Quote:
Originally Posted by azayn
Kobo is indeed more innovative but Amazon, like Apple, has a massive ecosystem behind Kindle that makes it a more attractive option for the average consumer. I do think Kobo could give Amazon some much needed competition if their devices were marketed better in the US. It has less visibility than even B&N Nook.
Amazon has a de facto monopoly on the e-reader market in the US because it’s so pervasive. Kindle is basically synonymous with e-reader.
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OTOH Google has a massive infrastructure compared to Apple and the Playstore and hardly sells ebooks at all.
Amazon was first a success at selling books online (in market share) and competed in eBooks before they bought Mobipocket (the main seller to Symbian, Palm OS and Windows CE PDAs and phones).
Also being able to run the Kindle App has not much helped Android based eink makes & models.
Sony was crazy to regard their ereader as simply a way to sell books, though they were first wit eink and the Kindle was later and poorer. It was a management fail that they switched to Android (without ability to install apps, which is the ONLY point to Android) when the PRsx50 series was so good. It wasn't a bad idea to transfer their bookshop customers to Kobo, but was bad that they simply gave up consumer market and focused on the Digital Paper corporate ones which typically for Sony were crippled by having no mass storage mode, basically only worked for PDFs and via a Sony program.
So it's not simple. I do hope Kobo stays in the market, but having a bookstore isn't absolutely the answer. Look at Barnes & Noble!