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Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic
It may make sense for Amazon... but would it also make sense for Sony? Where is the big buck? In selling the device or in selling the e-books?
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I agree. I doubt Sony is making much of a profit if any on their Readers. They need to sell content to make it worthwhile which makes it less attractive to them to add .azw support even if Amazon let them.
I think Amazon could pick up some customers if they let other reading devices read .azw. Maybe they'll consider that after the Kindle has a more stable foothold in the marketplace. The thing that would concern me in their shoes is whether they would be able to do as well with the periodical content if more people opted for devices without Whispernet. Those could be more attractive to many people, especially if they're just getting into ebooks, because of the price difference. I would imagine periodicals probably give Amazon the best margin out of the content it sells and it's the auto-delivery that makes that worth money. It's a convenience thing. If you have a Sony and you're going to have to load the stuff over the USB anyway, why pay for content you can get for free? Since Amazon's probably taking a loss on their Best Sellers, they could be looking at a situation where they're sending money out the door on the books and not making it up on other content. Ideally, I want to see all these markets open up but I can see where these companies are coming from, too.