Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
Sony chose to do it their way. They are not forcing anyone else to buy it or use it. How is it dishonest? Why is it you have a chip on your shoulder? Once Sony supports epub, then they wuill be supporting someone else's format.
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In a way, they are forcing people to buy and use it. I'll explain why. Let's say I buy a Sony Reader. A couple years later, the reader klonks out. I look at the various products available, and I conclude that the Bookeen device is a better choice. I would like to get that one, but I can't because I have tons of BBeB books I still want to read. So I buy another Sony Reader. With what may be inferior product, Sony keeps us captive because of their proprietary format. I think that's anti-competitive. Of cours the same thing could be said of any other device which uses a proprietary format, but Sony has a history of this kind of thing: Betamax, MiniDisc, Memory Stick... and soon Blu-Ray, which seems to be losing the format war against HD-DVD.
The chip on my shoulder is there because Sony just sucks. They may have fine products, but their business practices stink. For every customer they keep captive because of their proprietary format, there's a customer who refuses to buy a Sony product because it's not compatible with anything else. Ever noticed how Memory Stick cards cost way more than other formats, but they aren't necessarily any better? I really feel sorry for the poor suckers who own Memory Stick-only devices, but they deserve it for having bought a Sony product.