Quote:
Originally Posted by Musicman
I agree with you on the licensing and firmware. What I don't understand is why a third party has not come out with an operating system/Firmware that allows the user to install the existing reader software that is given away so you could access any DRM disabled book.
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The software development kits are licensed to these companies that are creating firmware and the devices and most likely it would not be profitable for anyone to create firmware that people had to pay for without also selling the device that the firmware is installed on. Despite the rise in popularity of book reading devices there still aren't that many of them out there its not like the PC or PDA market yet. Remember that Bill Gates managed to lock a lot of hardware manufacturers into building the hardware for MS operating systems without having to foot the bill for said hardware and I don't really see the ereader market going that way.
I also don't see the ereader market as such staying around all that long. With the price of netbooks where it is and increase in the number of tablet sized devices I think where we are headed eventually is to a reader sized device that is a touchscreen PC essentially. The display technology is what is holding these back right now and it seems that is changing as well with more battery friendly technologies appearing that are also cost effective to produce.
edit:
darn takes me too long to write a post I'm already several replies behind.
