Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Kieron,
This is why I always advise people who are considering buying an eBook reader to look first, not at the device, but the range of eBooks available where they live, and then, once they've done that, to look at devices which support the formats with the best availability.
This process led me to conclude that devices with MobiPocket support are the most useful, hence my choice of a CyBook Gen3.
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I agree, but also would add you should not rule out devices that do not support your chosen format, as long as there exists a method to convert from that format to a format that is supported by the device, and you are willing to invest the time to do this conversion and feel sufficiently computer savvy to do it. This is one reason I chose the Sony PR505 - I know it does not support MobiPocket natively, but there is a method to convert from MobiPocket to the format that the PR505 does support. However, this conversion requires a fair amount of computer literacy, and is probably not for the mass market.
The multitude of competing formats is a serious brake on the mass acceptance of eBook devices. This usually is not a problem in computing, where the power and flexibility of the computer can be used to convert between formats. If it was not for DRM.
So as consumers we are being clobbered twice. Once because of incompatible formats, and again because of DRM which can prevent us from overcoming the first problem.
To put it another way - I would accept DRM if all devices could read all formats, or if there was only one format, which was future proof.
The current situation is a mess.
