MobileRead Forums - View Single Post

Harmon · 03-01-2009, 01:21 PM

That's a very interesting piece of information. Since I've gravitated to a Sony 505, I haven't thought much about the K2, other than the eReader itself. So I hadn't realized that there's no dedicated Amazon reading program for computers.

Checking over Amazon, it doesn't appear to me that you can buy a Kindle Book without owning a Kindle. That, too, is interesting. I assume that if you own a Kindle, you can download the book from Amazon via Whispernet, then attach the K2 to your computer and manually move the book on to your computer.

But why wouldn't Amazon let you download the book to your computer first - particularly since there are some parts of the country that Whispernet apparently doesn't reach? And taking into account that there actually are some people who prefer reading on the computer itself. The downloading part shouldn't be hard, since you can download mp3s and movies from Amazon.

So...you have to assume that Amazon affirmatively does not want the Kindle books to reside on people's computers. What occurs to me is that maybe they are afraid that we Sony people will buy the K books, strip the DRM, and...um...read them or something equally nefarious.

This is kind of related to another question I've had on my mind, which is, why doesn't Amazon sell eBooks in multiple formats? Putting aside the Sony format, there are other DRM formats out there, aren't there? And for that matter, with all the books in the public domain that Amazon has Kindlized, why don't they sell those books in some open format as well? I'm sure some people would buy them just for the convenience. I know I'd pay a couple or three bucks for public domain books in order to avoid having to play around getting them into a readable format.

I have read posts that suggest that Amazon is trying to follow Apple's model with the iPod, but viewed objectively, the two companies seem to me to be mirror images. The way I figure it, Amazon is in the book business, not the Kindle business, just as Apple is not in the music business, but in the iPod business. So it would seem logical that Amazon would be selling as many different eformats as they could, in order to sell eBooks.

But they seem to think they are in the Kindle business. This is the only thing that seems to explain why they don't make a computer based eReader for Kindle books. They genuinely want to limit the sale of their eBooks to the people who have bought Kindles.

You would think that Sony/Borders would be trying to take advantage of this by selling multiple formatted eBooks themselves. And maybe they do - I use a Mac so I'm barred from browsing the ebook section of the S/B bookstore. But I have to say that the S/B implementation of the eBook buying experience is rather stupid, since it sets up barriers to buying not merely for Mac users, but for anyone who is faced with downloading and learning yet another computer program just to buy an eBook.

But anyway, I hadn't realized that basically, Amazon doesn't want anyone reading their books on the computer, while Sony does. But at the same time, neither Amazon nor Sony want me to read their books on my Mac. Fortunately for me, I don't, either. But I will say that if Sony gave me the ability to use my Mac to buy books from the S/B bookstore, I'd probably buy a few in eBook form that I will wind up buying from my friendly local used book store in pBook form. Because I'm not inclined to buy pBooks from either Amazon or Borders these days.

03-01-2009, 01:21 PM	#8
Harmon King of the Bongo Drums Posts: 1,631 Karma: 5927225 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: Excelsior! (Strange...)	That's a very interesting piece of information. Since I've gravitated to a Sony 505, I haven't thought much about the K2, other than the eReader itself. So I hadn't realized that there's no dedicated Amazon reading program for computers. Checking over Amazon, it doesn't appear to me that you can buy a Kindle Book without owning a Kindle. That, too, is interesting. I assume that if you own a Kindle, you can download the book from Amazon via Whispernet, then attach the K2 to your computer and manually move the book on to your computer. But why wouldn't Amazon let you download the book to your computer first - particularly since there are some parts of the country that Whispernet apparently doesn't reach? And taking into account that there actually are some people who prefer reading on the computer itself. The downloading part shouldn't be hard, since you can download mp3s and movies from Amazon. So...you have to assume that Amazon affirmatively does not want the Kindle books to reside on people's computers. What occurs to me is that maybe they are afraid that we Sony people will buy the K books, strip the DRM, and...um...read them or something equally nefarious. This is kind of related to another question I've had on my mind, which is, why doesn't Amazon sell eBooks in multiple formats? Putting aside the Sony format, there are other DRM formats out there, aren't there? And for that matter, with all the books in the public domain that Amazon has Kindlized, why don't they sell those books in some open format as well? I'm sure some people would buy them just for the convenience. I know I'd pay a couple or three bucks for public domain books in order to avoid having to play around getting them into a readable format. I have read posts that suggest that Amazon is trying to follow Apple's model with the iPod, but viewed objectively, the two companies seem to me to be mirror images. The way I figure it, Amazon is in the book business, not the Kindle business, just as Apple is not in the music business, but in the iPod business. So it would seem logical that Amazon would be selling as many different eformats as they could, in order to sell eBooks. But they seem to think they are in the Kindle business. This is the only thing that seems to explain why they don't make a computer based eReader for Kindle books. They genuinely want to limit the sale of their eBooks to the people who have bought Kindles. You would think that Sony/Borders would be trying to take advantage of this by selling multiple formatted eBooks themselves. And maybe they do - I use a Mac so I'm barred from browsing the ebook section of the S/B bookstore. But I have to say that the S/B implementation of the eBook buying experience is rather stupid, since it sets up barriers to buying not merely for Mac users, but for anyone who is faced with downloading and learning yet another computer program just to buy an eBook. But anyway, I hadn't realized that basically, Amazon doesn't want anyone reading their books on the computer, while Sony does. But at the same time, neither Amazon nor Sony want me to read their books on my Mac. Fortunately for me, I don't, either. But I will say that if Sony gave me the ability to use my Mac to buy books from the S/B bookstore, I'd probably buy a few in eBook form that I will wind up buying from my friendly local used book store in pBook form. Because I'm not inclined to buy pBooks from either Amazon or Borders these days.