Quote:
Originally Posted by 6charlong
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. And in this business companies innovate or die. So will the other eBook hardware makers come along?
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Here is what simply amazes me- companies like Amazon and Sony are trying to "open up" the ebook market. Sounds good, but I have doubts about the depth of their analyses (though not the depth of their greed).
For example, Apple managed to make a success of the ipod and Itunes, despite the fact that it is very easy to obtain free music (illegal filesharing, newsgroups, etc.) I have used the Itunes store and have a couple of ipods, and the experience is easy and doesn't piss me off.
When it comes to ebooks, the only seller I have used with frequency is Ereader (formerly Peanut Press). Likewise, they don't piss me off. The other ebook DRMs piss me off and complicate my life. The companies that want to be a success had better realize that one of their competitors are ebook pirates. Apple realized piracy was a competitor, and made a go of it. Look at the average consumer- is he going to ewant to be pissed off by DRM, or will he decide to go to ebookshare.net and do a few free downloads. Like the music pirates, those guys make it look easy.
Ereader has a very successful model, and does not tie you to a single reader. I have 7 electronic ebook readers here, not counting the Palm, and I still find most of my reading is done on the Palm because it is so much less hassle. I have read 25 books or so on the Sony, but it isn't the reader I carry with me.