Quote:
Originally Posted by Ozric
Maybe a customer would like to use a device with a different feature set than what Amazon provides. For myself, I don't care for all the hardware buttons on the Kindle. After using the touch interfaces on my Sony PRS-350 and Nook Color, I don't think I could ever go back to hardware interfaces.
I own an iPod Touch. I can buy music from any source that sells digital music (assuming that DRM for music is a thing of the past) and play it on my iPod Touch. As it happens, I almost always buy my music from Amazon. If I buy another music player from a different manufacturer, I can transfer all the music I've collected over the years and enjoy it with no problem.
I want my eReading experience to be the same. Maybe the book publishers will never allow that to happen, but .epub, or some other format that might arise as a new standard, is more likely to get us there than Amazon's propriety format. While some could argue that the world should adopt Amazon's format, my understanding is that it isn't very flexible, having its origins in a time when eReading was done on PDAs with tiny screens. While it probably doesn't matter much for novels, it does matter for other books.
It seems like some people think that Amazon simply doesn't need the business of people such as myself, who only buy .epubs. And if Amazon isn't interested in taking my money, that's certainly their prerogative.
But here's a question. If Amazon were to adopt .epub, perhaps even phasing out their current format, how would that adversely impact their current customers? Kindle hardware would probably support both formats for a couple generations. Kindle users would still be able to download the books they've collected over the years, only they would be .epub instead of the current format.
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And you are free to not buy the Kindle. Buy the Sony or the Nook by all means. You are free to use the Kindle app on iPod touch, iPhone or iPad if that is your thing. Or you can send feedback to Amazon on what you would like in the next Kindle and see if they respond with a redesigned product.
The thing is if you buy the Kindle and keep it, you are satisfied enough to continue using it.
You may also want to refer to one of my earlier posts (#54).