Quote:
Originally Posted by markbot
If I were amazon, I definitely wouldn't sell epub. Their user base is the largest and growing. they should try to lock these people into their ecosystem. if they allow epub it means that their customers can buy books from other vendors book stores and other vendor devices can buy their books. let's say amazon makes most of their money on the device....there will be some OEM that undersells them...thus it will prevent amazon from making a profit. It will also mean that their user base can shop around for the best price for an ebook. currently, they can't do that unless they have another device.
Clearly it is not in the best interest of Amazon to go epub. if amazon competed on making the best device possible like sony and apple would...with all the latest tech...then it makes sense perhaps. they would want to sell as many devices as possible. this is not how they compete though.
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I could easily understand this if it were another book seller. However, we are talking Amazon. Why would an Amazon customer want to shop elsewhere? Amazon customers on MR have repeatedly said that they cannot find a cheaper or bigger source of books. On top of this, the Agency 5 have ensured that for a large number of books, prices would be the same anywhere you buy. Amazon's customer service is top notch. Their store experience is very good. They are constantly improving their software and hardware and are among the best in both categories.
IMHO, Amazon simply does not need the format restriction crutch to drive business. In fact, if they side with customers on the format and DRM issues, they would further win goodwill. In the face of all this, Amazon's insistence on proprietary is bewildering to many, including me.