Quote:
Originally Posted by Futuregrace
The ability to sync docs and my own books on the Amazon cloud, even if only in mobi format is the only reason I don’t switch to Kobo. I’d literally switch today if they made something like that.
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The Amazon Cloud isn't the reason that most people use Amazon rather than Kobo. Actually their Cloud (and ANYONE's Cloud or Sync) should be avoided.
Most people actually use their phone. The Kindle App. Amazon is a monopolistic behemoth. They have ploughed most of their profits since 1998 into taking over competitors, diversifying and marketing.
See their takeovers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ions_by_Amazon
The Kobo SW is pretty poor, though maybe better than Amazon Kindle, which has hardly improved except in font/language support since the first Kindle, which was based off the Mobi Reader.
If you have Calibre, then Kobo is far better for annotation than the Kindle.
If you want to read books off Gutenberg (out of copyright classics), then there is little difference. Both platforms are rubbish for organising a library of books, so if you have more than maybe 20 to 100 ebooks, you need Calibre and a laptop.
If you want to buy books, paper or eBooks, then Amazon has over 80% of the online market, as they also own Abe and Book Depository.
The next biggest eBook seller is Smashwords, who provide most formats of eBooks and supply Apple, Barnes&Noble, Kobo and many others.
Kobo needs to take Amazon to court for ONLY supplying Kindle Format and only supplying Amazon Kindle App for phones, tablets, PCs and not any eReaders.
Also DRM is evil. It benefits Amazon more than publishers. DRM has NEVER stopped piracy. It adds costs to consumer that ONLY buys legitimate content.
In the long term without regulatory change, the Kobo online shop is doomed. Unless other eReader makers seriously improve SW vs Kindle, get price & HW right (Add home, back and turn buttons!) they are doomed. The Sony PRSx50 eReaders years ago were quite good. Madness that they switched to Android (the only points to Android are the Java like apps and the Android GUI, neither of which is any use for eInk).
Big publishers need to publish eBooks directly and stop getting destroyed by Amazon. The Amazon Prime, KDP Select, Scout etc are evil.
There needs to be regulation so that ANY eReader works with any online eBook seller, otherwise apps on phones and tablets will make eInk be an Amazon niche product if it survives at all.
Barnes&Noble being stupid preventing download to PC.