MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - 'I should be the Nook's ideal customer. But I'm not...I am locked in.'

bhartman36 · 06-07-2011, 09:05 AM

I'm shocked and saddened to hear such whining from a tech editor. The lock-in he's talking about is a phenomenon that's decades old (at least), and something every tech-savvy consumer understands before they own a device. Back in the early days of MP3 players, you were locked to a device when you bought DRM'd music. Before that, you were locked to Mac software if you bought a Mac (before Macs could run Windows software). Before that, you were locked into Beta format if you opted for that instead of VHS. And those are only the examples I can think of. It goes back farther than that, probably.

Here's the other thing: The new Nook isn't the first touch-based reader to come along since the release of the Kindle 2. If he's so enamored of the touch interface, why didn't he switch earlier?

And finally: He's got an iPad. As far as touch-based interfaces go, you can't do too much better than that.

I think this is one of those content-free stories written strictly to generate page hits.

06-07-2011, 09:05 AM	#21
bhartman36 Wizard Posts: 1,323 Karma: 1515835 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: New Jersey, USA Device: Kobo Libra Colour, Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition (2021)	I'm shocked and saddened to hear such whining from a tech editor. The lock-in he's talking about is a phenomenon that's decades old (at least), and something every tech-savvy consumer understands before they own a device. Back in the early days of MP3 players, you were locked to a device when you bought DRM'd music. Before that, you were locked to Mac software if you bought a Mac (before Macs could run Windows software). Before that, you were locked into Beta format if you opted for that instead of VHS. And those are only the examples I can think of. It goes back farther than that, probably. Here's the other thing: The new Nook isn't the first touch-based reader to come along since the release of the Kindle 2. If he's so enamored of the touch interface, why didn't he switch earlier? And finally: He's got an iPad. As far as touch-based interfaces go, you can't do too much better than that. I think this is one of those content-free stories written strictly to generate page hits.