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Originally Posted by speakingtohe
I would envisage them doing just what other stores do that sell more than one format. Or what libraries do that have more than one format available. Or more likely the same way they sell books now with ebooks and paper books listed under formats.
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OK sorry to be dense but does that include changing the Kindle firmware or not?
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And why would they lose any more money by other stores selling to kindle owners than presently. Kobo sells epubs and kepubs and are not obligated AFAIK to let other stores sell kepubs, and there are stores selling mobi already.
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Whether they lose money depends on whether other stores can sell to Kindle owners. Other stores cannot currently sell DRM-ed ebooks to run on a Kindle. IF they allowed that then they'd be opening up competition on their device to other stores (assuming they went for ADE epubs). I don't know what the market in non-DRM-ed mobis is but I'll bet it's pretty small. A given publisher of a given book is usually going to either require DRM or not across the board not based on which store is selling it. So if Amazon make Kindles work with ADE epubs then you'll be able to buy the same DRM-ed title from elsewhere. That's a choice you don't currently have (unless you break DRM but most people don't).
Kobo on the other hand has always sold both formats side by side as far as I know. In any case I think the economics are different if you're not the market leader. It also makes a difference the degree to which you reduce your margin in your hardware to puch ebook sales. Maybe Kobo's kept their margins higher and therefore want to promote selling the device as a device rather than just a ebook-selling mechanism. There's been breakdowns arguing that Kindles are sold at or under cost and whilst personally I'm sceptical about that I do think the margins are very slim.