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Originally Posted by ProfCrash
How is that any less false then the numerous times people say the same thing about the Kindle?
Lets call a spade a spade here.
The Kindle is supported by many bookstores outside of Amazon but there are plenty of folks who talk about how the Kindle is locked into a store.
BN choose a different format then the dominate format in the US. BN could have selected Mobi and choosen to support Amazon books but didn't because it did not want to lose business to Amazon. Fair enough.
Yes, BN choose to allow people to download books from Sony when the Nook was released. Big whoop. Sony had fewer books and was more expensive then BN. So are you really choosing a "freeer" format when the only real competition you are allowing you know is weaker? Later, Kobo entered the market and the Nook could read Kobo books because of a decision made by Kobo. And the Kobo store is probably not as good as the BN store.
So BN choose to limit its customers ability to buy books from the largest store available by choosing EPub and tried to make it look pretty by saying "But you can buy whatever EPub books you like" from stores that they knew were inferior to theirs.
And then they release a tablet, and it is a tablet, but lock it so that it cannot connect to Google Apps, effectivly locking its users out of the Amazon market and Goggle market.
You can put all the shiny bows on the package and claim it looks pretty. The second I remove them I see that the package looks identical to Amazons.
Both company made business decisions to benefit themselves. That is what comapnies do. Please be honest in acknowledging that the "freedom" that the Nook offers is barely more then an illusion.
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it's not locking it out of the Google market because you buy and download books in the same manner as you would as you would buying from any other online ebookstore, In fact Google ebooks uses the Nook along with the Sony as one of feature devices when buying their ebooks.
That's not a good example Prof.
As opposed to your other statements. I don't think you have a full grasp what it means to have support for ePub and support for Adobe Digital. This allows you to shop wherever you want. Not just Sony.
Now technically you are right with Amazon. they do support another open format called mobi. but Mobi has sign. a less online bookstores presence than ePub. In fact the Kindle can not read any mobi drm. It can only read non drm Mobi which is basically all the public domain out of copyright prints that everyone has acces to.
Now you say they released a Tablet, but yet they did not release a full fledge tablet. And they never claimed to. Saying it's locked down would mean they said we have an iPad competitor but then release a tablet that does have the market accesable to it's users. I would love for you to find a press release of them saying we have an Ipad killer or this is putting us into the Tablet battlefield.
They released an dedicated ereader tablet. Nothing more nothing less. Now if people bought one with the notion it was an Open Android Tablet then that is their fault for not doing their own research.
As I said in the past, I am not disagreeing with you or Joe or anyone when it comes to books bought through the Barnes and Noble bookstore. Now they do use their own special DRM. No arguement here.
But the biggest difference between the nooks model and Amazon model is the type of open format each one chose. Barnes and Noble chose to support ePub format with Adobe Digital support and non Adobe ePub.
Amazon chose and I think owns mobi. which is a much smaller presence in the market.
So I have the choice to buy from major online bookstores such as Google, Kobo, Sony, Borders etc. You as a Kindle owner do not (at least not without some "altering") because they use the format that my device supports. Along with every other device on the market with the exception of the Kindle.
You with a kindle can only shop at non drm mobi bookstores which are a much smaller selection of retailers and books selection as compared to the ePub bookstores.
And yes you can strip DRM, but not every knows how to do it, nor does everyone want to do it. It does have some ethical and possibly legal questions involved.