Quote:
Originally Posted by seajewel
I guess it confuses me that Amazon primarily is a book seller, but they choose a format incompatible with every other device out there
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Two points to consider on this:
1- As pointed out, epub did not exist when amazon was designing Kindle and they started to build their product catalog. So it is factually incorrect to say they chose an incompatible format: Rather, they chose not to entrust control of a critical value-add element of their existing business to somebody else when epub was annointed as a "standard" and chose not to *pay* adobe for the "privilege" of being a generic client of *their* propietary ebook ecosystem. Note the fate of Sony, who before Kindle had the most mature ebook system on the planet and gave up *their* proprietary ecosystem to join the herd.
2- Amazon is primarily a bookseller, yes; but their goal isn't merely to sell a few extra ebooks today. Rather, they play for the long haul so they don't settle for selling a book and instead use the books and the gadgets to sell *themselves* to the consumers. By selling consumers on their entire ecosystem (gadgets, apps, cloud services, whispernet, customer support, etc) they sell ebooks now and tomorrow. Another way to put is they aren't interested in securing a short term ebook sales relationship as much as in securing loyal customers for a long-term relationship. Not everybody wants to make such a long term commitment, which is fine. Different strokes and all that.
One size does not fit all, nor does one business model suit all companies or all buyers.