Sony Reader starts the Avalanche

And so it has begun...

Having taken a few weeks away from my usual geeking out on tech news (thanks a lot, TAKS!), I just found out about the price drop on Sony's entry level eReader.

They dropped the price a while back, and now it's pretty much settled in to a ~$150 USD range. Quite nice.

Will this bring about more price drops? Because, quite honestly, for a truly niche device, I can't see folks dropping more that a Ben Franklin (that's $100 USD) one one. Look around at other niche devices. MP3 players, cell phones (maybe not so niche), tennis shoes, even point-and-shoot cameras. Entry level items of these nature fall into that single bill price range.

Sure, the iPod is a bit more, but not much. You could go for the iPod shuffle for even less, that that only supports my theory here. Cell phones have it right, and I think that's the future for the model of eReader business.

Remember those Columbia or BMG music offers? 8 albums/cassettes/CDs with the promise to buy X more in the next year or two? Yeah, that's it. Cell phones do it with a locked in contract. Sign a contract, get a bad ass reader (not just an entry level, but one with 3G or touchscreen...) and agree to buy twelve books in the next two years. Everyone wins, wouldn't they? Maybe book a month? Who knows?

I'll continue watching these trends and wait a bit more, as my tablet is still holding up.

Kris, take note: eBooks are here and aren't going away...

eReaders: Stock Trends?

My brother turned my onto a short article over at Benzinga that discussed briefly the current trend with eReaders and some quick long term projections.

Personally, I can see this happening. I'm hyped about this technology not only as a consumer, but the potential to students and teachers everywhere. eBooks and eReaders can easily address this while avoiding much of the problems with "just laptops", but I'll save that for another day.

Check out Sam Subramanian's article here.

Best thing in the article? The real purty picture of the Skiff. Eye candy...

Shazam!

Kindle Apps for Tablets, oh my!

I really like my Gateway M275 laptop, especially since it only cost my $50, in lieu of a true eBook reader (namely Kindle, Sony Reader or the Nook). But software-wise, I've had to somewhat settle on a few things.

Lately, I've been using Sony's Reader software. Honestly, it's quite nice with working with most formats. I do wish that it would do a few more things with the PDF format, but it works well nonetheless.

For magazines, I've been using Zinio. Not bad, but leaves something to be desired.

And for .lit files, there's good ol' Microsoft Reader. Like a rusted old tractor, it may not be pretty, but it works.

But just announced was that the Kindle software will soon be available for all tablets, including the iPad.

While not having much experience with the Kindle, this basically opens up the entire Amazon library. That is so much better than say Microsoft's Reader store, and honestly, I hope the interface is better than Sony Reader software.

Let's keep our fingers crossed, shall we?