Microsoft selling eBooks?

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

I went back and looked around again, looking a little more carefully. I don't think Amazon has much to worry about. Choice is limited and the prices are outrageous in my eyes. And I'm less certain that there is an android version reader app.

They're going to have to work a bit harder for my reading dollar, I think.

MS does make Edge for Android, though I haven't checked to see whether the ePub reader is part of it or not.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

MS does make Edge for Android, though I haven't checked to see whether the ePub reader is part of it or not.

There is a placeholder.

"Coming soon! Read on the go - here's where you'll find books you get from the Microsoft Store."

[DNSB]

Books? What books in the Microsoft store? They still haven't gone live in Canada -- if I go to the webpage, the Games and Entertainment dropdown stops at Movies and TVs. If I open the Store app in my Preview VM, I see the books but it won't let me buy them not even a Free Classics edition--for some reason, I'm in the wrong country.

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Books? What books in the Microsoft store? They still haven't gone live in Canada -- if I go to the webpage, the Games and Entertainment dropdown stops at Movies and TVs. If I open the Store app in my Preview VM, I see the books but it won't let me buy them not even a Free Classics edition--for some reason, I'm in the wrong country.

Don't worry! Microsoft knows how demanding Canadian readers are and won't let their service go live until it's thoroughly tested in the USA. We suffer so you won't have to. . .

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Books? What books in the Microsoft store? They still haven't gone live in Canada -- if I go to the webpage, the Games and Entertainment dropdown stops at Movies and TVs. If I open the Store app in my Preview VM, I see the books but it won't let me buy them not even a Free Classics edition--for some reason, I'm in the wrong country.

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

Don't worry! Microsoft knows how demanding Canadian readers are and won't let their service go live until it's thoroughly tested in the USA. We suffer so you won't have to. . .

At least my morning coffee helped to clean my sinuses and laptop screen.

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by DNSB

At least my morning coffee helped to clean my sinuses and laptop screen.

If you can find it, look up my post of a couple of years ago on "American Style Coffee", you might find it interesting.

I found it! It wasn't Where I thought it would be!

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...lities&page=12

[Alohamora]

Anyone else remember .LIT?

I'm far from ready to trust Microsoft not to loose interest in supporting the product/drm in a few years.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Alohamora

Anyone else remember .LIT?

I'm far from ready to trust Microsoft not to loose interest in supporting the product/drm in a few years.

Yes. I even remember using ConvertLIT to strip DRM from one co-workers ebook collection before Microsoft's servers finished shutting down. Not the only time Microsoft has stopped supported a DRMed format--anyone remember MSN Music? Zune?

[revmike]

I tried it out by buying a graphic comic book and all I received were blank pages. It was 2.50 gone by-by.

[skb]

I just found a copy of the ConvertLIT "program" I had when I used a steam driven Palm Pilot. I also found (in the same place) all my ebooks that I can't read because the DRMy thing is my credit card numbers at the time. Ah, the good old days.

So, on the odd occasion that I buy ebooks (never buy pbooks anymore), they get ALFd into Calibre so I don't have that issue again.

[Alohamora]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Yes. I even remember using ConvertLIT to strip DRM from one co-workers ebook collection before Microsoft's servers finished shutting down. Not the only time Microsoft has stopped supported a DRMed format--anyone remember MSN Music? Zune?

I had a Zune mp3 player. I had a computer set up to transfer music to the Zune. That computer died and I tried to set up a newer PC for the Zune. I found I needed both new software for the PC and new firmware for the Zune. And guess what, Microsoft had already pulled down the Zune site that supported my first gen Zune. The firmware was nowhere to be found. The Zune still works, but it's stuck forever with the same music selection I had loaded up back then.

Windows phone was a little more successful, but still another example of a project Microsoft lost interest in supporting.

I won't ever be an early adopter of any Microsoft product.

[darryl]

This thread has not been around so long that I won't revive it. There has been little on Mobileread about Microsoft's venture into selling ebooks, but a few articles have appeared on various blogs. Apparently the ebooks are epubs with DRM, though which type of DRM is not specified. It appears that they can only be read in the Edge browser, and only on devices running Windows 10 Creator's edition and later. Apparently it will run on some Surface models. It seems to me it is almost certainly using some form of proprietary DRM. We seem to be looking at a variant of an "app-locked" ebook store, the variation being that this is locked to the Edge Browser, but also to Windows 10, and even then only to the Creator's Edition (which introduced ebook functionality to Edge) and newer. I was amused by one article which wrote gushingly of reading by the Pool, an interesting feat in direct sunlight with a non e-ink tablet. There was also a sarcastic reference somewhere to taking your Surface Tablet to bed.

I doubt this one is going to be a success, even with Windows 10's substantial user base. I for one will be avoiding this particular ebook store like the plague. Whilst the books are apparently at least in ebook format, I wouldn't be buying them in the expectation of later being able to remove the DRM. Whilst there is always the chance that some hackers will take a look and find the problem easy, or regard it as a challenge, I doubt this platform will attract enough readers to make this likely.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by darryl

I doubt this one is going to be a success, even with Windows 10's substantial user base. I for one will be avoiding this particular ebook store like the plague. Whilst the books are apparently at least in ebook format, I wouldn't be buying them in the expectation of later being able to remove the DRM. Whilst there is always the chance that some hackers will take a look and find the problem easy, or regard it as a challenge, I doubt this platform will attract enough readers to make this likely.

I myself have no interest in the bookstore itself.
Unlike MSREADER in the PDA era, it doesn't offer any added value to me *at the present*. That might change. Or not.
Just don't be too quick to bury them.

Remember that iBooks shares pretty much all the abovementioned downsides and it still has captured a 10% share of the ebook market. That's without running on PCs, Android, dedicated readers, and even coming late to the very Mac.

Note that Edge is independent of Windows.
It already runs on iOS and Android and, while the ebook feature isn't yet active, on Android it has a placeholder stating it is coming. Not sure about iOS, since Apple is touchy about features that compete with their revenue streams but they might work out something. (Or not.)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybra.../#3dc24a7e7129

Given that Edge runs on Android, it is also an option for the Android-based eink readers. That's not something doable with iBooks.

Now, us folk around here care about DRM and backing up and archiving content but we also know, we are in the minority. Out in the mainstream the masses don't care. Casual readers, in particular, don't care at all.

So yes, they're way late to the party and don't (yet) offer us any compelling reason to deal with them. But they aren't necessarily D.O.A. If nothing else, they support ePub and aren't Amazon. In some circles that is enough.

It might be enough to get them 5% of the market in a year or two. Which ain't peanuts. And it would make them a clear number three.

People keep hoping for an alternative to Amazon; well, here's one.

Edit:

By the way, people like to wave off MS as some tech has-been and are missing how they are quietly growing into new and very profitable areas with top of the line tech. If anything, their core competencies in tools and services have them extremely well positioned for the next wave of change in the ever changing computer world. They are already coleaders, with AWS, in Cloud services. And they keep adding to their services toolkit. Edge is one of the keys.

And there are forces at work that play right to their strengths and positioning.

Consider these two recent pieces:

http://www.zdnet.com/article/android...oned-platform/

http://www.zdnet.com/article/siri-yo...nal-assistant/

The second one might seem like a seasonal joke but if you stop to consider Apple's backburner-ing of the Mac in favor of the iThings, to the point some are calling for them to spinoff the Mac to let it compete properly as a standalone business, there is merit in the idea. Apple has allowed its computing side to fall too far behind the leading edge to catch up any time soon. And if they don't team up with Microsoft, Amazon will. And are...

Bottom line, those dirt cheap WinTabs might come in very handy for Edge ebooks if the Oracle ruling sticks.

[pwalker8]

Way back before the Sony and Kindle readers, my primary reading device was a Microsoft tablet. It was much easier on my eyes that my palm piliot which was my other reading device.

I assume there is a kindle app for windows 10. The biggest issue that Microsoft is going to run into is presenting the existing users with a compelling reason to switch from Amazon to Microsoft. The primary reason for for someone to use iBook rather than Kindle is the it's quicker and easier to pick up a book on the table than it is to go to the browser, buy it and then download it in the Kindle app. Personally, I would be a bit surprised if there were many people who have huge libraries in iBook. It strikes me as being more oriented towards the casual reader, i.e. someone who might buy a few books a year.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Personally, I would be a bit surprised if there were many people who have huge libraries in iBook. It strikes me as being more oriented towards the casual reader, i.e. someone who might buy a few books a year.

But that is the majority of readers*, so why not focus on them. Also there has to be a lot of those that have iThingys, simply because a lot of people have iThingys whether they read or not. Hook one of those casual readers to become avid and they have already been lured in a really nice walled garden with higher walls than other walled gardens.

*: maybe not total reads, but readers as in individuals.