[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by barryem

First let me say I wish ereaders were made by companies who didn't sell ebooks. That, to me, is the single biggest problem with this industry.

Yeah, I agree.

I get 3G Kindles for the most part and I can download books from my library anywhere I happen to be. I can also buy books easily.

I'd agree if 3G were free. As it is, I wonder how often 3G is used. I could imagine myself stuck at that desolate bus stop in North By Northwest and have just finished a book and there's not another already loaded on the device.

I could imagine that, but I don't think it happens in the real world very often.

How often do you utilize the 3G downloading because it is the only option open to you?

Also there's the ability to read on my Kindle and later on my phone and then again on my Kindle and never have to find my place. Each device knows where I am on the other device. That also lets me keep a Kindle by my bed so when I go to bed I don't have to carry it with me. I just go to bed, pick up the one on my night stand and read where I left off on my living room Kindle. Maybe I should also get a bathroom Kindle. Actually a front porch Kindle would make sense but it might walk off.

That is a benefit. No arguments from me on that one.

Now I can also buy audiobooks on my Kindle and synch those as well. I haven't done that and I'm not really expecting to but a lot of people probably will so this has to be considered a benefit.

I don't understand using an ereader to listen to audiobooks unless you are one of the vanishingly small number of people who has a Kindle, but doesn't have a phone.

Just because an ereader can do it doesn't mean it does it as well as something else.

I don't read comics on my ereader either. Though it can handle the format, I never think of it as a benefit and wouldn't cry if it were dropped.

Then there's X-Ray. I used to use that a lot till they "improved" it. Now I just use search to locate characters I've forgotten. It's simpler. But the idea of X-Ray is a very good one.

I've not used X-Ray. Maybe it is a benefit.

I can't say for sure none of these benefits would exist if Amazon only sold the books and the readers were made by Asus or Lenovo or Dell. But my guess is they never would have happened. It requires a lot of coordination between reader maker and book seller and there probably wouldn't have been a lot of motivation for that.

Again, I agree. But given the benefits you stated, versus buying an Acer reader that can purchase ebooks from all the major stores, I know which one I would choose.