How the e-book landscape is becoming a walled garden

[speakingtohe]

And that means people like Robert Service (who roved North America for years as a vagabond) can launch into writing on brute force talent. Publishers no longer required or able to keep them outside the wall.

I am curious about that. My uncle is a Robert Service fan and I have lived in the Yukon for 12 years and have no reference to Robert Service roving as a vagabond in North America? Other than a book title with the word vagabond in it I see nothing to indicate that this is so. My uncle who is 84 would love to add this to his collection of Robert Service info.

Thanks
Helen

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

And when they find they can't get book from their retailer, they find alternative ways to get that book really fast. If they don't know what DRM is, they will learn. They only reason they don't know what DRM is is because they haven't needed to learn in order to read the books they want.

What did they say in that Jurassic Park movie? Something like "life will find a way."

[Joykins]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

What the author is actually describing is consolidation in the e-book market...but I think he's wrong about that at all, at least as a practical matter. First of all, it doesn't strike me that the e-book market is any more restricted than the pbook market. The market is still dominated by the same publishers - but most users have much more freedom to buy e-books than they ever did pbooks. And of course there is a wide array of PD books available, as well as many self published books.

Yes. It is only since I've been reading ebooks that I've been able to find books from certain niche publishers. Some of them are ebook-only.

[flipreads]

I think the key here too will be the device makers.

Don't get me wrong, I've been reading PDFs on a computer screen for the past four or five years, but part of the current proliferation of eBooks are the (relatively) cheap eReaders, particularly those that support the Kindle format (in Amazon's case) and ePub.

[Ravensknight]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

The cake is a lie.

Wait a second!!!!

Does this mean....

There is no spoon?

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Ravensknight

Wait a second!!!!

Does this mean....

There is no spoon?

I know this cake doesn't exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is moist and delicious... Ignorance is bliss.

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by Joykins

Yes. It is only since I've been reading ebooks that I've been able to find books from certain niche publishers. Some of them are ebook-only.

Right. Or they are free on line.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

I agree, the "walls" are only about a foot tall... easy enough to step over. They form more psychological boundaries than physical ones; users are left to their own devices whether to stay within their chosen garden, or to venture into other gardens.

And now, there are so many gardens, including those by independent authors (like myself) which sport no walls at all. The real question here is whether the independents can coax those within the large gardens like Amazon to visit the other gardens from time to time... to recognize the entire space as one huge garden for them to explore at will.

[TechnoCat]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

If you randomly polled people shopping at a shopping mall, how many people do you think would know that it is possible to remove DRM? Heck, how many people would know what DRM is?

As fallacious arguments go, this is impressive. 20 years ago, nobody knew of SMS messages. 30 years ago satellite TV was limited to uber-geeks; now it's considered just another form of cable. All luxury cars come with satellite radio, MP3 player connections and ripping hard drives too. Online video streaming hadn't been invented, and yet we have it built into our BluRay players and our AppleTV or Roku; you can buy Roku or a similar Sony box, your choice, at any Costco. The relevant consumers (i.e. spend money) have an Amazon account and are learning of all this type of stuff.

Go on, pull the other, it's got bells on.

[stonetools]

Originally Posted by TechnoCat

As fallacious arguments go, this is impressive. 20 years ago, nobody knew of SMS messages. 30 years ago satellite TV was limited to uber-geeks; now it's considered just another form of cable. All luxury cars come with satellite radio, MP3 player connections and ripping hard drives too. Online video streaming hadn't been invented, and yet we have it built into our BluRay players and our AppleTV or Roku; you can buy Roku or a similar Sony box, your choice, at any Costco. The relevant consumers (i.e. spend money) have an Amazon account and are learning of all this type of stuff.

Go on, pull the other, it's got bells on.

On the contrary, its simply a statement of fact. Not sure of the relevancy of your examples. In any case, the whole " walled garden" metaphor is so yesterday. It may have made sense in 2009 or whenever, but today? The ordinary consumer can get almost any book they want, on any device they have. Moreover, they can get it in minutes, with the click of a mouse, and a price which most consumers find reasonable .
By and large, its the technologists that bitch and complain about " walls". The ordinary consumers are content to enjoy the garden.

[speakingtohe]

My perception, which could be way of base, is that the ordinary consumer is still not sure what to do with an ereader.
My mother ws very twitchy when I bought her one in 2010. She loves it but only because I manage it for her. She has four friends who were given ereaders (Kobo and Kindle) last Christmas, and only one has actually attempted to use it.

I gave my roommate a PRS-350 over a year ago and it took her 8 months to attempt to use it and she is an IT Professional who is competely comfortable with the use and purchase of online content.

I have a PRS-600 which I rarely use. I have attempted to give to 2 aspiring authors and several avid readers (in 2012). None really wanted an ereader and few knew what I was talking about(they had seen ads on TV).

I have had three people buy ereaders immediately after seeing mine. All tried to buy online content and only one succeeded.

The ordinary consumer cannot always find the garden.

Helen

[ProfCrash]

My brother is a programer and has not taken the time to learn what his Sony and Kindles can do. I have told him about the library, stripping DRM, sharing e-books, and the like and he still does not use them to their full potential. When my Sister-in-Law was visiting I had to tell her that she could download the Percy Jackson books that my Nephew had read a year ago onto her new K4 for my niece, who was bored, to read.

[stonetools]

This forum is kind of a bubble. If you read the posts here, you take it for granted that most folks are familiar with DRM, Darknet, Calibre, Apprentice Alf, etc., etc, and that it is MOST IMPORTANT that people should be able to backup/archive their books according to some particular scheme, transfer eBooks between devices, share ebooks with any and everyone, etc, etc.

In reality, all most people want to do is to be able to buy, download, read and store ebooks on their device, which they probably won't upgrade or change till it breaks , years from now. That is the extent of what they want from their eBook reader.
If they are reading on a tablet or smartphone, talk of "walled gardens" vanishes into irrelevance , since they can shop and read from almost any store.

[JDK1962]

Originally Posted by stonetools

In reality, all most people want to do is to be able to buy, download, read and store ebooks on their device, which they probably won't upgrade or change till it breaks , years from now. That is the extent of what they want from their eBook reader.

I think this is correct. But just wait till, years from now, when that e-reader breaks and the consumer realizes that either they have to replace their device with another from the same manufacturer, or they lose the library they've spent hundreds or thousands on. THEN they'll see--and resent--the walls.

As has been pointed out elsewhere, the devices are so new that a lot of consumers don't even realize there are walls...because they haven't hit them yet.

[stonetools]

Originally Posted by JDK1962

I think this is correct. But just wait till, years from now, when that e-reader breaks and the consumer realizes that either they have to replace their device with another from the same manufacturer, or they lose the library they've spent hundreds or thousands on. THEN they'll see--and resent--the walls.

As has been pointed out elsewhere, the devices are so new that a lot of consumers don't even realize there are walls...because they haven't hit them yet.

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.
Think of the iPod. The people who bought the iPod back in 2002 are still buying iPods today, although current mp3 players are on par with the iPod at lower prices. Why? Because they've figured out the iPod experience, they're satisfied with it, and they don't want to have to learn anything else. the consumer who's figured out her Nook isn't going to want to jump over to a Kindle, unless the Kindle offers some huge advantage over the Nook: and how likely will that be? The next generations of eBook readers may have slightly better displays and slightly better touch interfaces but that's about it.