Comments on: Amazon, B&N and Sony Ebook Price Comparison

By: Rachel Stirn

Rachel Stirn — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 02:19:39 +0000

I am very impressed with the Kindle. While I have not had time to become totally familiar with all of its capabilities it is very easy to use, even for one in his 70’s. I received it just before leaving on an extended trip and it was a pleasure to use on crowded airplanes and to pull out as idle moments presented themselves.

By: Inkmesh

Inkmesh — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:54:59 +0000

We agree. We will put up a comparison with Fictionwise club prices at some point. Stay tuned.

By: Keith Carscadden

Keith Carscadden — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 20:03:37 +0000

I second Paul Durrant – I would like to see the comparison with Fictionwise using their Club prices. While many people buy only a few books a year, I expect that most people currently buying ebooks buy many more.

By: Paul Durrant

Paul Durrant — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:58:28 +0000

An interesting comparison, and relevant if you’re trying to buy a single book. But grossly unfair to fictionwise if you’re interested in buying a lot of books.

I recently added up my spend at fictionwise this year. I’ve bought 147 books from January to November from fictionwise, for a net cost of $431.85. Checking the Kindle ebook prices, I would have had to pay $827.02 for them from Amazon, so I made a net saving over the Kindle prices of $395.17 or 47% of the Kindle price.

Of course, if I’d paid Fictionwise retail price (i.e. the RRP set by the publishers) for the books, they would have cost me $1090.

My average ebook price for the year was $2.94. Retail average for the books I bought was $7.41, Amazon average was $5.63, so my books were a little bit cheaper on average than your (much larger) selection.

For now I’ll stick with Fictionwise.

By: Emily

Emily — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 23:37:27 +0000

You’ve entirely forgotten something big: library books. If you’re interested in finding out how much *using* one of these devices costs, consider that I get 50-75% of my ebooks for free from the library. I agree, though, that Sony isn’t really trying. I doubt they’re really interested in running an ebook store; they’re only doing it to sell devices. If Amazon or B&N started using ePub format, I bet Sony would quit trying to sell books within 6 months.

By: eBook Reader

eBook Reader — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:22:35 +0000

Thanks for the comparisons! This is valuable information and is a hot topic for a lot of people looking into buying an ebook reader.

I’m glad to see B&N being as competitive as they are; this will ramp up competition and ultimately benefit the consumer.

And I’m really surprised to see Sony rank so low.