Quote:
Originally Posted by boswd
sigh
Mobi is like betamax back in the early 80's
like the kobo, , the sony etc.
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Let me guess, you own a Nook, right?
I would like to explain something to you: I used to own a Nook, and sold it. Why? because the argument that epub is the standard and a better format, just does not work for me anymore I read and need technical books: MS-SQL, Oracle, PHP, IT security, those are rare to find at B&N or on a store different than Amazon (for good or bad)
Amazon online book store is the biggest and most complete in USA and probably the whole world. Let's be honest. If you compare regular novels or bestsellers, you won't see the difference; the difference resides on those not so common books that when you check in B&N they are 20% more expensive or just not available on electronic format.
Yes, epub is technically better but extrapolating your Betamax vs VHS comparison it's irrelevant here because we're talking about electronic formats, like MP3s vs OGG or epub vs mobi. Betamax was a hardware technology and died not because was a bad format but because did not allow long time recordings that for movie makers was a plus. MOBI, as an e-reader format, allows customer to read their books, period. More technical features are included inside epub but that is not currently affecting Kindle or Amazon. The true is that most electronic books (commercial, not free stuff) are in MOBI format. As a matter of fact, MOBI was chosen because epub did not exist when Kindle was in labs, as simple as that.
Users are what truly keeps a format alive! If you have a huge, big market behind you, your electronic format and device will survive. And the explanation for that is that most of the time, users are right in what they need and works. They stick with something because it can fulfill a market needs: mp3 (nice compression with acceptable sound quality) VHS (good recording time, at that time)
I think Nook is a nice e-reader same for Kindle, but we should buy e-reader devices on what kind of books and material you spend more time reading on, not just the reader format.