Quote:
Originally Posted by barryem
The problem with ebooks and ereaders are that the ereaders are made by the book sellers for the purpose of selling books. It's hard for anyone who isn't a book seller to compete with this because the book sellers can sell the devices cheap since book sales are their object.
A better plan would be for hardware manufacturers to sell ereaders and book sellers to sell books. Of course that's not going to happen any time soon.
I think what might eventually change some of this will be when the justice department decides that exclusive books are anti-competitive, which, of course they are. And that vertical integration, book sellers providing ereaders, is anti-competitive, which it is. I'm not predicting this will happen but I hope it will eventually.
Of course if it does happen ereaders are going to be a lot more expensive. But all things considered that's a good thing.
The ideal would be a broad choice of ereaders, each of which can read books from any source.
Barry
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You keep forgetting that dedicated ereaders are a niche product. Most ereading is done on phones or tablets. There is not a single phone or tablet I am aware of that locks you into a certain ebook store. I fail to see how the justice department would be involved anytime soon.