Coming Soon for Kindle - lending & more

[scveteran]

Originally Posted by kevinp

That's just it - these aren't real 'benefits' for most of us. I don't know anybody that owns a Kindle, so lending is of no use to me. I don't want to read newspapers on my PC either.

Amazon has the largest market share of any of the ereaders so it is far more of a benefit than the same feature from the Nook. Also, anyone can download the kindle reader for pretty much any reader they want to use.

So I really don't see a reason for the complaints.

[dixieknits]

I'm totally not impressed by this new feature. I quit lendingout paper books years ago, when they came back torn, stained, etc. or did not come back at all. I see no reason to lend my ebooks either. If one want to borrow ebooks , then the Overdrive section of our public libraries is a wondeful place to go which takes me to...............
I would love to be able to read my DRM'd epubs or even any epub on my new Kindle3. It's amazing the amount of nearly new best sellers out there on Overdrive for us and they are legal. My guess is Amazon does not want the world knowing this , but it's big selling point of Barnes and Noble's Nook..
Considering how much I use our county library's service, I should have gotten the Nook, but I still love the sleek, lightweight KIndle much more and read my library books on a little Jetbook.

[emalvick]

Originally Posted by flandroid

Is getting out of one's car to buy a coffee or a cheeseburger that difficult? I think you're underestimating the lengths people will go to to avoid exerting effort.

(I don't mean to trivialise the rest of your reply, but I'm at work and considerably busier than I was this morning)

As for this statement and my earlier post, I was more meaning that I don't think "lending" with the Kindle will be that easy. I foresee there being a few hoops to go through, although perhaps after lending to a person once repeating lending would be easier. I don't know.

A lot of the effort or perceived effort is really a matter of habbits. And that is something that is difficult to quantify, especially when we start throwing around analogies like drive-throughs, etc.

[emalvick]

Originally Posted by Albright

In defense of the iTunes Music Store, all of their music is now DRM-free as well, and the AAC format is nowadays almost as ubiquitous as MP3 in terms of hardware support (the Kindle is a notable exception). Since the headphone jack on my iPod stopped working, I've been using a SanDisk Sansa player to listen to my music collection, about two thirds of which is from the iTMS (the remainder coming from CDs or other music stores).

I do realize that, but the DRM-free thing only came about thanks to Amazon gaining some portion of the market in music.

As far as the AAC format goes, I've seen very little outside of Apple that will accept it, at least on the hardware end. I see a lot of software, but not mp3 players. Perhaps things have changed and I haven't noticed (I am old fashioned and prefer buying CD's and I hate the Itunes store for reasons beyond format and DRM).

[bhartman36]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why give publishers an option on lending when B&N doesn't do it?

Last time I was reading about the Nook, B&N did allow publishers to opt out of the lending feature. Has that changed?

[catsittingstill]

Well, I like the idea of being able to lend books and would like to try it out. I have one friend with a Kindle right now, so the 1 time lending restriction won't be too big a deal.

I don't mind not being able to read the book while it's out--that's what lending *is*--but I wish I could set a variable time, and I wish I could lend it more than once--what is not a big deal now could become onerous down the road as more people have Kindles and Kindle apps.

But maybe this is a first step on the way to something better.

[Gwen Morse]

Originally Posted by catsittingstill

Well, I like the idea of being able to lend books and would like to try it out. I have one friend with a Kindle right now, so the 1 time lending restriction won't be too big a deal.

I don't mind not being able to read the book while it's out--that's what lending *is*--but I wish I could set a variable time, and I wish I could lend it more than once--what is not a big deal now could become onerous down the road as more people have Kindles and Kindle apps.

But maybe this is a first step on the way to something better.

I don't think anyone mentioned this already (if they did I missed it), but, I don't think *Amazon* set the terms of the lending. I think B&N did and no publisher (or few) will agree to different terms.

I'm sure smaller/self-publishers would be willing to agree to more generous terms, but then it causes confusion if there are different lending policies for different books.

On the plus side, with both B&N and Amazon allowing lending, that gives them some slight strength to push back against publishers and negotiate for more generous lending terms in the future.

[emalvick]

Originally Posted by Gwen Morse

I don't think anyone mentioned this already (if they did I missed it), but, I don't think *Amazon* set the terms of the lending. I think B&N did and no publisher (or few) will agree to different terms.

I'm sure smaller/self-publishers would be willing to agree to more generous terms, but then it causes confusion if there are different lending policies for different books.

On the plus side, with both B&N and Amazon allowing lending, that gives them some slight strength to push back against publishers and negotiate for more generous lending terms in the future.

I do think that is a good point. The one thing as readers we should want is for things to be somewhat consistent across online stores and distributors.

The one thing that would be bad is if terms did vary and publishers didn't like it, then a publisher might only choose to sell through a specific source. I already hate the fact that in other industries, including some books, that a manufacturer (to keep it more general) will often go exclusively through specific stores or web sites.

The beauty of capitalism is competition for the consumer, but that goes away if we only have one store front to choose from on certain items or titles.

[SkyDream]

Amazon said...later this year. So, there aren't that many days left....

[dvhh]

that would probably means that :
1 - they haven't yet finalized the terms with publisher
2 - Still finding the right implementation of it, so that people wouldn't cheat that much with the system ( and believe me there is a tons of way to break the system)

[SkyDream]

i think it takes 2 parts

1.) software/firmware implementation
2.) support from publishers / publishers using lending functionality

the first one can be implemented without the second one. but i believe amazon will not finish the new firmware this year...