[Strolls]

Originally Posted by tomsem

By this argument, there would be no ebook lending on Sony Reader, or Nook, or Kobo. They each have stores they'd like you to buy from, and so it is equally 'not in their interest' to allow library borrowing. But they do, and they promote the feature strongly.

Nope. Amazon is the market leader, and others have explained why this helps lock users into Amazon and also keeps things simple, much like the iTunes store is Apple-centric.

Sony Reader, or Nook, and Kobo are not market leaders (anyone know or have any estimates of how far behind Amazon their e-reader sales lie?) and thus they have to go the extra mile to attract customers.

Amazon's ideal user is someone who's not technically inclined, who will impulse buy a Kindle without giving a thought to formats or library access. Such a customer will not only happily impulse buy books, but they're also likely dismiss the format and library "problems" when they arise and overcome them by buying the books. My job is technical support for non-technical users, and they're a huge segment of the population - if you're techie enough to be posting on this forum, then you may not realise that most people aren't like you. I see this every day - people buy a device without fully researching it (the way you and I would), and then when they realise its shortcomings they either buy something else to accommodate this need (buy extra software for their PC, or buy the ebook from Amazon instead of using the library) or they just make do.

If you're going to spend hours pouring over the specifications of various devices and you want to handle different formats, then you're not the largest segment of the e-reader market, but that is a shortcoming of the Kindle. So this is a chance for Sony, Nook and Kobo to catch up - a lost sale to Amazon is a sale gained to them, but it's also a larger proportion of their sales.

Originally Posted by tomsem

OverDrive justifiably claims that their lending system drives sales. ... I suspect the reason they haven't done this to date, is that the cost of establishing the necessary contractual relationships and lining up content is greater than the benefit they'd derive. But at some point Amazon will do it: customers want it, libraries want to serve their patrons, OD wants to make more money.

Yes, but it undermines Amazon's ability to sell or - in the future - rent you books.

I buy the argument that OverDrive drives sales of devices, but of books? I'm not so sure. I believe that libraries in general promote literacy and thus promote book sales, but anyone who buys an e-reader is already literate.

If Sony, Nook and Kobo can establish the necessary contractual relationships, then surely it would be just as easy for Amazon to do so?

Originally Posted by rblover

People...with 1.8 million public domain books, and 630,000 non-public domain books, to choose from, on Amazon, with more titles being added daily, are you SERIOUSLY telling me that you can't find anything to read on Amazon without being able to access a dozen other vendors, or borrow from a local library?

It's not a matter of being able to find anything to read on Amazon, it's a matter of being able to find this particular book that my friend recommended to me, or that I need for my studies.

Having said that, no one here is whining. This is an amateur industry-analysis thread.

Stroller.