Quote:
Originally Posted by tirsales
I agree that it is mostly FUD. I have no hard data on Amazons intentions. Nevertheless - monopols are among the worst things that can happen. I don't know many monopolists that played fair - or even cared about their customers....
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No monopoly has ever been good for the consumer.
And, as you said, Amazon already owned Mobipocket which could have been the defacto book format for the Kindle with no need of further intervention or manipulation from Amazon.
Instead, they created a new proprietary format.
So, yes, something is up.
But at the same time, we have to understand this is the cost of doing business for the things we want/need/like. As we continue down the electronic age, I'm sure this issue will come up again.
The best we can do is to continue to rally for change or not purchase from said companies and protect ourselves as best we can.
ePub / HTML are great universal formats, but all corporations exist to increase the wealth of the shareholders. If they can get more people onto a proprietary system the better to lock in their profits by locking in customers.
It's simple business economics. They really don't give a rat's patotey about longetivity. In their corporate mind, their corporation is going to be around forever anyway. None of them "plan" to go out of business.
Looking at it from their perspective (short-term, profit motivated) why should they use a more open standard? Because it is the kinder, gentler thing?
Unfortunately, that doesn't work with the majority of most shareholders.