[iterati]

Originally Posted by epiphany

They are shooting themselves in the foot because this decision will upset many current and potential customers who will then buy other ebook devices. If you think Amazon is in such a powerful position with trapped customers, why are Kindle ebooks always cheaper than the competition? My view is that Amazon made a blunder here but in general they are trying to offer the best product for their customers (to make money, of course; that's how capitalism works). Unfortunately this requires they impose a restrictive DRM scheme to appease publishers and hence guarantee the widest selection of books (although I do think it is wrong how they force DRM on authors and publishers that don't want it).

Oh, I understand Amazon so well. They offer cheaper ebooks than the competition for the exact reason to trap the customer and because they have the level to execute it. First, ebook market is not large yet and they don’t mind the lesser profit margin; for now… But stay assured, things will change after they acquire the edge in customer volume. It’s the small vs. large company model. While small offer cheaper prices, flexible products, gifts and generally draw as much customers as possible. If you are large then do the same but then attempt to press on your proprietary products too. And when you become monopoly then you are the king.

What if they “attacked” a site? I don’t think that’d make a difference, perhaps it’ll dishearten few from buying the kindle. So what? What they want is secrecy. Think about buying a washing machine and then you discover that it operates only if you use their own detergent too. Yes, it’s not so funny, it doesn’t apply in washing machines nowadays but it does in many other fields. Example the Nokia phone and their batteries, Nokia is spending millions for marketing in order to discourage customers buying clone batteries (that they cost 10 times less). Another example is MS Windows, of course, simply consider how many products MS attempted to push using Windows as trojan horse.