Having recently made up my mind to move from the grab-bag of devices I have used in the past to a dedicated ebook reader, I now find myself getting quite depressed over the alternatives.
At first I was very excited over the Kindle. It has a bunch of wonderful features, but the prospect of not being able to move books onto the desktop/laptop when I am working with them I find extremely unattractive. And I know that there are ways to change Kindle protected files into Mobi but I don’t put it past Amazon to close the loophole and, in any case, I don’t want to spend my time chasing down elusive (and probably illegal) scripts on the internet.
So I started to look at something like the Cybook – being a spendthrift I’d be quite happy if it kept me going for a year until something better came along. I already have fair stock of Mobi format files anyway. But then I don’t trust Amazon not to begin tipping the market towards Kindle by slowing the introduction of material for non-Kindle devices. I think it’s quite possible that when the dust settles from the format wars only Kindle will remain standing for those who want as near as possible a complete choice of titles. Anybody want to by a second-hand Betamax machine?
If I really went over from paper to a handheld I would be investing a lot of money – I spend a lot on books and would probably spend more because the space limitations would be lifted. (My wife would kill me if I put up another set of bookshelves – so it’s more a personal safety than a space issue). Would I be left with a bunch of expensive redundant files a couple of years down the line. Which is what is happening to my eReader and MSReader files if I move to Kindle or Cybook.
I find myself quite unable to see a safe route into the future and, amazingly for someone who buys more gadgets than is quite healthy, I find myself turning away from the idea of protected ebooks entirely. I’ll still read Dickens on the smartphone but I can’t see myself continuing to pay out for files I can’t transport to other devices and can’t guarantee will last longer than my current gadget. And it’s mostly because I don’t trust Amazon, which seems a ridiculous thing to say given how much I spend with them and how happy I am with the service.
And when will publishers begin to realize just how much the current DRM mess is costing them when a gadget addict like me is actually thinking of walking away.
A depressed Argel