Quote:
Originally Posted by barryem
I don't pretend to have actual numbers about any of this but I think the last thing I read was that 60% of USA ebook sales are from Amazon. I have read that epub is used more in other countries than it is here but I wonder if it's enough to be a majority.
Also, it's kind of difficult to care that a format is open when it's DRM'd. That shuts the openness down, it seems to me.
I'm not against epub and I'm not trying to say mobi is in any way better. The little I know about formats suggests just the opposite. But all this fear of a "closed system" when the books are so easy to jailbreak even if the devices aren't, seems a little off to me. I wonder how many of the Kindle users in here buy books from Amazon and use Calibre to back them up just in case Amazon goes kerplunk. Probably a lot. It's hard to believe Amazon doesn't know that and nothing they've done makes it seem like they care much.
Barry
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I don't have any statistics either.
I want to addressed your "closed system".
I have found that most mis-information comes from people that have never actually used the product but went to a forum to find out stuff.
Now ok, going to a forum is fine, but the problem is they usually go to whatever device forum they currently own.
I mean supporters of one thing are going to make up stuff about the competition.
Total example,
Although it was a phone call not a forum.
I had a Nook account but the second I changed the credit card, I lost the books. At that time, they were tying their DRM to the credit card. The guy tried to tell me that I must have changed my email. The guy at Barnes and Noble told me point blank that Amazon does the same thing. He hung up on me when I told him that I had changed both my email and my credit card at Amazon and they didn't take my books.
Let's see, couldn't we say the same thing about Apple being closed. I read that if you have an iPad you can only use their apps and must use isomethingorother for music and books.
Ok in all honesty, I know it is a separate OS and that it is easier straight out of the box to use their apps. Same with Android.
So if I was looking for information, I wouldn't pass on what I thought I knew until I had actually researched the device including asking actual users what it can and can't do.