Quote:
Originally Posted by KenJackson
Why would anyone be less likely to use a Kindle? You seem to imply that there are people who have grudgingly bought a Kindle so they could buy from Amazon when they really, really wanted something else. I guess some of those people exist, but there are plenty of people posting on this very forum that say they love their Kindle and can't imagine being unfaithful.
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I don't think
everyone would be less likely to use a Kindle, but they'd definitely lose some business. There are things the Kindle just doesn't offer, and doesn't have any immediate plans to offer:
1) Touch screen
2) Color
3) Expansion slot
4) Removable battery
Personally, I had to really think long and hard before upgrading from the Kindle 1, because the K1 has the expansion slot and removable battery, and I wasn't sure if the K3 would offer enough of an improvement. It was the improved screen that sold me on it. But I could see a lot of people opting for another device that offered one or more of those other features. It's the nature of the ereader market that people have these choices now.
So if you give customers the choice to use another e-reader in the Amazon ebook store, and suddenly it's not a
Kindle ebook store anymore, and people start to bolt. Meanwhile, Amazon wouldn't gain a lot of customers from those other ereaders they're compatible with now, because they all have their own kiosks that can deliver e-books much more easily than having to go to a website, download a file, and either e-mail it or transfer it via USB or memory card.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KenJackson
The kiosk model you speak of stinks. I hate it. I want independence. I want the freedom to choose what I want, when I want it, from whoever I choose to buy it.
Naturally, this puts me at odds with the stinking marketeers that want to coral me into only buying their stuff. This includes the hateful grocery stores that artificially raise their prices on popular items and give you a discount if you carry their Club, MVP, or Giant card. And you are right that this is part of Amazon's scheme.
But they are winning that war by selling a capable eReader at a low price, perhaps at a loss, to rope in customers. If they also sell EPUBs, they may lose a few sales to people who opt to buy someone else's kiosk, but I'm sure they would gain a lot more from users of free-market, non-kiosk eReaders like the Sony.
I didn't buy my eReader based on any store it's connected too. I bought it based on the features of the eReader itself. Many others did the same.
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A lot of people bought ereaders based on features, and that's part of the quandary that Amazon's in. When people start buying on features, the Kindle doesn't necessarily win, and that opens them up to losing customers in the Kindle store.
Is the Sony actually agnostic? I was under the impression that you had to buy from Sony's own e-book store if you used a Sony Reader (I mean, other than getting ebooks from a public library. Although I suppose you can also download from Google Books...).