Sony e-books division survives Connect cull

[NickMilner]

According to paidContent.org Sony is closing its Connect service to concentrate on the Playstation brand.

In an all-hands meeting yesterday in Sony's offices in Los Angeles, employees were told that about 20-plus jobs are being phased out during this winding-down phase as a result of this closure. The eBooks division will remain however, as it will be servicing Sony Reader product.

Steve Banfield, the head of the Sony Connect division, will be leaving in the next few weeks, and Tim Schaaff and Fumi Kanagwa from Sony corporate will now run what's left of Connect engineering team. The remaining team of around 80 will be devoted support Playstation.

Luckily for us the eBooks division component of Connect will be kept on to support the Reader device.

This is a worrying turn of events.

[Lov2Read]

Sony has put a lot into the reader. I can't see them pulling the plug anytime soon. Of course, I don't know if profits have been encouraging for the reader and the e-books or not.

Do they plan on expanding the .lrf format so that books of that format can be bought through other e-book retailers or will .lrf remain only through Sony Connect?

[JSWolf]

If Sony does close the Connect brand, I would hope they'd give the ebooks to someone else to handle. I would love it to go to say Fictionwise if they did.

[Bob Russell]

This might actually be an advantage for the e-book side of things. I tend to think that the existing Connect music store must have put restrictions on how the e-book side could be designed and extended. Now that it's all about books, let's see what they can do with it.

[TadW]

SHOCK!

[Hadrien]

Not a big surprise... The PS3 is failing and Sony online services are way behind Xbox Live.
E-books was the only part of Connect which didn't completely failed: that's the only one that they're keeping. I do not have much faith in LRF as a format for DRMed book in the future: content is not Sony's line of work and they're barely supporting their service enough.

If they ever stop using LRF, they could update the firmware and enable the support for another format though, so as a device, I'm not afraid for the PRS-500...

[RWood]

Sony was never even a real player in the on-line music sales business. Most of their "sales" came from the Sony/Columbia brand music that others (like Apple) sold. Their music players have never been among the top sellers since the days of the Walkman and that was over 20 years ago.

Apple, the leader in emusic with their iTunes store, has called for the elimination of DRM and EMI among others have heard and responded to the call. Apple was right in not opening their DRM to other companies so that they could sell DRM emusic to the iPod base. If that many companies know the DRM system it will leak out only to be replaced by an even more invasive scheme.

I agree that with the closing of the emusic store the ebooks are now free to find their own course. In the US, Sony is the leader in dedicated e-ink readers. If DRM stays in ebooks, we need Sony to stick around in selling books. If DRM goes away so does our major dependence on Sony for new books.

When Sony finally entered the on-line emusic arena and the mp3 like portable music market (after years of tape cassettes and minidiscs) they were a johnny-come-lately where others had already staked out their positions and the whole scene was becoming an Apple vs. the commodity market. If you are not Apple, you sell on price and features alone. In that type of place there is no additional price to be paid for a brand name that is not iPod. With ebook readers it is different. Sony is the US leader in the e-ink market. It is in and established before the market takes off. It can win. We can all win.

[TadW]

Originally Posted by Hadrien

If they ever stop using LRF, they could update the firmware and enable the support for another format though, so as a device, I'm not afraid for the PRS-500...

Or we could upgrade the firmware for another format Seems like some of us here are on the right track

[Hadrien]

Originally Posted by TadW

Or we could upgrade the firmware for another format Seems like some of us here are on the right track

For open formats yes, but if you expect support from DRMed formats, then you'll need something much more official.

[TadW]

Originally Posted by Hadrien

For open formats yes, but if you expect support from DRMed formats, then you'll need something much more official.

True, true.

[NatCh]

I'm of the mind that it might be a good thing, it depends on whether what the music side of the game was holding the books back in any way. If they were, then their being out of the way might be a very good thing indeed.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hadrien

Not a big surprise... The PS3 is failing and Sony online services are way behind Xbox Live.
E-books was the only part of Connect which didn't completely failed: that's the only one that they're keeping. I do not have much faith in LRF as a format for DRMed book in the future: content is not Sony's line of work and they're barely supporting their service enough.

If they ever stop using LRF, they could update the firmware and enable the support for another format though, so as a device, I'm not afraid for the PRS-500...

But if Sony was to remove LRF support or make it so Readers could not be authorized to read the books people have already purchased, they'd be mighty pissed.

[TadW]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But if Sony was to remove LRF support or make it so Readers could not be authorized to read the books people have already purchased, they'd be mighty pissed.

Let's hope that this was not the only reason why Sony decided to continue the e-book devision. Let's hope they still believe in the Reader cause.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

I'd guess that, without the support of the rest of the Connect organization, the e-book store will ultimately flag. However, content was never Sony's thing. They need to concentrate on hardware, and now that the device is out, and LRF is a format to reckon with, they can get busy spreading LRF to Amazon, Borders, etc... they should be interested in Sony's hardware base, especially if the readers are selling well.

[gabcarac]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

I'd guess that, without the support of the rest of the Connect organization, the e-book store will ultimately flag. However, content was never Sony's thing. They need to concentrate on hardware, and now that the device is out, and LRF is a format to reckon with, they can get busy spreading LRF to Amazon, Borders, etc... they should be interested in Sony's hardware base, especially if the readers are selling well.

I think you are right. If this gets confirmed, I think Connect could have been a way to prove that the concept works, to then open up to other players who can concentrate on content. Fingers crossed this is explanation.