Another Industry Event I’m Not Invited To

Posted on May 5, 2009 by dmoynihan

But Dennis McCunney is.  Sniff.

Well, fine, out of spite and cake-deprivation, I’ll just say, Kindle DX looks to announce a trial program with a few universities, and we’ll have to wait and see what other toys are in the device, aside from an internal .pdf viewer.

Now, education is the holy grail of ebooks, and Amazon’s announcing itself to be in the lead, but that market is still getting started (unlike “Home Ebooks,” the market for which is essentially over.)

So while Amazon’s got a head start, maybe it’s my frosting envy, but maybe, just maybe, Windows Netbooks with PixelQi screens are coming soon, and some other partnerships will be announced w/ Microsoft,* and this is only the first salvo.

In either case, expect glowing newspaper reports!

I’m going to the bakery.

*Actually, I bought that MSI Wind for a reason beyond lightening my load on short trips.  Speculating, but, 94% of all netbooks now run XP…

About dmoynihan

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  • DMcCunney

    Actually, someone else got the invite, had to bail, and I got asked to fill in. Feel better know?

    Will you be at Digitl Book 2009 next Monday/Tuesday? (http://www.idpf.org/digitalbook09/). If so, see you there.

  • http://www.munseys.com dmoynihan

    Nah, I’ll be at BEA later this month. But let me know if Sony shows. :)

  • bowerbird

    idpf is having a meeting next week?

    it will be interesting to see how much
    news coverage they get, compared to
    the amount that amazon got this week. ; )

    -bowerbird

  • DMcCunney

    I expect the coverage will be next to none, compared to the Kindle. But I doubt the idpf will care, or should. They aren’t Amazon, trying to sell a boatload of Kindles to the general public. They’re an industry group, and the people whose opinions they care about are likely to mostly be at the show.

  • bowerbird

    and gosh, they’ll have a lot to talk about, eh?

    shortcovers, scrollmotion, lexcycle, kindle pdf, adobe…

    the list just goes on and on, doesn’t it? ; )

    -bowerbird

  • DMcCunney

    Sony showed, and Robert Nell presented. (I think Sony also catered the lunch that was served.)

    Nell indicated Sony was pleased with the Reader’s progress so far, but while talking about sales increases and double the number of retailers deciding to carry it, he didn’t mention actual numbers. No surprise.

  • bowerbird

    the numbers are not impressive.

    never have been. never will be.

    what’s impressive is that they are
    even making the effort. hurray!

    -bowerbird

  • DMcCunney

    Depends on what you consider impressive.

    I saw some debate back when about whether Sony was in it for the long term, given that they’d killed the Clie PDA line because it wasn’t profitable enough. Sony sells consumer electronics. They need to sell a *lot* of them to make it worth their doing it. I doubt they’ve come anywhere near that so far, but they were motivated to move the Reader operations to the US to be closer to where they saw the market as being, and they’ve remained motivated enough to launch the 700.

    Sony apparently thinks there’s a big enough market to justify being in it, and is seeing good enough numbers that they continue to be in it, in anticipation of doing better.

    We’ll see if they are justified.

  • bowerbird

    well, be realistic about things…

    the reason sony is committed to their reader
    is because it was the pet project of the c.e.o.

    if that weren’t the case, they would’ve ditched
    the endeavor a long time ago, i would suspect,
    because the “profits” certainly weren’t worth it.

    of course, that’s also why amazon is committed
    to _their_ machine. so the difference, of course,
    boils down to the fact that amazon has inventory
    and sony doesn’t, which is why sony’s numbers
    are never going to merit the term “impressive”…
    they’re always gonna be an also-ran to amazon.
    but it’s good they’re in the race to keep jeff busy.

    -bowerbird

  • bowerbird

    and by “inventory”, of course, i mean e-books to sell —
    ones people want to buy, and customers to buy them…

    even if sony had the same books, and the same resolve
    to lose money now to establish the long-term market
    – money, frankly, sony does _not_ have right now –
    it still can’t boast the customer-base to make it work…

    sony can make money down the line here, they can…
    and, like i said, i’m sure glad that they’re in the race.
    but they’ll never be the market leader in this arena…

    -bowerbird

  • DMcCunney

    “the reason sony is committed to their reader is because it was the pet project of the c.e.o.”

    Looked at Sony’s numbers lately? They have problems, like half the rest of the businesses in the current economy. If they didn’t have positive trends to point to, even if a product wasn’t currently profitable, the CEO would have a hard time continuing to justify it to the board, now matter how much of a pet product it might be.

    “of course, that’s also why amazon is committed to _their_ machine. so the difference, of course, boils down to the fact that amazon has inventory
    and sony doesn’t, which is why sony’s numbers are never going to merit the term “impressive”… they’re always gonna be an also-ran to amazon.
    but it’s good they’re in t he race to keep jeff busy.”

    I’ve assumed from the beginning that Sony was in it to sell devices, and Amazon was in it to sell books. That was confirmed when Amazon added the iPhone as a supported device. Revenue from Kindle sales is good, but selling ebooks is the point.

    But as mentioned, Sony needs to sell a *lot* of devices to make it worth doing. I doubt they are near where they might wish to be, but they appear to feel they’ll get there. (And Nell indicated they were happy with the way the Sony Store was doing as well.)

  • DMcCunney

    “and by “inventory”, of course, i mean e-books to sell — ones people want to buy, and customers to buy them…”

    Sure. And Sony doesn’t have Amazon’s inventory. But it’s “ones people want to buy” that is critical. Amazon has far more in total, but an awful lot of that is relatively marginal titles, that aren’t going to be a tipping point for most people deciding on a reader.

    “even if sony had the same books, and the same resolve to lose money now to establish the long-term market – money, frankly, sony does _not_ have right now – it still can’t boast the customer-base to make it work…”

    Sony seems to think differently. If they didn’t, I’d have expected them to pull the plug already.

    “sony can make money down the line here, they can… and, like i said, i’m sure glad that they’re in the race. but they’ll never be the market leader in this arena…”

    In any market of any size, there will always shake out to two or three big outfits dominating the market, and a bunch of smaller players targeting niches. If the market id big enough, I don’t think Sony will turn down the number 2 slot…

  • bowerbird

    and so we end up where we started… : )

    the numbers are not impressive.

    never have been. never will be.

    what’s impressive is that they are
    even making the effort. hurray!

    -bowerbird

  • bowerbird

    happened to come across this old post.

    sony has fallen down, and can’t get up.

    i was right, and dmccunney was wrong.

    -bowerbird

  • DMcCunney

    I’m quite capable of being wrong, but your post leaves me unclear on just what you think I was wrong *about*.
    ______
    Dennis

  • http://www.munseys.com dmoynihan

    I have to add: “home ebooks”–err, B&N has something to say about it.