Sony’s Digital Reading Division president Steve Haber declared that eBook pricing has no simple solution. “There’s no sweet spot,” he concluded, opening a debate that lasted the rest of the morning.
Our digitally obsessed sibling eBookNewser described the speech: “He began with a little pep-talk for the Industry, saying, ‘in my experience it’s very natural’ to be scared of new technology, but that eReaders are ‘an opportunity to take the business to a whole new level.’ Nothing revolutionary there. Things got more interesting when Haber began comparing the book industry’s transition to digital to similar transitions in other media. He noted that while turntable manufacturer’s were miserable about the transition to CD, record companies found their back catalogs reselling. He indicated that publishing is in the same place.”
Finally, eBookNewser concluded: “[Haber] said DRM helped grow the industry, that it works for now, but might not later. And he asserted that Sony still plans to get the 3G Daily Edition of the Reader into stores before Christmas and urged publishers to ‘Make your content more interactive.'”