Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
As long as you are willing to lose all your Kindle books, fine. But otherwise you are locked in to Amazon. Yeah, yeah, I know you can strip and convert, but are you the average consumer? I doubt it. Average consumer who doesn't know about formats and limitations is buying Kindle without realizing the implications down the line.
True enough. But simply because Kindle is the market leader, customers often do not do enough research; there's another thread, for example, where someone bought a Kindle without realizing it couldn't be used to borrow library books and is now unsure what to do about it.
So it seems a service to tell people that there are limitations to the Kindle, and they are very real. Kindle owners too often pooh-pooh the limitations--there's a post in that aforementioned thread, for example, that says, basically, libraries have long waiting lists for popular books anyway, so just buy bestsellers from Amazon.
That's the sort of attitude that I as a non-Kindle owner find annoying. If I want an e-reader that can access library books, I don't want to be told that what I want is pointless.
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I know I can remove the DRM and move the books with me. I am comfortable doing that because I believe that it is legal for me to strip the DRM as long as it is for individual use. I know that I do not pirate material or buy pirated material so I am ok with it. I have not done it yet because I don't need to.
I do think that the average consumer will search the internet if they were to hear that Amazon was going down and learn how to strip and convert books with DRM. If they have a large enough library they will do this because they don't want to lose their investment. Otherwise they might be folks who buy Amazon only because they are afraid of losing their investment. Either way, they have options available to them if they want to look.
There are folks showing up with Kindles asking about library books and the like because they bought a Kindle not knowing about the format differences. Folks are telling them to return the Kindle and get a Nook or Sony, others have explained the strip DRM/conversion process is available and pointed them in the right direction, still others are debating the legality of stripping and converting DRM.
I agree that people should be matched with devices that best suit them. This is why I have suggested Nooks and Sonys when people have said that want something for the library or a touchscreen. The strange thing is that I rarely see people outside of the Kindle users suggest a Kindle even when it is a good fit.
That probably is because non-Kindle folks are concerned about Kindle dominating the market and want to prevent that from happening. It just feels a bit like some of the non-Kindle users feel that Amazon and Kindle are the evil empire and people should be discouraged from using Amazon at all costs. That bothers me a great deal.
Or maybe I am finally getting why Apple lovers are a bit defensive.