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Originally Posted by fjtorres
This has been extensively discussed in the epub3 threads here and elsewhere as well in the regullar "why won't Amazon sell epubs" threads but I'll summarize:
There are three main reasons why Apple and Amazon run proprietary ebook formats:
1- The control their own fate - by using proprietary formats they get to define what features they support, when to support them, and how to support them. They do not rely on outside sources or certification as to what constitutes a valid file. They can tailor their format's capabilities to what their products can properly support. (For example, KF8 supports a commercially-useful subset of epub3 in ways that even the millions of Kindle 3and Kindle 4 readers can support.) They are also solely responsible for what the user experiences; in case of consumer problems there is no ping-pong between customer service departments.
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Customer service for only their own rigidly controlled products is probably a large factor in Apple's case but is it true for Amazon? Ebooks
may be a big item for them but they sell literally thousands of items.
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2- Time to market - since proprietary solutions do not depend on external committees to decide what the format looks like and how it behaves, the implementation process is a lot shorter. Case in point: epub3, which after nearly 3 years is still in gestation, as an interoperable consumer product, while iBook and KF8 quickly adopted the commercially useful features of epub3 and added them to their formats and are already selling product with those features. The interoperable "open" epub crowd are still waiting on the Readium reference implementation. It might be another year before epub3-capable readers reach the market, whereas every Kindle from the K3 on is already KF8-capable.
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Not quite sure what you are saying here.
Is it that you think the lack of an epub 3 standard is slowing down the publication of ebooks, or that KF8 is far superior to epub or that Amazon would have to make kindles epub compatible?
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3- Money - supporting the "open" interoperable epub DRM costs money; a fixed per file fee that amounts to anywhere from 4% to 25% of the sale price. It also costs a per-device fee as well as back-end server fees. Those are all costs that Apple and Amazon avoid that their interoperable competitors have to pay. So neither is going to go out of their way to help their enemies and competitors; they would rather give up sales. So far, the results are proving them right.
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Personally I think that the increased sales would be the better option at this point in time.
Kindle readers are firmly entrenched in the public consciousness and unlikely to be dislodged except by far superior hardware. Amazon selling epubs would do them little harm as far as I can see.
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There are other, lesser technical issues as well as strategic considerations, but in the end it comes down to the fact that in the world of technology products history tells us that proprietary products have always out-performed committee standard products. Proprietary solutions get to market faster, evolve faster, and blend the capabilities of software and hardware better. Further, historically, companies that start out proprietary and get "open" religion after the fact end up as roadkill. And fast.
Two notable examples of once-dominant companies that lost their grip on the market in a single year, waiting on committee standards, are Netscape and Sony.
Sony stated out doing everything that Amazon does--proprietary format, dedicated ebookstore, eink reader, etc. They had the first mover advantage, outselling the field before Kindle showed up, and gave it up to "run with the pack", letting others define what the key features of their product were. In one year they went from industry leader to also ran, in three to after-thought. Since then it has been a constant struggle to catch up with the new leader and close followers.
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I was unaware that Sony spent a lot of time waiting for committee standards. I bought my first Sony reader in 2009 and it supported both epub and lrf. Possibly all of the waiting was over by then and I didn't notice it.
Probably different where you live, but in Canada very few people even knew what an ereader was until they started seeing kindles advertised on TV.
I have always thought that the far lower price of the kindle keyboard and the massive advertising campaign were what put them in the lead and not the mobi format which is what they were using at that time.
I see people every week who are proudly showing off their new paperwhites and playing with the light to show how great it is, but not one has ever said "oh look it can even display a KF8". In fact if I said KF8 or mobi or epub to them I would be met with a puzzled stare in many cases.
There were those of us who had ereaders before the kindle keyboard went on the market but they were pretty expensive items.
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Right now, the publishers--for good and valid reasons--only want to support one *distribution* format for their product but since their specification does *not* define a consumer-grade product, the vendors are free to craft the retail product as best fits their needs. And in a world where mainstream consumers care about as much about format as they care about DRM (i.e., near zero) the sharper retailers have taken advantage of this freedom to add as much proprietary value and differentiate their offerings as technology and economics allow them. And consumers have responded.
People buy into the various walled garden ecosystems because they like what they see. And the internal plumbing of the ebooks is not something consumers see or care about; they care about what shows up on screen, not *how* it gets there.
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Basically what I have been saying although maybe not as well.
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There is nothing irrational about the proprietary walled garden business model, it is just hard-headed business sense at work. It has its pitfalls but it also has its rewards. And until publishers change the rules on *their* end, the odds of major changes anytime soon are very low. |
I do not think the walled garden approach is irrational, but it does not always lead to long term success. Another poster alluded to the Betamax/VHS wars and we all know how that went along with the viseodiscs that you could serve dinner on. Fast moving technology and cheap bandwidth have made physical formats somewhat irrelevant. We as consumers are incredibly spoiled these days. There are those among us who quail at the thought of spending $9.99 for a book, yet think nothing of spending several times that much daily on fast food and fancy coffee. And God forbid we should have to wait a few weeks to get the book free from the library.
Personally I try to stay away from proprietary things such as cameras with their special batteries, KF8s and kepubs etc. but I know that I will still buy some of these devices against my better judgement because they are just too nice in some way to resist. I don’t see how epub 3 or epub7 or KF99 will vastly improve my reading experience, but I am not saying it isn’t possible. I can see major hardware improvements making reading even more convenient. Perhaps a watch sized ereader that you wear on your wrist and it goes sproing right into your hands when you want it to
My original point and I still believe it rightly or wrongly, is that if Amazon started selling epubs at this point in time it would not detract substantially from their sales or take away from the popularity of the kindle readers. Nothing to do with the rightness or wrongness of the walled garden approach, past or present. It would probably substantially increase both sales and profit despite the 22 cents ADE fee.
Of course at this point in time it would be seen by many as a hostile move and some may even see it as displaying weakness or loss of faith in the kindle product. I am also fully aware that the Amazon people and probably yourself are far more knowledgeable about these things than I could ever hope to be and it is their business to do with as they see fit. If there is any irrationality going on, and I don’t see any signs of it, it hasn’t hurt them much.
Sorry for the long post and a few repetitious parts but your post was so well thought out I could not seem to stop typing.
Helen