Quote:
Originally Posted by rwsimon
All the discussion comparing Amazon and Kindle with Apple and iPod is interesting.
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I think the better comparison is between IBM and Microsoft. In 1982--when IBM introduced their Personal Computer--Apple "owned" the microcomputer market. IBM let Microsoft have the operating system because IBM--as it turns out: correctly deduced--that they are a hardware maker.
If Amazon is as savvy a marketer as they seem, they will license the Kindle format to all hardware manufacturers COST FREE (so they'll adopt it), and drive the book selling business in Amazon's direction. Obviously this move makes the Kindle format available to other book-sellers too, but, as the Microsoft analogy shows, competition forces even big companies to innovate. And in this business companies innovate or die. So will the other eBook hardware makers come along?