Originally Posted by Katsunami
Agree.
"The average person" is not smart enough with technology (*), not even in this day and age, to be using eBooks. If they even can use them without help (for example, buying on the Kindle, directly through the Kindle store), then at some point, they *will* hit the brick wall called DRM.
The average person will not understand why they cannot get the book they paid good money for on Amazon onto a Kobo reader, should they decide to switch. If they do understand that they have different formats and where smart enough to not buy a Kindle (as anything else uses ePUB), then they'll run into DRM some day; so even if they take care to use readers that can use the same format, it may still not work.
Als long as that sort of stuff is still true, then eBooks will never be simple. You know what simple is, and what every average computer user can do?
- Click book and pay.
- Press a big fat DOWNLOAD button to download the book.
- Connect your eReader to the computer, and drag/drop the file on top of the eReader icon.
- Profit! Read.
If you have a DRM-free ePUB, and an eReader that can handle ePub, it might actually work for some store / reader combinations. And it should work with any book from any store, and with any reader from any manufacturer. As long as that is not the case, it will not ever be simple.
I don't like a big part of the "digital reading experience" at all, to be honest. Too much jacking around with breaking DRM and converting formats to make sure that my very own, legally bought books stay readable in the (near) future. And even then, I don't even have certainty with regard to readability in 10, 20 or 50 years time (if I'm spared that long).
Why do I still read digitally nowadays?
- Lighted screens.
- Bigger font sizes.
- Custom font choices.
- Always good "print".
- Less weight, easy to carry 5 books if i want.
- Easy one handed reading.
- No cracking spines.
- No falling apart of a paperback during 3rd read.
- Free classics. Hundreds and thousands of them.
(*) Don't say that I'm discriminating or something; if you are reading this post, you are already not an average person anymore, and likely much more intelligent with regard to the usage of computers and technologies. I know many people in their 20's to 50's with good education and good jobs, who can not be described as being "dumb" or "stupid", but who are utterly inept at using any form of technology. If it has more than one button, it becomes difficult already, and if it involves a computer, their brain dies right when they sit down at it, and have to be told each individual action, like a child. And not only once: over and over again, because they just *can't get it*. If you teach them to copy/paste in Word, they will need to learn it all over again in Excel, and they can't understand that it also works with files, or entire folders. As long as eReading requires more actions than "download -> drop on reader", between any store and any brand of reader, it won't be ready for the big masses.
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