[plib]

Originally Posted by taming

A few years ago there were a slew of eINK devices that had no formal connection to the actual selling of eBooks. They cost around $400. Most of the are now gone. There is no way that any reader can be competitive at the currently acceptable price point without a heavy reliance on selling books and making money that way.

What was the price of the original Kindle? As I recall it was somewhere in that range. I don't have one, I deliberately chose a product that was not tied to a proprietary format and and store, but I've not heard anyone complaining about advertising on a Kindle home screen and they still seem to be around.

We read all the time that Amazon is willing to lose money on their devices (eINK and Fire) because they know that they will drive sales to them--not just of books but also clothing, hardware, etc.

Same question as above. How much advertising is on their home screens? I know Kobo has a store, and I know how to find it. I also know what I want to read and how to find that too. Every time something is pushed in my face it makes me less, not more, likely to follow that link to find it.

I think it is disingenuous to expect an affordable device while at the same time expecting the selling aspect to be hidden away. I am happy that there are no ads on my home screen and I am glad that the home screen has a clean look. Nothing forces me to click on any of the home screen links that take me into the commercial part of the device.

You're entitled to your opinion, others are entitled to theirs. Just because you're happy doesn't mean others will be. Just because you're happy not to be "forced" to click on a link doesn't mean others are going to be happy with those links all over the home page. "Nothing forces me to" is not a particularly good approach to winning hearts and minds, or customers.

If there are eInk readers out there that do not offend you by integrating selling into the reader experience, then buy one of those.

I'm sorry, well I guess I'm not, but that is a really weak response. Reminiscent of "It's my ball and if you don't play by my rules I'm taking it and going home". If something about a reader offends a particular customer the adult, commercial answer is to try to find a way around it, not to tell them to sod off. My reasoned, adult response to someone who tells me to sod off after I've spent money on their device is "you'll get more of my money when Hell freezes over". OK?

In the meantime, this is a commercial product and it is not Build a Bear. We do not each get to redesign the user experience to meet our individual preferences. And while you consider this, also remember that Kobo listened to a huge number of people who hated the short list and asked for "real" bookshelves. They also hated the carousel, which held the hidden links to the store functions.

Why shouldn't it be "Build a Bear". The tweak plugin appears to give users the choice of what they want displayed and the ability to tailor device usage to their preferences. I fail to see the commercial suicide in Kobo allowing the same choices through official firmware. Part of the function of a beta tester is to question both the operation of the program and the assumptions underlying it. A few years ago I was involved in the development of an interface between back office accounting functions and a front end CRM program. The QA manager on that job could destroy a program faster than anyone I've ever seen. I remember him tearing a module interface to pieces within about 60 seconds of loading it. The programmers might not have liked him very much but his bosses did, and they produced a much better product because of him.

I am sure that Kobo is paying attention to posts from folks who have different opinions about this. I am also pretty sure that if changes are going to be made based on these comments, they will not be the first changes we see. I'd much rather have them work on the issues like funky sideloaded fonts and slow ePUB page changes, myself.

Agreed. There are actual operational bugs which have to be sorted. However the interface options are a design choice, they're not tied to operational bugs, and to my mind, and apparently others also, they represent bad choices, driven by someone's marketing assessment which, in my case at least, are counter productive. But then I find a lot of design choices by marketroids to be counter productive.

Edit: All the above said, and I think it's valid, the reported improvements such as picture handling, font adjustment (when they fix sideloaded), clarity and additions such as shelves are welcome and appreciated. As long as they work.