Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
...I'm not quite following why you believe the Kindle's ecosystem to be more rigid than Kobo's?...
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First of all, there's the file format, which of course is part of the ecosystem.
Yes, you can use mobi/azw on a few units outside of the Kindle environment. But it's way less wide spread than ePUB. If you look for pirated content, ePUB is at least 10 times as often available as mobi/azw.
Second, there's the SD card expansion.
I know quite a few people, who carry their calibre library on an SD card and simple switch cards when buying a new reader. One of my friends even uses the very same SD card on his tablets via USB = one SD card for all units.
By "ecosystem" I don't just mean store and OS, but all the other hardware and software aspects as well = the system as a whole.
Technically, of course you can sideload to all kind of hardware. And if you use calibre, you easily can generate 3 target formats instead of a single one.
Again: In my personal surroundings, every single one who wants to sideload went for Kobo, none for Kindle. Nooks don't matter here in Germany, Sony basically has disappeared as well. I simply would like to see, whether my friends (who aren't enthusiasts and who aren't members on mobileread) act the same as most sideloaders or not. Obviously, in mobileread there's another attitude towards reading, books and hardware, so it won't be statistically valid. Still interesting to compare...