If You Can't Beat 'Em, Hook Up With Their Competition

[jasonkchapman]

An interesting press release from Borders, today.

It seems that Borders and Sony intend to get chummier, including the October launch of a co-branded version of Connect Store.

In this corner, Amazon and Kindle. In this corner, Borders and Sony. May the e-book readers win.

[jasonkchapman]

Here's the money quote:

"Borders is a world-class brand with incredible reach and influence,
and their commitment to e-books is a clear sign the category is moving
beyond the early adopter phase into the mainstream," said Stan Glasgow,
president and chief operating officer of Sony Electronics Inc. "We look
forward to working with Borders and the publishing community to broaden the audience by
delivering a greater selection of digital content to people who love to
read."

[Liviu_5]

Originally Posted by jasonkchapman

An interesting press release from Borders, today.

It seems that Borders and Sony intend to get chummier, including the October launch of a co-branded version of Connect Store.

In this corner, Amazon and Kindle. In this corner, Borders and Sony. May the e-book readers win.

This is very good news since as we know competition drives prices down...

[nekokami]

Interesting. Borders is another one of those stores with a bunch of clout that might be able to "encourage" publishers to make more of their content available as ebooks. But will they be willing to offer content only in the Sony format, thus limiting their potential customer base, or will they demand a pc or other platform reader?

And what about Barnes & Noble? I can't see them sitting still while Amazon and Borders both take off with ereaders. They had a deal with MS Reader and Adobe from 2000-2003, but gave up. Given the past history, I wonder if they're looking toward .ePub, perhaps on PDAs?

[junkml]

Originally Posted by nekokami

Interesting. Borders is another one of those stores with a bunch of clout that might be able to "encourage" publishers to make more of their content available as ebooks. But will they be willing to offer content only in the Sony format, thus limiting their potential customer base, or will they demand a pc or other platform reader?

And what about Barnes & Noble? I can't see them sitting still while Amazon and Borders both take off with ereaders. They had a deal with MS Reader and Adobe from 2000-2003, but gave up. Given the past history, I wonder if they're looking toward .ePub, perhaps on PDAs?

Remember that B&N was the original partner with Nuvomedia for the Rocket Ebook. Considering how that ended up, I can see them being pretty shy about getting into ebooks, unless they see a sure fire winner.

[jasonkchapman]

Originally Posted by junkml

Remember that B&N was the original partner with Nuvomedia for the Rocket Ebook. Considering how that ended up, I can see them being pretty shy about getting into ebooks, unless they see a sure fire winner.

I could see them being willing to join a successful Borders/Sony coalition, though, if it looks like a chance to kick Amazon. That could make for some interesting market fireworks. The friend of my friend's next door neighbor is my enemy's third cousin and all that.

[nekokami]

I can't see B&N going in with Borders on anything. (Unless the rumors a while back about the merger turn out to be true after all.)

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Liviu_5

This is very good news since as we know competition drives prices down...

I've noticed that Sony is pretty good for prices on ebooks. They are better then MobiPocket and sometimes Fictionwise (without club pricing). I see ebook prices quoted in the forum and then go to Sony Connect and see the price being about the same or a little lower. Overall in terms of support for the Reader, Sony is doing a pretty good job overall. Having Borders on board is only going to make it better.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by nekokami

But will they be willing to offer content only in the Sony format, thus limiting their potential customer base, or will they demand a pc or other platform reader?

Sony's already committed to supporting .epub, perhaps Borders will to ....

[JSWolf]

This was originally posted by Fugbot in another thread. I combined it here so we don't start a second thread.

The Home page had a recent story about the Border's beta site. Here are more details that should be good news for Reader owners. Mobileread was even mentioned in the second post.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/...19092007-1.htm

http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2007...d-ebook-store/

[jasonkchapman]

Publishers Weekly has gone a little bit beyond the press release on this story. It confirms our hopes that Borders will add its weight to Sony's in trying to sway publishers.

To increase the selection of e-books, Borders’ merchandise team will encourage large publisher to put more of their backlist in e-book format, and also urge mid-sized and small publishers to add e-books. [Borders spokesperson Anne] Roman hopes that Borders’ support of the e-book market will convince publishers who have hesitated about getting into the format to get into the business.