Quote:
Originally Posted by Gideon
I'm all for a universal golden standard, but quite frankly it's not here yet. And it won't be until the DRM issue is resolved, anyway. Man... I'm so tired of hearing about lack of ePub. That's like everytime a new iPod comes out and people start complaining about its lack of support of Ogg Vorbis.
There's no pressing interest for Amazon to implement ePub. None. 99.99% of people on the planet probably don't even know what it is. They control the books, and books they are not selling and are provided by the public domain can EASILY be provided using the mobi format.
Now if they open the bookstore to other devices, then it becomes pressing. And they are primarily in the book business, not the gadget business... them opening up to more ebook formats impedes their book selling.
None of this is to say that it wouldn't be nice if they would. But the market just doesn't really mandate it yet. The great eBook experiment continues.
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I must agree. I think native PDF support would bring them more new customers even though it's an inferior format. Us geeky types might be swayed by ePub and Ogg Vorbis but most people would ask, "Ogg what?" Most of them call every audio file an mp3 regardless of what it is and want PDF because that's what a lot of work documents and manuals come in. One of the most common criticisms I see of the Kindle on gadget blogs is "No PDF support? WTF. EPIC FAIL." It's tied neck and neck with the backlight complaints and the "why should I buy one of these things when I can buy a netbook for the same price" questions. These are the resistances they meet with most new customers, not the lack of ePub.