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Originally Posted by JSWolf
But, Amazon should be looking at why others are buying Readers that are not Kindle. What is it about the other brands that make Kindle not a viable choice? One reason people go for Kobo instead of Kindle is more options in the Aa menu and the ability to add in fonts you want to use if they are not in the default font list. Without ePub, if people use Overdrive outside the USA, then a Kindle is not a good choice because you won't get Kindle eBooks.
It's not just what the users want, it's also what can be added to get more users. That make a a lot more people wanting similar things.
Oh and one more thing. Let the Kindle be turned off. Just standby is not good for the battery. The T1 (for example) has a really nice feature I ave not seen elsewhere. Two days with no use, it turns off.
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I would be surprised if Amazon is not keeping a very close eye on why some prefer other devices. In particular, Amazon is clearly familiar with the font weight issue and obviously decided that enough people cared to actually do something about it. I don't know why they did not go further, but clearly they did look at it and made an informed decision.
I suspect the reason why they don't implement other features named are usually either that not enough people care, or the features would not fit in with their overall "ecosystem". Certainly epub support is just not going to happen, as Harry's post quoted below makes clear. I also doubt library borrowers outside of the US are of any real concern. If they ever become of concern, which I doubt, they will almost certainly implement by making their own formats accessible for borrowing rather than supporting epub. The fact that this hasn't been done to date, even in a market the size of the UK, together with the fact that Amazon apparently does not provide ebooks of even its own imprints for library borrowing anywhere indicates to me that this is not a priority for them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I have to confess that I can see no benefit whatsoever to Amazon in making the Kindle an open platform. The Kindle is sold first and foremost as an Amazon content consumption device; how would Amazon benefit from making it easy for people to use content purchased elsewhere on it?
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Exactly. Just as the 'Big Publishers take account of the whole of their businesses, including paper books, when making decisions about ebooks, Amazon must take account of its whole "ecoystem", which seems to be remarkably healthy right now. This is why they won't open up the platform or support competitive formats. Their ideal customer profile is someone who just uses only their "ecosystem" for all their reading needs. And it appears the vast majority of their customers fit this profile. I also suspect that Amazon likes to keep control over the quality of the reading experience. The more choice offered on the core platform, the more complex the device becomes to operate, the more support that is required, and, of course, the fact that people not using features properly will blame Amazon. This means that Amazon is not likely to add or change features unless there is a real and significant demand.