Quote:
Originally Posted by ZodWallop
I disagree their ebook store was minimal. I found everything I was looking for at B&N.
Now, in recent years, Amazon has some authors signed exclusively and since B&N has strangled the Nook through incompetence and neglect and Kobo is practically unknown, I have seen some indies and small presses that only seem to list at Amazon. So yeah, now B&N's ebook store doesn't compare.
My memory may be fuzzy or biased, but I seem to remember Kindle and Nook being valid competitors up until the model branded Nook Glowlight. When the Simple Touch with Glowlight came out, they really seemed to have some mojo.
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Your memory is fine.
The stores weren't identical but they were equivalent; B&N had an edge in some areas, Amazon in others. Hardware was mostly comparable *after* Kindle's defacto Pearl exclusivity expired. Where Nook fell on its face was when B&N failed to manage the STR generation and ended up with a 3Million unit excess. That kept them from updating the eink hardware as fast as they used to. And the ensuing write-off ate all the profits from their peak, when they controlled 25% of the ebook market vs Kindle's 56%.
Exclusivity is a tricky subject, though, because of how we got where we are: B&N started it when they secured exclusivity for the PEANUTS collections for their first tablets but "conveniently" forgot about it when the Amazon got temporary exclusivity for a handful of DC Graphic Novels for their first tablets.
Amazon tried several inducements with KDP SELECT to secure Indie exclusivity with minimal success before 2014. B&N made no effort and were caught downlisting Indie romance titles which didn't help their rep and when Kindle Unlimited came out what was a trickle became a stream. As of now, 20-25% of all KDP titles are Select exclusives, mostly Indies and small press. (Plus the boycotted APub titles. Different story, though.)
For tradpub-only buyers there should be no big difference since they tend to avoid KU but that's a million-plus title advantage for the Kibdle store. Not much anybody can do to counter KU by now. The time to stop it was at launch. By 2016 it was clear to Indie authors that Amazon's claims of increased discoverability were true; not only did KU reads generate income (unlike permafree) the better Indies saw a significant boost in sales in the books. And since most Indies aren't shy about sharing information, KU has grown bigger than any non-Kindle ebookstore.
There's still a lot of Indies who avoid KU, mostly hybrids with older fan bases, but among newcomers KU is practically mandatory.
Not much that can be done by now; Indies aren't a big enough share of the market to and KU membership contracts short enough no whining can trigger outside intervention. Amazon has been careful to keep it strictly within legal bounds.
KU is simply too big and too useful (for publishers and avid readers) and has too much of a headstart.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ZodWallop
Let's face it, if sideloading/the ability to remove DRM suddenly went away, we'd all be reading Kindles.
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Exactly.
This is the challenge the rest of the players face: Kindle hit the mainstream first, kept evolving, and never rested. They've made mistakes (DX!) but their focus on readers and Indies over the BPHs has kept them on track. Add in mistakes from B&N, Sony, and Apple and you get today's market.
Network effects are well-nigh impossible to overcome.
Again, the time to stop Kibdle was 2010 and the means was interoperable ePub.
Once the market went walled garden the game was over.
By now every other ebook player is merely competing for third place, regardless of how good their hardware.