Quote:
Originally Posted by Rizla
Please stop characterizing me as scare-mongering merely because I discuss possibilities you find uncomfortable. There is nothing I am stating that is not entirely in keeping with Amazon's evident long-term strategy of a walled-garden. Ignoring the obvious potential of the new encrypted kfx format is pure denial.
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And harping on the
obvious potential is pure what-ifing.
Especially when the specific what-if you are what-ifing about is just as applicable whether KFX existed or not.
And especially when Amazon is conforming to it's textbook operating procedures thus far, by not getting rid of any old formats (i.e. never dropping Store support for any devices, ever), which means KFX is easily avoidable if you have an older device (or even a newer device that hasn't been updated yet).
And what-ifing about not being able to download AZW3 for USB transfer (as someone posited) is not a convincing what-if either, FWIW.
Amazon's "evident long-term strategy" is only as credible as your willingness to believe in it. It may be "evident" to you -- to others, it isn't nearly as evident.
Like I already said, the only meaningful pattern I see from Amazon is maintaining backwards compatibility
and lockdown of the KindleOS, which is a whole 'nother kettle of fish,, being something totally different.
tl;dr
It's not the scaremongering that bothers
me, so much as the blatant, unabashed what-ifing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rizla
I doubt many Kindle users bother or know how to convert and backup books. Closing off the ability to read media on non-Amazon devices is unlikely to hurt their sales much.The increasing shutdown of options for fonts, formatting and jail-breaking reinforces this. The Kindles are becoming increasingly simplified and closed and I would guess that the vast majority of Kindle users are not even aware of it.
Personally I see no issue with this. There are alternatives available to consumers who are uncomfortable with the direction Amazon is very clearly going in. That's the beauty of the market.
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Amazon has not done anything whatsoever to stop supporting your ability to read Amazon books on non-Amazon devices.
Amazon has as their mission statement that you should be reading Kindle books and buying from the "Everything" store, no matter who you are or what your electronic devices or how frequent a customer you are.
They have put the Kindle apps on every device they could. It's just good business to do so.
They may have made roadblocks in DeDRMing and sideloading books, but in that respect I guess they have only just finally caught up to Kobo -- which has the same Virtual Books crap.
Amazon is still tremendously easy to buy and DeDRM books from.
And if worst comes to worst, we can always switch and buy books from elsewhere
(while we wait for KFX to be cracked, now it is an interesting target).
Speaking of which, would you mind if I asked you to please stop conflating Kindle Store books with the Kindle ereader?
Considering that Amazon has always offered a Personal Documents service, and provides tools for converting books to Kindle format (both for end users and for authors), I find it ludicrous beyond belief to imagine Amazon will drop support for E-Ink Kindles reading MOBI/AZW3.
But I have a horrible suspicion that you may be bordering on insinuating just this.
