Is the Kindle right for me... @.@

[ApK]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

It looks nice but really, there is not much there. BN looks magnanimous and still makes money from the sales of its ebooks.

Amazon seems to have gone the complete other direction and ended up in the same place. They look restrictive by not openly allowing people to shop at B&N and Kobo on the Kindle, but it turned out a huge number of people have found no compelling reason to ever want to shop at those places over Amazon, and so don't feel at all restricted.

The fact that the three or four other mass-market ebook stores sell eBooks that are compatible with each other has not caused a mass exodus of Amazon customers or huge drop in their market-share.

ApK

[HarryT]

One point to consider is that B&N have chosen to restrict themselves to the local US market, whereas Amazon sell world-wide. That means that, for the overwhelming majority of potential eBook buyers, B&N are simply not a player at all.

[boswd]

Originally Posted by ApK

Amazon seems to have gone the complete other direction and ended up in the same place. They look restrictive by not openly allowing people to shop at B&N and Kobo on the Kindle, but it turned out a huge number of people have found no compelling reason to ever want to shop at those places over Amazon, and so don't feel at all restricted.

The fact that the three or four other mass-market ebook stores sell eBooks that are compatible with each other has not caused a mass exodus of Amazon customers or huge drop in their market-share.

ApK

true, no mass exodus yet but that I think has more to do with either

1) as your library grows on Amazon, it makes it tough to break away
2) just lack of knowledge on this whole ebook world to the general public.

to be honest most regualar joes have no idea what ePub is, Sony makes ereaders? What's a nook?

what amazon has done by far and away better then the others is strong brand recoginition. Barnes and Noble has done a decent job on the nook, sony is dismal, but both combined fail to what Amazon has been able to do with its marketing machine.

[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by ApK

Amazon seems to have gone the complete other direction and ended up in the same place. They look restrictive by not openly allowing people to shop at B&N and Kobo on the Kindle, but it turned out a huge number of people have found no compelling reason to ever want to shop at those places over Amazon, and so don't feel at all restricted.

The fact that the three or four other mass-market ebook stores sell eBooks that are compatible with each other has not caused a mass exodus of Amazon customers or huge drop in their market-share.

ApK

Yup. I think Amazon has done a great job with its marketing and with the use of the various applications. Amazon has made itself available to non-Kindle users.

I am a bit surprised that it has take BN so long to fully jump into this area.

One of the best decisions that Amazon made was to treat the Kindle Device and the Ebooks as two seperate business lines. The reader itself leads many folks to the ebooks but there are plenty of people who are reading the ebooks without owning a Kindle.

[boswd]

Originally Posted by HarryT

One point to consider is that B&N have chosen to restrict themselves to the local US market, whereas Amazon sell world-wide. That means that, for the overwhelming majority of potential eBook buyers, B&N are simply not a player at all.

I think "chosen to restrict" is a bit of an overstatement. Selling internationally is bit more complicated then just choosing to sell or not sell oversears.

i think it's more has to do with the fact that the international agreements and different international trading laws aren't in place as of yet.

Will that change in the future, I hope so.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by boswd

true, no mass exodus yet but that I think has more to do with either

1) as your library grows on Amazon, it makes it tough to break away
2) just lack of knowledge on this whole ebook world to the general public.

Speaking as a happy and knowledgeable Amazon customer, I disagree, but I'm sure it's true for some people.

Marketing can get you customers, but it can't keep them coming back, and Amazon has a lot of loyal repeat customers.

It's not like they have the cache' of certain half-eaten-fruit brand that will keep people overspending regardless of product quality and value.

Also, much like the Kobo coupons, it can't hurt Amazon's business that every time I turn around, some one is giving me free Amazon credit for some reason or another.

ApK

[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by boswd

true, no mass exodus yet but that I think has more to do with either

1) as your library grows on Amazon, it makes it tough to break away
2) just lack of knowledge on this whole ebook world to the general public.

to be honest most regualar joes have no idea what ePub is, Sony makes ereaders? What's a nook?

what amazon has done by far and away better then the others is strong brand recoginition. Barnes and Noble has done a decent job on the nook, sony is dismal, but both combined fail to what Amazon has been able to do with its marketing machine.

I don't know. I know Sony and Nook users who have moved to Amazon. They have converted their libraries and are fine. I am sure there are Kindle users who have moved to Sony or Nook. There are a fair number of dual users.

I am sure that there is more of that here because people know how to make the move. I would not be surprised if there are folks who feel like they cannot move for the reasons that you mentioned. But that works both ways. There could be Nook users or Sony users who want to move and feel that they cannot.