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Originally Posted by taosaur
"Ecosystem," in this usage, is a euphemism for "store."
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No, not quite. While an important part of an ecosystem is a place to buy content for your devices (and maybe that's the most important part), Amazon also allows this content to seamlessly (mostly) be used on your other devices. I.e., you can buy a movie on your Fire, watch part of it on the fire, another part on your home computer, and finish it up on your home TV. Or you can buy a book on you Kindle and read it on your Kindle, Fire, computer, or anyone else's computer - plus an older Kindle if you have one. This sort of "buy once, use everywhere" interconnectedness is part of what people mean by an ecosystem. It's more than just having a store.
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Amazon is offering the Walmart experience,
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Selling lower quality goods at cheap prices? I don't think so. Mentioning Walmart and Amazon in the same sentence doesn't make Amazon Walmart. But nice rhetorical trick.
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propping loss leaders at the end of every aisle--FREE cloud storage, FREE server-side compression--and putting everything under one roof.
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Why is this a bad thing? Because you don't like Amazon? Would it be better if you had to pay for cloud storage?
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Meanwhile, the music player is not designed to play music, but to sell you more.
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I wouldn't use a Fire as a music player, but it's nice that you can play music you bought for your iPod on your fire as well, isn't it? Would you prefer if you couldn't?
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The library/reader is not designed to organize/display books, but to sell you more.
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Really? You can't organize your books? What it's designed to be is a reader, and it does an adequate job of doing that. But, yeah, they'd also like you to buy books from Amazon. It is, you know, a business.
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Even the free cloud storage is not designed to hold all your files, but to sell you more cloud storage.
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Again, this just makes no sense. The free cloud storage should easily hold all of most people's e-books. And of course content you've bought from Amazon doesn't count against the limit. But I really don't understand why you would criticize Amazon for providing something for free simply because some people may need more space than they are giving for free. Dropbox only give 2.5G free. And - surprise - they'd like to sell you more.
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None of these products or services have to be the best or even particularly good at what they do if they convince you that they are the default and the proper response to any shortcomings is to "upgrade."
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Amazon's books are the same as anyone else's. Amazon's movies are the same as anyone elses. Amazon's music is the same as anyone else's. Amazon offers about the same amount of free cloud storage as anyone else. There's no "trick" here.
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Do not get your software from service providers. Their goal is to limit functionality so that you will pay to remove or get around the limitations, and to streamline your ability to continue handing them money at the expense of core functions for which you purchased the device in the first place. With virtually any device released on a subscription, membership, or contract basis, the advertised primary functions are an afterthought, never intended to be better than adequate.
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Cite? And what does this have to do with Amazon, which doesn't sell any devices on a subscription, membership, or contract basis?