Quote:
Originally Posted by DrNefario
No one else is able to sell DRMed kindle books, and it takes some fiddling to sell non-DRMed kindle books on an even platform. (To get them sent directly to your device, you need to whitelist the seller's email address in your kindle account settings, and the seller needs to email them to your special kindle email.)
I'm pretty unhappy with their price-matching terms, too. The IGDA (or was it some other industry body?) came out strongly against similar terms in their android app store.
I really like my kindle, and the kindle shopping experience, and yes, amazon probably deserve some reward for creating this market, but I'd like to see other storefronts able to compete on price and provide the same level of service.
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There is a program now that you can put on your PC to allow you to send directly to your Kindle any document, including non-DRM mobi books. A good example is Baen e-books. I used to send those through e-mail directly to my Kindle, now I download them to my PC and send them to all my Kindle devices at the same time.
Speaking of Baen, they sell Robert A. Heinlein books, as does Amazon. Some Amazon has that Baen doesn't, some Baen has that Amazon doesn't, some they both have.
Here's some examples where the "little" guy outprices (in USD) the "big" guy:
Have Spacesuit-Will Travel; Amazon 6.99, Baen 6.00
Citizen of the Galaxy, Amazon 6.75, Baen 6.00
Methuselah's Children, Amazon 6.35, Baen 6.00
I don't think a monopoly is a good thing at all; however, I also don't think Amazon is or will be a monopoly in e-books. One caveat, their competition needs to get off their butts and do something about it. Other than collusion that is.
