Quote:
Originally Posted by delphin
In general I am very impressed with Amazon, and will purchase almost any product from them, EXCEPT ebooks.
For ALL other products, Amazon competes head to head with other suppliers that they list on their site. So WHY is it that when I want a book for Kindle, I don't have the option to buy competitively from B&N, Borders, Kobo, Google Books, etc. ?
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You have to ask?
Amazon is a retailer in a commodity market where the main area of competition is price. In that sort of market, you may make pennies on a dollar, and your goal is to get as many dollars as possible to make pennies on. It's all about market share, and Amazon uses price, selection, service, and convenience to get you to buy from them, and a proprietary DRM scheme to try to prevent you from buying from anyone else. You can certainly buy and read content
not encumbered by DRM from other sources, but if it
is DRM encumbered, you must either buy from Amazon, or purchase elsewhere, strip DRM, and possibly convert format before you can read it. Amazon wants to be your sole source of purchased ebooks, and uses price, selection, service, and convenience to achieve it. Most Kindle users accept the trade off, because they get selection, price, and convenience they like, and don't see vendor lock-in as an imposition.
B&N is doing much the same with the nook for the same reasons. Sony and other reader manufactures are there to sell
readers, and have no incentive to play that game. Amazon and B&N are retailers selling books, and do.
Tell me why Amazon should change policies to do as you desire? What's in it for them? They certainly won't see a benefit, and won't make the change.
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Dennis