kindle missed a trick ? ?

[mpd123]

I have just posted this in another thread on the kindle board but thought it might be more of a general disscussion thing.

do you think amazon should allow the use of epub on their devices?
i am looking to buy a new eink reader and if amazon had epub support i would buy one now.
however the lack of epub puts me off as i have had sony readers and all my library is epub format.

what do you think would amazon sell more units if they handled epub?

cheers, mick.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by mpd123

just a thought ,but do you think amazon have missed a trick by not allowing epub on the k4?
i think it might help to sell the device to more people like myself who are in the market for a new reader and have a large collection of epub books.

mick.

Most of Amazon's profit is in ebook sales, the hardware probably only covers their costs, so they would have no interest in people with an existing collection.

[HarryT]

No. Amazon have the largest bookstore in the world. They want people to buy their devices to read books from their store. They own their own DRM technology; one of the reasons they are able to pay a 70% royalty to authors is because they aren't having to pay Adobe a fee for each book sold, as they would if they sold books in ePub format using Adobe's DRM.

[MsAstoria]

I convert epub to Kindle format via Calibre, doesnt everybody?

[abookreader]

We could debate whether or not Amazon should include ePub compatibility for eternity ..... and it'll probably be a debate here until they do.

But in the end I can assure you Amazon didn't "miss" anything. Their choice to exclude ePub is quite deliberate and they feel that they're making better profits with the closed wall Kindle/mobi/azw format.

I convert epub to Kindle format via Calibre, doesnt everybody?

I suspect that most regular Mobile Read users do convert formats, or at least they are aware that formats can be converted. The average general user though probably just happily clicks away on the Amazon website.

Don't forget that when those Agency publishers forced Amazon into fixed pricing they were actually giving Amazon more profits per book and since Amazon still holds the largest market share of eBooks they're getting the best results. And it's kind of funny that those higher profits are very likely now subsidizing the lower hardware costs on the Fire/Touch Kindles and really putting pressure on Barnes/Kobo/and Sony

[pidgeon92]

I hold firm to my belief that the Kindle is only the means to the end. Amazon doesn't care about selling Kindles. They care about selling ebooks. I believe this is why they are so willing to replace a Kindle no matter how it was damaged.

[rcuadro]

Originally Posted by MsAstoria

I convert epub to Kindle format via Calibre, doesnt everybody?

I dont. I think that pretty much all readers that support ePub support mobi so I dont go out of my way to buy from amazon, remove drm, and convert to epub whenI can just use the mobi

[pilotbob]

Let's see I can buy an eBook in the Kindle store or check out any library book from overdrive and read it on:

1. Any Kindle device

2. The iPad and iPhone

3. An Android Phone

4. A Windows Phone

5. A PC

6. A MAC

7. Any device with a Webkit based browser such as Chrome or Safari using Cloud Reader.

Tell me, why do I care about ePub?

BOb

[Giggleton]

Because you are able to choose the most individualized and aesthetically pleasing font to read in. Although soon mobi might support font choices??

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Giggleton

Because you are able to choose the most individualized and aesthetically pleasing font to read in. Although soon mobi might support font choices??

Calibre lets you side load font's onto your kindle.

BOb

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Let's see I can buy an eBook in the Kindle store or check out any library book from overdrive and read it on:

1. Any Kindle device

2. The iPad and iPhone

3. An Android Phone

4. A Windows Phone

5. A PC

6. A MAC

7. Any device with a Webkit based browser such as Chrome or Safari using Cloud Reader.

Tell me, why do I care about ePub?

BOb

You probably don't but I want a dedicated reading device to use (without having to connect to the net) so 2-7 are all absolutely useless as options and I prefer an open standard not tied to/owned by a single provider so the response is exactly the reverse...

Why do I care about Kindle??? Different solutions for different people and needs... but that'll not satisfy the "one true solution" brigade so I guess the wars will continue to rumble on...

[Lazybones]

I would prefer one unified format, but like those who posted above I can see why Amazon is taking the approach that it is.

I tend to use Mobi most often as I am a Kindle owner, but I do like that sites like Smashwords make it relatively easy to sell in all the major formats, and that Calibre makes it easy to convert between them.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by elcreative

Why do I care about Kindle??? Different solutions for different people and needs... but that'll not satisfy the "one true solution" brigade so I guess the wars will continue to rumble on...

So, that is what I would ask you. If you care about ePub why do you care about Kindle? You probably don't. A Sony or Kobo or Nook is probably the device you want.

BOb

[kjk]

I think Amazon can pretty much do what they want in terms of format internally, and just show the user "Kindle format", and not miss a beat.

[Ron.]

They should sell them as plain text files, that way they could be read on anything