Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
Not a valid excuse. Sony was only BBeB when the 500 came out and later on they did add ADE (ePub) to the 505. Amazon could have done the same thing.
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No, its a totally valid for why Amazon didn't start with ePub. Like Sony, they couldn't have.
There are a number of reasons why they chose to stay with MOBI and only Amazon knows all such reasons. It is obvious though, that a move to ePub, at least to ePub with ADE based DRM, would mean abandoning a major feature in the "Amazon/Kindle Experience".
ADE's DRM scheme prevents the use of Amazon's direct to the device delivery and requires a degree of adeptness with computer software. Amazon's DRM system allows for a vastly easier delivery scheme. One that doesn't require any significant computer knowledge. Moving to ADE's DRM would also mean that Amazon would be paying money to Adobe and relying on an outside company's performance which, the later being a business risk.
They could have moved to ePub and used a DRM scheme of their own, avoiding ADE. This would have had some advantage to the user with respect to non-DRM ebooks but would still have resulted in the same incompatibility issues with DRM'd books.