How the e-book landscape is becoming a walled garden

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by stonetools

This is geek thinking. The average consumer will most likely just shrug her shoulders and buy the upgraded version of her current eBook reader, especially if its the same price or less than the current model.

You may be correct about this, but I don't think it has anything to do with "geek thinking" at all. More important than the fact that a lot of people here are knowledgeable about eReader tech is the fact that most people here are "heavy readers" who have an above average love for books—more so anyway than the average commuter who grabs whatever bestseller has the prettiest cover at the newsstand before catching their flight.

So the fact that their entire elibrary could be rendered useless to them in the future doesn't trouble the geek in them at all. It troubles the lover-of-books in them. Especially if they weren't "geeky" enough to even know that their library was on the line just by deciding to get a new device. So you'd probably be better served to not obsess so much with the "geek thinking" arguments. They're not as relevant as you might think.

And besides, the fact that users here don't represent the average (e)book buyer doesn't mean anything more than "they represent a smaller portion of the (e)book buying public at large" Which in turn says nothing about whether their opinions are "right or wrong." Nor anything about whether the various decisions made by the retailers/publishers is anything other than self-serving and/or efficient (which I don't think anyone here would try to refute).

In short; the fact that retailers/publishers can safely ignore the opinions of MobileRead users and still make boatloads of cash off of people who don't care one way or the other, only makes them successful... not correct.

[charmian]

From the perspective of the retailers and publishers, successful=correct. They will only change if they stand to make more money otherwise.

I agree with stonetools that it won't make much difference for the average consumer, because most of the ereaders available now are a) comparable in price, and b) have around the same capabilities. You'd see people screaming and shouting if say, the Kindle were significantly more expensive than other ereaders, or if the user experience was much better on the other ones.

[DiapDealer]

I agree with stonetools that it won't make much difference for the average consumer

I agree too. Completely. I just don't think that observation is very relevant. Unless the topic of conversation is; "does the average reader who buys 4 or 5 books a year really give a shit?"

[stonetools]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I agree too. Completely. I just don't think that observation is very relevant. Unless the topic of conversation is; "does the average reader who buys 4 or 5 books a year really give a shit?"

But of course, the heavy user has educated himself on the whole "library tied to one device" thing. Just about everyone knows the whole format- DRM thingy. . They may not like it, but its not like its going to be a surprise.
Quite frankly, even the rookie eBook reader person figures this stuff out quickly-and is not bothered by it, so long as she can keep buying and reading any book they want on their device

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by stonetools

But of course, the heavy user has educated himself on the whole "library tied to one device" thing. Just about everyone knows the whole format- DRM thingy. . They may not like it, but its not like its going to be a surprise.
Quite frankly, even the rookie eBook reader person figures this stuff out quickly-and is not bothered by it, so long as she can keep buying and reading any book they want on their device

People can learn pretty quickly when they want to.
That said, a lot of people will just go the way of least resistance and stick with 1 eReader.
If they have a reason to get a different eReader, then they may learn what they need to know, or just adapt.
Personally, I think they will just sit their old eReader on the book shelf like they did their old paper books, and use the new eReader from then on and not worry about it like a lot of people here do.

[JDK1962]

Originally Posted by stonetools

This is geek thinking. The average consumer will most likely just shrug her shoulders and buy the upgraded version of her current eBook reader, especially if its the same price or less than the current model.

We can all spin out lots and lots of use cases, and in most of them, I admit that the average consumer will either never care, or never even know, that they've tied themselves to a specific vendor. Of the small percentage of people who read, probably a much, much smaller percentage re-read. People who lose access to this week's James Patterson number one bestseller are probably not going to care if they can't access it after their current e-reader breaks.

My own use case is reading voraciously to find books that I love enough to keep, and to want to re-read. Probably very atypical.

I freely confess that I am a geek, of literature and of computers. Attempts by vendors to lock me in trouble me not at all, because I ignore them. I just think it's a shame that most people get locked in without even knowing it. In the same impersonal (elitist) way that I feel badly for people who buy and read nothing but the series crap on the NYT Bestseller list, most of which bears the same relationship to quality writing as MacDonalds does to food.

[pwalker8]

One thing about the original quotation is that it is a bit of a straw man. Sure there are three or four major vendors right now (amazon, apple, B&N and Sony) but saying that they can decide who gets in and who does, while technically true, doesn't represent reality. Reality is that they all want all the authors and ebooks they can get. If you own the rights to a book, and it doesn't violate the standards of the store, then any of the stores will be more than happy to sale the book if you sign the contract. Now, it may be true that books that you buy from Amazon are only readable on Amazon readers, sans effort by the user, but that is a different issue.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Sure there are three or four major vendors right now (amazon, apple, B&N and Sony) but saying that they can decide who gets in and who does, while technically true, doesn't represent reality. Reality is that they all want all the authors and ebooks they can get. If you own the rights to a book, and it doesn't violate the standards of the store, then any of the stores will be more than happy to sale the book if you sign the contract. . . .

But as threads in this section of MR often show, many other issues and conflicts result in the unavailability of books from the major vendors (exclusive deals with publishers, price agreement, renegotiation, etc.).

That's why I believe we need an attractively efficient, ubiquitous and non-proprietary shopping search engine for ebooks. I posted on that topic elsewhere, but perhaps the point is more relevant here.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by stonetools

Just about everyone knows the whole format- DRM thingy.

Trust me, outside of this site, there are plenty of people who don't know a thing about DRM... a clear majority, I'd say. And even among those who do know about DRM, they don't care while they stay in one environment, because they have forgotten (or intentionally ignored) the instances of past libraries' problems. Few people buy into a product expecting it to break down.

The members of MR are unique among ebook users, in the minority, more tech-savvy and with longer memories in this particular area. We are the exceptions, not the rule.

That's why the "walled garden" is so particularly galling, because we can see through the curtains that are apparently opaque to others.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

Trust me, outside of this site, there are plenty of people who don't know a thing about DRM... a clear majority, I'd say. And even among those who do know about DRM, they don't care while they stay in one environment, because they have forgotten (or intentionally ignored) the instances of past libraries' problems.

I agree that most people have little to no concept of DRM at this time. Some also know and don't care. I've got a couple of friends who understand it completely, but could care less because for them once a book has been read they no longer care about it. They never re-read anything having the outlook that there are to many things out there to read to re-read something they've already consumed.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

I agree that most people have little to no concept of DRM at this time. Some also know and don't care. I've got a couple of friends who understand it completely, but could care less because for them once a book has been read they no longer care about it. They never re-read anything having the outlook that there are to many things out there to read to re-read something they've already consumed.

I'm like your friends. Don't care about DRM. Once I read a book, it's rare that I'll ever re-read it.

[DiapDealer]

I rarely re-read books myself. But I'll be damned if I'm going to take the chance that one day in the future when I decide I do want to re-read a certain book, that I'm going to have to buy it again (in the event I've moved on to a different reader with different DRM). That's not ideology talking... I'm just that much of a frickin' cheapskate. I still have access to 30 year old pbooks I bought, and I'm going to have access to 30 year-old ebooks I bought. That's not geek. That's pack-rat.

[Redcard]

I don't get how it's going to be a walled garden. I can go to five or six sites and read fiction right now that I'll never see in a bookstore. Well edited fiction. On some of those sites, I push a button, and I can get the stories as Mobi, or Epub, or txt, or html, or rtf files.

I know of multiple authors that have set up their own personal websites, and I've purchased many of their ebooks.

I know open source devs who have hacked every tablet that has come out, including some that have gone so far as to hack EINK tablets. I expect (if not already) , we will soon see plans online for open source hardware based eink and LCD readers. You'll be able to , for free, download plans, software, and purchase the components on your own. There will be people to put these together for low costs for you.

I cannot see how this is going to be a walled garden. It's just not possible anymore.

Even if Amazon walls their device off 100%, I can HACK an android tablet. In months, I'll be able to download plans to MAKE one.

[QuantumIguana]

That you have to hack it is evidence that it is a walled garden, you've simply climbed over the walls.

[Redcard]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

That you have to hack it is evidence that it is a walled garden, you've simply climbed over the walls.

Right, but even if I don't hack it, I can MAKE my own e-reader. I can find plenty of authors who do NOT do DRM. I can implement Android on the E-reader, or I can put my own embedded linux stuff on there, or I could even code my own micros. I can make it read EPUB, HTML, TXT, RTF, ODF.. all open protocols, all that can be done sans DRM. I can link it to the thousands of fiction websites out there. All this I can do. Freely. Openly.

Sure, there will be some that take the walled garden approach. But it's already over. An idea, once in the world, will flourish without much help