time!
Submitted by Havok on Sun, 09/06/2009 - 5:16pm
Since e-reader products can be pricey, I hacked my PSP into an e-reader all in itself! PDF, .txt, HTML, you name it!
OMGWTFBBQ
Submitted by BobSniders on Sun, 09/06/2009 - 5:06pm
Kindle has the potential to be a great technology. Allowing you the freedom to read any book, at any time, without carrying a backback full of dead trees. Unfortunately, the problem here is with digital rights. When you buy a real book, it is yours and nobody can take it away. When you "buy" a book from Amazon using the Kindle, it isn't yours, you only buy the revokable temporary permission to view it under specific conditions. In other word, it is licensed to you. Recently, Amazon's action of remotely deleting 1984 from a number of customers is just an example of what may happen. You can read more about it on Slashdot here
Where Kindle might actually be usedul is with books you really need for a short time, but usually have no intention of keeping long term. A perfect example is textbooks. The are super expensive (cost me like $400 a term) and are next to useless when the semester is over. The publisher change edition fast such that you can't even sell yours in the used market as soon as the term is over. For those books I will not mind renting it from Kindle for a small fee and then letting them take it back. If that doesn't happen, then your best bet is to buy used or trade. For those Canadians here, I found good results using services like Wishabi.ca's textbook search to avoid paying full price.
Don't get me wrong, the Kindle is good and has the potential to be truly amazing, but with the current terms, you're not really buying books. You're renting it.
Submitted by snapple00 on Sun, 09/06/2009 - 5:37pm
In my opinion textbooks would be a horrible pain to read on the kindle. The only reason I could see this working is if all you do with your textbooks is read them straight through and don't take notes or have to do math problems.
Otherwise, I usually flip back and forth multiple times between pages, have some others marked for quick reference etc. Not to mention I personally like to keep a lot of my textbooks and not sell them back.
I just don't see the kindle replacing books.
I don't read that many novels anymore, but there is something satisfying about turning each page and slowly reaching the end having a huge clump of pages in your other hand that you have just read.
I'll buy one when it costs
Submitted by Techrocket9 on Sun, 09/06/2009 - 4:51pm
I'll buy one when it costs $10.00 and the books come in an unlocked format.
_____________________________________________________
An army of pacifists can be defeated by one man with the will to fight.
And Apple and Microsoft
Submitted by gendoikari1 on Sun, 09/06/2009 - 5:27pm
And Apple and Microsoft would hug each other and allow Mac OS to be (legitimately) released on non-Apple hardware.
Submitted by snapple00 on Sun, 09/06/2009 - 5:38pm
More like Apple and Microsoft would turn gay and get married.
Submitted by Techrocket9 on Sun, 09/06/2009 - 7:32pm
Apple is asexual.
_____________________________________________________
An army of pacifists can be defeated by one man with the will to fight.
Submitted by dread_ire on Sun, 09/06/2009 - 4:36pm
Why would I pay over $200 for a device that only displays books in a proprietary format, when I can buy a Netbook for about the same or not much more. The price definitely needs to hit under the $100 mark.
I read a lot of books for
Submitted by Tekzel on Sun, 09/06/2009 - 4:06pm
I read a lot of books for pleasure. Before I buy an e-book, they would have to 1) get the device down below 100 bucks, and 2) make the e-versions of books significantly less than the paper version. At least half the price. I can resell my paper books and offset the cost.
Submitted by Radiogrrl on Sun, 09/06/2009 - 2:56pm
I thought the Kindle would be pefect for my Mom because she reads a lot, but she won't get one not only because it's too expensive, but also because then she and her friends can't trade books with each other. That's more important to her than the convenience of the Kindle.
Personally, I think that's why the Kindle will ultimately fail to make a major impact. Part of the culture of many book readers is the lending of books among them. It saves a lot of money and it's an excuse for my Mom and her friends to get together.
Sure, some people will value the convenience Kindle offers, but it's not going to be that attractive to many who just read for pleasure.
Submitted by DriZzLe on Sun, 09/06/2009 - 2:32pm
$200+ for a black & gray screen that does nothing but display text? I payed less for an Atom processor eee pc that does almost everything.
Submitted by Vegan on Sun, 09/06/2009 - 2:12pm
"The price points for how most consumers value e-readers is shockingly low -- for most segments, between $50 and $99,"
I don't find that shocking at all. I'll never pay triple digits for a device that does nothing out of the box except enable me to then start paying more money for books.
Submitted by barchu02 on Sun, 09/06/2009 - 2:10pm
I can't get into using a e-reader i find it hard to read long books/articles on a computer screen or kindle!
http://www.benarchuleta.com
I'd gladly pay you tuesday
Submitted by D.E. on Sun, 09/06/2009 - 1:38pm
I'd gladly pay you tuesday for a hamburger today.
It would unnerve me if they
Submitted by WindowsXP on Mon, 09/07/2009 - 10:50am
It would unnerve me if they put DRM in the e-books. Hopefully I can import PDF files
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