Barnes & Noble Weighs Its E-Reader Investment

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

Yes, but Amazon is .... good at it.

Not as good at it as Sony. All the other "DRM" scams get cracked as soon
as they show up on the ebooks of the larger stores. Adobe's Adept and
Amazon's schemes are, like Microsoft's OS, are a priority for hackers
because they are the most used. The B&N "DRM" scam is just a matter
of breaking the hash algorithm they used, once that was done, it is a
trivial matter to get a clean file, using the known data used to create the
hash.

The bottom line is that Amazon sells a high enough percentage of the total
ebook market to make it unlikely that any "DRM" scam it adopts will stand
for long. That they continue to do as much as they can is not for any
Digital Rights Management - DRM purpose (that bad idea is done away with
by the ebooks being sold at other stores, with other DRM) but by their
continued attempts to "lock-in" their customers. (Hasn't Amazon retaliated
against authors who offered their works through their own sites?)

Luck;
Ken

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

(Hasn't Amazon retaliated
against authors who offered their works through their own sites?)

Luck;
Ken

Only if they violate an exclusivity contract.
Amazon will match the price of a book sold elsewhere if it is lower but unless it is a KDP Select title they don't care who else sells it where. (C.F. BAEN.)
And as for DRM lock-in Amazon does not require it of anybody. Itis strictly up to the publisher whether or not to DRM. (BAEN,TOR, and a zillion self-pubbers doing DRM-free ebooks.)
Where Amazon most benefits from DRM is in cost savings because they don't have to pay the Adobe DRM tax.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by hwlester

If they use Adobe's DRM, it can be used cross platform (Sony, Kobo, Copia, Google Play, BooksOnBoard and others). B&N's readers support Adobe DRM, but B&N uses their own DRM for books they sell. So... you can buy books from many places and use them on the Nook (and Sony, Kobo, etc.), but books bought from B&N can only be used on the Nook (unless you strip the DRM). Amazon uses their own format with its own DRM, so books bought from them can only be used on the Kindle (unless you strip the DRM and convert them).

While it is true that _some_ reading systems that otherwise support Adobe DRM will not open ebooks from B&N, many will. For example you can use Bluefire Reader on iOS or Android, or even Kobo's iOS app.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

Not as good at it as Sony. All the other "DRM" scams get cracked as soon as they show up on the ebooks of the larger stores. Adobe's Adept and Amazon's schemes are, like Microsoft's OS, are a priority for hackers because they are the most used.

I wasn't talking about DRM.
Amazon succeed with (inertia-based) lock-in becuase it is a place people don't mind being locked into.
Would you rather be locked in to Amazon's eBook store or B&N's?
Amazon's video offerings or B&N's?
Amazon's app store or B&N's?
B&N are trying to play the same game as Amazon, but just aren't as good at it.

[LovesMacs]

I wonder if part of B&N's problem is that they now have four current Nook models (not including software). Nothing is wrong with offering a variety of hardware but in B&N's case perhaps it is too expensive to develop, market, and keep so many different Nooks in stock.

[hwlester]

Originally Posted by tomsem

While it is true that _some_ reading systems that otherwise support Adobe DRM will not open ebooks from B&N, many will. For example you can use Bluefire Reader on iOS or Android, or even Kobo's iOS app.

That's interesting to know. I had heard that B&N's DRM had been integrated into the latest ADE. I guess those readers are using a newer version of the standard.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by hwlester

That's interesting to know. I had heard that B&N's DRM had been integrated into the latest ADE. I guess those readers are using a newer version of the standard.

The Adobe RMSDK has supported B&N style encryption for quite awhile, but it's up to the developer if it's enabled of not. AFAIK no eInk reader has it enabled (besides Nook of course), but most mobile apps that use it seem to. The desktop version of ADE got support not too long ago.

[hwlester]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

The Adobe RMSDK has supported B&N style encryption for quite awhile, but it's up to the developer if it's enabled of not. AFAIK no eInk reader has it enabled (besides Nook of course), but most mobile apps that use it seem to. The desktop version of ADE got support not too long ago.

I guess I was referring to the desktop version of ADE. I've seen questions on here about other readers supporting it. I'd buy from B&N or Amazon if I could use them on my Sony without jumping through hoops. As it is, I occasionally purchase from B&N and pick up freebies from Amazon.

[wizwor]

B&N ends up being Microsoft's book store. I expect MS to tech up the book stores and sell MS products alongside B&N content. Netflix is next.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by wizwor

B&N ends up being Microsoft's book store. I expect MS to tech up the book stores and sell MS products alongside B&N content. Netflix is next.

Hulu might be up for sale (again).
Last time it was, MS expressed an interest but Disney+NEWS Corp weren't pleased with any of the bids.
Hulu is probably a better fit for MS because it is way stronger on current TV shows and weaker on movies, where MS is already very strong through rentals.

Nook would be a bookstore fit for MS if they were serious about ebooks and even the college stores could come in handy if MS got serious about the academic market. Problem is, MS isn't serious about the academic market. If they were, they would own it with OneNote.

Likewise I doubt MS is serious about ebooks. (As in: willing to dump more than pocket money into it, serious.)
They probably won't be until Google Play registers on the marketshare scale and the odds there are minimal any time soon.

[basschick]

true. in fact, when people in my family were considering the kindle vs the nook, every one of them decided on the kindle after checking out the nook store. i haven't been to the nook store since i got my kindle, but i found it clunky and annoying to use at the time - it may have improved since then.

Originally Posted by murraypaul

I wasn't talking about DRM.
Amazon succeed with (inertia-based) lock-in becuase it is a place people don't mind being locked into.
Would you rather be locked in to Amazon's eBook store or B&N's?
Amazon's video offerings or B&N's?
Amazon's app store or B&N's?
B&N are trying to play the same game as Amazon, but just aren't as good at it.

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

The Adobe RMSDK has supported B&N style encryption for quite awhile, but it's up to the developer if it's enabled of not. AFAIK no eInk reader has it enabled (besides Nook of course), but most mobile apps that use it seem to. The desktop version of ADE got support not too long ago.

The Ectaco jetBook Lite uses Adobe's Reader Mobile 9.1.1 to provide for three
DRM scams ADE (epub & pdf) B&N (epub) and Secure eReader (pdb). While
it's not "e-Ink", it uses a B&W non-backlit/reflective TFT LCD to accomplish
a faster page display, for 25-30hrs of reading time per charge.

Luck;
Ken

[taosaur]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Likewise I doubt MS is serious about ebooks. (As in: willing to dump more than pocket money into it, serious.)
They probably won't be until Google Play registers on the marketshare scale and the odds there are minimal any time soon.

Market share or no, about the only place I end up buying books or music anymore is Google Play.

[Graham]

Originally Posted by taosaur

Market share or no, about the only place I end up buying books or music anymore is Google Play.

Same here, and I'm a big Amazon user otherwise. But the download quality is higher on Google, the cloud player better, and the books are epub.

Graham

[cgsmom]

I chose Nook Tablet because of the SD card. (I travel in my RV and don't always have reliable internet). I agree that the BN bookstore can use some improvement. However, I have found Books On Board to be very competitive on pricing (almost always beating BN and Google Play) for books that are not priced by the publisher.