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Originally Posted by Rizla
Amazon introduced neither of those innovations. Sony did both before Amazon, and probably others did it before Sony.
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Yes, Sony introduced those innovations, at least to the US ereader market; Amazon merely adopted them. Amazon's innovations were things like Whispersync and on-device purchasing.
However, both support the point that rather than killing innovation, Amazon's track record is one of supporting innovation.
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Originally Posted by Rizla
And yet we are seeing large screen e-ink readers outside of the US. Why is that? I argue that it is because the US market is hard to penetrate because it is dominated by Amazon.
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Sure, Amazon dominates the US e-ink market, and that does make it hard for other companies to penetrate. Unfortunately, that does not support the contention that Amazon's dominance is the reason why large-screen e-ink readers have not penetrated the US market.
The counterexample is the Kindle DX. Amazon introduced its own large screen e-ink reader in 2009, reintroduced it in 2013, and finally withdrew it in 2014. Amazon has been ideally placed to take advantage of the market for large-screen e-ink readers, because they already had one.
We can discuss the reasons why there are no viable large-screen e-ink readers currently available in the US, but to ascribe that lack to Amazon stifling innovation is nonsensical.