Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
You seem to be in a rush to put words in my mouth. For the most part, monopolies don't last, barring government enforcement of the monopoly. Other companies see the opportunity and move into the space. For example, Microsoft's Internet Explorer (the one that triggered the Anti-Trust lawsuit against Microsoft in 1998 that eventually got overturned on appeal when the judge was found to have bias in the case. hum, sounds kind of familiar) has dropped in usage all the way down to 19% of the market. It didn't happen over night and the original competition (Netscape) dropped by the wayside, but Microsoft got complacent and new competition came into the arena.
IMPO, Amazon is ripe for competition in the ebook arena. The only real barrier of entry is getting the contracts to sale the various ebooks and DRM. If the publishers ever drop the DRM, then I suspect we will see a number of companies who offer books in various formats.
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I'm no fan of DRM, but universal DRM - that is, cross-platform DRM that would allow you to have your book on a Kindle or a Nook or a Kobo - might make DRM less onerous. It would free you to buy your books from whatever vendor you wished.