Another major player enters the ebook market
I first found PeanutPress in 1998 while looking for sites that offered ebooks. Over the years, Peanut Press has been through various owners, including Palm, Inc, which renamed the ereading software PalmReader. Then PalmReader was sold (again) and became known as eReader. It’s still known as eReader today, but is once again under new ownership – Fictionwise, itself another ebook retail site, which wisely kept the two sites separate.
Fictionwise was recently purchased by Barnes & Noble, a major book retailer in the States.
All the above is my roundabout way to say there is now another major player in the ebook market.
For me, there have always been two major players – amazon.com and Barnes & Nobles – maybe because I’ve purchased from them before, despite being located halfway around the world from them. There is a major difference between them – amazon.com is a virtual bookstore, whereas Barnes & Noble is a traditional bookstore with a physical address and outlets around the States.
When I read the news, I thought for a while and realised that, as far as I know, the Barnes & Noble site does not sell ebooks. Well, according to an article in The New York Times’ Gadgetwise section, it used to, but stopped in 2003. The same article also said
The move positions Barnes & Noble to enter the e-book market and compete with Amazon.com as a distributor of digital content.
Aha …
Smart move.
Instead of starting from scratch, B&N has re-entered the ebook market through two established ebookstores.
According to another article in Trading Markets, “Barnes & Noble said it plans to use Fictionwise as part of its overall digital strategy, which includes the launch of an e-Bookstore later this year.”
When I first read of the purchase, I thought one of the things that would happen would be an update of the B&N site to include links to both Fictionwise and eReader. Instead, there will be an e-Bookstore … wait a minute, I wonder if that means Fictionwise and eReader will be merged into the store? Can only wait for further announcements.
The good news gets better. The Gadgetwise article ends with a mention of the news about Fictionwise being “named as a content provider for the company, based in Mountain View, Calif., which plans to release its own e-reader later this year.”
Ooo …
A hop over to the Plastic Logic site for more information got me very excited. The Plastic Logic e-reader hardware will support a wide range of document types, including PDF, DOC(X), XLS(X), PPT(X), TEXT, RTF, HTML, JPEG, PNG, BMP, ePub, and eReader Format.
eReader format – that’s the format of my ebook collection. I’ve been waiting for this ever since Amazon announced the Kindle.
Up to now, I’ve stayed away from any thoughts of replacing the eReader software in my Palm TX. One reason is because the Palm TX is still working very well. The other reason is because none of the ereading hardware so far (Kindle and Sony Reader) support the eReader format. Now, one is coming that will support it.
Hooray … except for one possible hardware flaw.
Plastic Logic has listed its ereader hardware’s specs as Thin (<7mm), lightweight (<16 oz), form factor of 8.5″ x 11”.
8.5″ x 11″?
That’s the size of a sheet of paper.
Too big, even tho’ thin and lightweight.
Hopefully, Plastic Logic will see the logic in making its ereader hardware smaller, or even offering two sizes – the 8.5″ x 11″ and half that.
Meanwhile, I’m still enjoying my growing ebook collection in my Palm TX.
