|
Too bad about the DRM. The idea of being able to buy downloadable movies and have them be ready to play on my Creative Zen Vision: M would have been exciting. However, a new DRM will likely make it unreadable to players already on the market. After all, how is a player supposed to recognize and open DRM files if the DRM hasn't even been created/used yet.
What are the chances Sony will open their reader up to new formats? I'd say very slim for the near future. iTunes has had a very negative impact on the way companies like Sony and Amazon think in terms of creating digital content. I'm sure Sony created the Connect store to become the iTunes of e-literature. The project was a bit ambitious since there aren't nearly as many people to market ebooks to as there are music, since downloading music was already in full-swing when iTunes came along. So Amazon comes up with the idea of giving people ebooks without having to use a PC. The functions of the Kindle are pretty ingenius on Amazon's part. They've practically made it foolproof. I haven't used the thing yet, but from what I hear, it's pretty damn simple. Kudos to Amazon. Unfortunately, they didn't adopt the "open format" method they use for their increasingly popular mp3 music site. I believe this has a lot to do with publishers still being too uneasy to lure into the electronic market without DRM. This will eventually change. Before that happens, though, Sony is going to lose the format war. Amazon definitely has the edge here with more books and easier use. One of two things will probably happen when Sony loses. They will open their reader to other formats or they will stop making the Readers altogether. Given how well the Reader has been doing, I think Sony will opt to open it to other formats. But who knows how the Reader will be doing months from now as the Kindle gains in popularity and consumers.
|