Quote:
Originally Posted by clintbradford
When I think of Apple and Amazon, I think of companies that innovate, and desire to lead their respective classes of wares.
And they are both succeeding.
Bezos wants every book ever published to be available for us as eBooks. No other eBook reader manufacturer has the clout, capability, nor desire to to that FOR the consuming public.
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No doubt. I give apple and and Amazon all the credit in the world for innovation here. The problem is that you and I probably have very different needs and especially values as consumers.
If I may be so bold as to presume, it seems like you see yourself as consuming a service rather than a product. In other words, when you buy a Kindle, you are buying a good product but the clincher is really in the services promised/delivered by Bezos. As far as that goes, I think you are absolutely right. Amazon will probably deliver the best service in terms of mainlining materials from the publisher to the consumer over the long haul.
I, on the other hand, see myself as buying hardware rather than a service. Other than firmware updates and warranty, I could care less about the services rendered by the manufacturer. What I want is an extremely versatile device that I have the maximum amount of control over. For me, the pocketbook line up seems to offer exactly what I want to consume: a customizable linux-based OS that allows the user to modify and add community-maintained, open-source applications. What I want is a device that has the capacity to be maintained, in part, by a community of enthusiastic developers. Where I get my content is not all that important.
I think I am inclined to the latter set of values because of my needs. A lot of the ebooks and documents I need to read tend to own/read are academic materials in .pdf format. For example, just today I downloaded a few recent journal articles that are available either in a university library by photocopy or, amazingly, as .pdf files that are shared by academics on websites like this:
http://sites.google.com/site/rtalisse/home
On a day-to-day basis, I could care less about the latest periodicals or bestsellers. I need to also be able to conveniently carry and read documents (mostly .pdfs) that are now available for free, provided I have the right hardware.
I passed on the Ipod/Itunes model for many of the same reasons. At the time, Apple/Itunes were selling a device that was too restricted, and the quality of their audio files did not make sense given the quality of sound that the Ipod was capable of. I ended up buying an Iriver HP120 because it had better sound quality and it allowed the user to access the inside. With the Iriver I can get under the hood to mod the hardware (new drives, new batteries), firmware (even install custom firmware to support new formats and play games) and build my own filetrees. I rip cds to the quality and formats that best suit me. Five or six years later, I am still using that product because of its versatility.
At the end of the day, I don't want to buy a device that is restrictively matrixed into a particular service model that I will eventually be able to access with or without that device anyway.