[fjtorres]

The issue is not the book format.
The issue is DRM.
Amazon is *not* going to adopt ADEPT. Not going to happen. Forget about it.

ePub they can support at the drop of a hat but they are not going to surrender control of their customer relations and have all transactions have to pass through somebody else's servers.
They are not going to increase their operational and support costs by supporting two book repositories.
They are *not* going to give up Whispernet. And Whispernet is incompatible with ADEPT, in case you hadn't given it much thought.
They are not going to keep two sets of customer support personnel or dilute their existing staff to support somebody else's software and/or hardware.
Not going to happen.

Amazon customers are satisfied with their devices, their bookstore, their *network*, their customer service, their prices.
Amazon is satisfied with the size of their customer base and revenue streams.
Neither has any valid reason to change.
Nobody puts a gun to anybody's head to make them buy a book reader or an ebook.
"You pays your money and takes your chances."

Amazon started selling Kindle before there was an ePub. So its not like they rejected an existing standard. What they did was go outt and buy the best *existing* format.
They built their entire business, as it exists, on the back of their walled-garden Whispernet approach and it works for them and their customers. It offers things the oh-so miraculous ePub "standard" (which as pointed out is a non-standard standard) doesn't. Others are free to try other approaches and they are. So far, Amazon's approach is working better which is why they are the target of so many's fury; their success gives the lie to their cherished beliefs.

Sony had the exact same business model as Amazon until they got ePub religion; what it got them is that they went from industry leader to one of the pack in a generic hardware business, trying to justify premium pricing for a commodity product.

Amazon is not about to sacrifice their healthy bottom-line at the altar of annointed standards just to please pundits and hobbyists, not when the mainstream customers are daily voting with their wallets for *their* approach. They'd be stupid to do so. It's not as if there is any natural law that says they *have* to cater to every single person's needs or prejudices. Just as there is no law saying anybody *has* to buy Kindle.

Say what you will about Kindle and Amazon, they are successful. And the reason they are successful is because their *customers* like it. And they are Legion.
When the day arrives that ePub makes *economic* and *business* sense to support (if ever) Amazon will (probably) think about it. But until then they are *not* going to do their enemies any favors.

More importantly, if Amazon ever sees the need to "support ePub" they are *not* going to pull a Sony and roll over and play dead for Adobe; they'll do what B&N and Apple did; use their own DRM on *their* ebookstore. And do it on a separate product, most likely. No Kindle royalties to Adobe, ever. And, they'll probably charge more for the ePub reader and ePub books to pay for the required Adobe Tax.

Bottom line: ePub on a Kindle? Not any time soon.
Need ePub? Buy one of the many decent readers supporting it and stop trying to tell Amazon how to manage their business.
They have good reason (a healthy bottom line) to do what they do and as one of only two players that are anything approaching global in scale (Kudos to Kobo for knowing exactly where the industry is going) they have no need to change.

Money talks and Kindle sales talk louder than pundits.
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