New Kindle with WiFi announced

[kjk]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

The problem for ePub and the book stores that back it, is that Amazon are offering, and continue to offer the least complicated reading experience around their own proprietary format.

And even the phrases "proprietary format" and "DRM" don't register for many consumers outside the blogosphere and messageboards. Amazon can say to consumers "you can read our books anywhere-your Mac, your PC, your phone, your iPad, and your Kindle".

[BexBits]

Originally Posted by TallMomof2

Then Amazon would probably have to deal with anti-trust issues such as Microsoft dealt with several years ago.

I think this is an often overlooked issue. When VHS won it still was a situation where you could buy VHS tapes from multiple vendors and they all played just fine on machines from multiple vendors.

If "Amazon wins" means they are the last one standing the situation is much more serious on the anti-monopoly front.

Originally Posted by fumanchu314159

In these declarations of Amazon's victory, don't you think Google is the wildcard? They have announced their entry into the eBook arena with Google Editions, but with no details yet. What will their move be? They certainly won't go proprietary with Amazon...that's against their DNA...but what will they do??

If it is anything like they did with Android and tablets running Android, they will shoot themselves in the foot!

[EowynCarter]

Amazon have won, that means .mobi has won, which means we'll probably see lots of devices and deals coming up from different manufacturers that will support the Amazon ecosystem and the Amazon formats. It's not a bad day for e-reading, it's a watershed day that signals a greater adoption in the future

.
Amazon allowing e-readers makers to use their stuff ? Nah.... Amazon switching to ePub is more likley
An amazon only e-book world, that would be really sad. Monopoly is bad.

I will not go back to mobi. I switched to ePub, and won't go back unless I have absolutely no other choice.

Amazon won ? In you dreams...

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Graham

Even if it means those publishers books will only be available to you from a single vendor?

Doesn't make much difference, at least in the US. Since the Price Fix 5 got into agency pricing there isn't much room for anyone to really compete anymore on price and to some extent selection.

It's all going to start boiling down to user experience and Amazon has a better setup as far and reviews/ratings, the ability to return books, ease of use...

[Kevin2960]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Will you mow the lawn once a week year-round and take out the trash regularly?

For one of these I'd lick your feet clean

[EowynCarter]

Amazon have won, that means .mobi has won, which means we'll probably see lots of devices and deals coming up from different manufacturers that will support the Amazon ecosystem and the Amazon formats. It's not a bad day for e-reading, it's a watershed day that signals a greater adoption in the future

Amazon allowing e-readers makers to use their stuff ? Nah.... Amazon switching to ePub is more likley
An amazon only e-book world, that would be really sad ! Monopoly = bad.

I will not go back to mobi. I switched to ePub, and won't go back.

Amazon won ? In you dreams...

[readingzombie]

Ah man! I just bought my Kindle 2 at the higher price point in Feb. *Activate head-desk motion* There's no way I can justify buying the K3 now, but darn, I'd sure like to.

[Josieb1]

Originally posted by Moejoe Why not the best of both worlds (and what most people do after they use the abysmal iBooks), and put the Amazon Kindle App on the iPad?

Its nice to have the option but I like Ibooks, and also like Stanza, so will probably start there

[=X=]

Hm Hm... The smaller kindle (same screen) and the better PDF support that is delicious.

The $139 is cheep enough to consider buying another device. This will be the winning model for Amazon.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

One of the reasons my mother got a reader was because of being able to get eBooks out of the library,

I think you fail to see one major problem with your argument.... who is making money?

Any ereader vendor that supports this model is setting themselves up for failure, they might not go out of business but they are cutting themselves off from a large stream of revenue.

Also there is nothing stopping libraries from adopting the Amazon kindle as a format, they did once upon a time have MOBI.

Now onto the ePUB format. While I love this format, and think it's a great idea, as it stands today it's a failure of a format. It has failed to do what it was designed to do, allow interoperability between readers.

When it came out a year ago I made this statement and unfortunately I was right. The format itself is not complicated and uses existing technology that is not new, (XML, ZIP, HTML). They should have focused on important issues like device compatibility, DRM compatibility, search/dictionary compatibility and Annotation compatibility.

As it stands today it's up to every vendor today to implement their own way of implementing these features.

I'm really disappointed on the ePUB format, it has great potential, but they move slow and have little foresight to the importance of compatibility. While Amazon has all the features in place and continues to enhance features and content at a rapid rate.

I think the only real player that can compete with Amazon today is Google, but they have yet to show their hand. And the longer they take the harder it will be to compete.

=X=

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

.
Amazon allowing e-readers makers to use their stuff ? Nah.... Amazon switching to ePub is more likley
An amazon only e-book world, that would be really sad ! Monopoly = bad.

I will not go back to mobi. I switched to ePub, and won't go back.

Amazon won ? In you dreams...

It's not really about Amazon winning, it's about a choice being made that has to be made for ebooks to become mainstream. They cannot become mainstream with so many competing forms of DRM and wrappers (they're all pretty much HTML underneath it all anyway). Early adopters see the technical merits of formats, mainstream adopters see only the convenience. Once Amazon becomes the clear winner, then we'll start seeing real competition and innovation between vendors.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Amazon allowing e-readers makers to use their stuff ? Nah.... Amazon switching to ePub is more likley

Bezos has said they're open to licensing it to others as long as they're willing to hook into whispernet/sync. True? Who knows...

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by Graham

Even if it means those publishers books will only be available to you from a single vendor?

Graham

WOW!!!! will big letters help?

YOU CAN GET BOOKS FROM

PLACES OTHER THAN AMAZON!!!!!

Originally Posted by Maggie Leung

You can choose male or female voice. There are no pauses where there should be, and the voice is robot-like. If you like audiobooks, don't expect this feature to come anywhere near that quality.

as I understand it, any audiobook can be downloaded and as it has the ability to play music, it obviously can play and recorded voice. the text to speech option is indeed robotic, but that is a seperate issue

Originally Posted by Josieb1

oh okay, thank you, looks like an ipad for me then, eventualy

see above

Originally Posted by jswinden

Please provide a link or explanation. I've never borrowed an ebook from a library, but that would be a nice option to have. Thanks.

desert grandma has a thread on here somewhere that fully explains the method to download a library book to your kindle

Originally Posted by BexBits

I think this is an often overlooked issue. When VHS won it still was a situation where you could buy VHS tapes from multiple vendors and they all played just fine on machines from multiple vendors.

If "Amazon wins" means they are the last one standing the situation is much more serious on the anti-monopoly front.

Possibly. However what about Apple. There is only one vender, Apple, to legally buy apps for iPhone, touch, and iPad. I don't see the Feds knocking on their doors, nor do I see the customer base complaining much. As long as customers get what they want and at a fair price they seem to be happy. I'll buy from whomever can get me what I need, when I need it, and in the format I need. If that place has a monopoly, then so be it. I suspect most consumers are like that.

[Truth]

I think those declaring Amazon's victory are still forgetting something key: the older, nontechnical demographic. Shocking as it may be, there are still many people who actually walk into places commonly called "stores". In these "stores", they buy things, books for example. For the people who still shop in this manner, the Kindle is not the ereader they are likely to choose. Here in Canada, Chapters & Indigo have the Kobo ereader in stores to play with. In the States, B&N will have the same thing. Amazon lacks this presence, and I know that I am not the only person who doesn't want to buy an ereader until playing with one.

On another note, I work at a small college in one of Canada's largest cities, yet ereaders are still barely on most of my (voraciously reading) coworkers' radars. I have shown some of them the Kindle, and while they thought it was neat, they wanted to experience one before making a purchase. At least one of them has since bought a Kobo simply because it was available to touch, hold, and purchase immediately.

If the Kindle isn't on everyone's radar yet, how can the format wars be over?