Quote:
Originally Posted by mgmueller
For me, it comes down to Amazon and Sony.
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To some extent I agree with this. Amazon has a vision of what ebooks should be, it isn't what I want but generally a clear vision of what is required beats no vision every time. So I was not arguing that Amazon was wrong to implement the Kindle as it did but rather that is it hopeless for small companies to copy its approach. They need to do something different, and one approach would be to add features that a large enough part of the reading community needs. Good PDF support and support for thousands of ebooks on the device are two examples. Another is support for multiple formats, even if they are DRM-free.
I'm not so sure about Sony. I think the alternative to Amazon is now Adobe, with Sony as its flagship device vendor but with many alternative devices. The problem for Adobe is they have way fewer ways to make money out of ebooks than Amazon.