[bhartman36]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

Mostly because Apple pushed for non-DRM'd music for years before they were allowed to actually offer it...and once they were allowed to offer it, it pretty much killed DRM'd music.

But there were other outfits using DRM-free MP3s for years before iTunes. And Amazon was the first to sell DRM-free music from all major labels. At the time they did this, Apple was still selling DRM'd music.

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

And it's a mistake to conflate the "walled garden" approach Apple take to Apps with their very open approach to music. iPods (and now iPhones etc.) can play mp3s or .aac files, and you can put on any music file on your device, whether bought from iTunes, ripped from a CD, or bought from some other service. (.aac, the format Apple uses for iTunes, is an open standard designed as a successor to mp3s; it's used by several other companies and can be used by anyone).

But AAC isn't the standard (as in mainstream, not technical standard) that MP3 is. You can't necessarily take your AAC files and use them on another device as easily. And being tied to software puts limitations on functionality if you're using a non-iDevice. Back a few years ago, when Palm still existed, there was a major kerfluffle because Palm engineered the Palm Pre to be able to sync to iTunes, and Apple cried foul.

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

I'm not very convinced by this, as I don't really think that iBook lock in is much of a sales driver for iPad minis; while the ability to put any books from anywhere might drive hardware sales, as it makes the hardware more useful.

If I can put a book I bought from iTunes on any device, why in the world would I want to pay iPad mini or iPad prices to read an e-book? I don't think e-books are a major draw for the 9" iPad (although I do know people who read on one), but the iPad mini is a different story. The iPad mini is more closely designed to compete with e-readers such as the Kindle, Kindle Fire, and Nook. In fact, the major draw of the iPad mini is the reading form factor, as far as I can tell. For almost anything else, you're better off with a full-sized iPad, since the price difference isn't gigantic.

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

Yes, but they also have a significant Kindle lock-in; if all books can be read on any device, people might be more likely to not buy from Amazon as much. It's speculative either way.

The difference is that Amazon has software for almost every platform: PC, Mac, iOS, Android, Windows 8, etc. Amazon literally doesn't care what hardware you read on, as long as you're reading an Amazon book.

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

But in general I think the article is wrong. Apple was by far the most dominant presence in the mp3 world, having 80% of the market. But in the e-book world, they are a dwarf; even people who read on iPads have tended to use the Kindle app and buy from Amazon. So it's not clear that having DRM free iBooks would do anything to the market as a whole.

I think DRM-free e-books would have the biggest impact on Amazon's hardware division. If non-Kindle users could buy any e-book from Amazon, I think the e-Ink reader market would become a lot more diverse than it currently is. That would be an interesting thing to see.

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

But of course I don't believe that the booksellers or device makers *want* DRM. Amazon has *zero* problem selling DRM free books, whether self-pubbed, public domain, or from a publisher that has gone DRM free. There's no evidence that they resisted this *at all*. And I doubt that Apple would, either. But the DRM ball is in the publisher's court.

Agreed. I think the publishers are crapping themselves in fear at the thought. When you look at what's happened to the music industry since DRM-free music, it's enough to give one pause. Of course, there's a major difference between the two: The music industry has singles. Books don't (generally) work that way, so you don't have an analogous situation to the music industry, where a consumer can buy one song and leave the album on the virtual shelf. (It should be noted, though, that that's not an impossible model for the publishers to adapt, in some cases. I sell individual stories out of my anthology, and major publishers could decide to break up their anthologies that way, if they thought it would make them money.)