Lexcycle has been acquired by Amazon

[RWood]

There are flaws in Mobipocket that they have never been able to get rid of -- page numbering comes to mind as the most bothersome. ePub is coming and this gives Amazon a jumpstart in the field.

They can also use the technology to produce a better reading experience for the Kindle owners. I see this as a win-win.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by RWood

There are flaws in Mobipocket that they have never been able to get rid of -- page numbering comes to mind as the most bothersome. ePub is coming and this gives Amazon a jumpstart in the field.

They can also use the technology to produce a better reading experience for the Kindle owners. I see this as a win-win.

I seriously doubt this take over has anything to do with Amazon wanting to acquire EPUB rendering capability. They could just have licensed it from Adobe if that was the case, or developed it in house, for next to nothing, using open an open source HTML rendering engine.

[=X=]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Smother it?

Yea that was my first though too.

=X=

[AnemicOak]

Just out of curiosity is there a list of all the companies they own now somewhere?


I know they own...

IMDB
Audible
Booksurge
Brilliance Audio
CreateSpace
AbeBooks
Mobipocket
Shelfari
Reflexive

[Gideon]

I think the doomspeak is a bit premature. Amazon has bought lots of companies, and I can't think of any that they crippled after purchasing (even when they were in their fields.)

Best to see what happens.

[khalleron]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Just out of curiosity is there a list of all the companies they own now somewhere?

I found this:

http://www.seobythesea.com/?p=342

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Gideon

I think the doomspeak is a bit premature. Amazon has bought lots of companies, and I can't think of any that they crippled after purchasing (even when they were in their fields.)

Best to see what happens.

Mobipocket

[sirbruce]

Go Amazon! All you Amazon-haters should get on board the Amazon Train; toot toot!

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Okay, after thinking about this a leetle bit further, I came up with this:

Is Amazon likely to start selling its books in anything other than its existing format? Two formats? I doubt it. But Amazon always wants to find ways of selling to more people.

So it seems sensible that their acquisition of Lexcycle could be to speed up the process of developing apps for non-Kindle devices, to expand the range of devices that can read Amazon’s e-books. As they have already embraced the iPhone, and Lexcycle has made clear that they wanted to develop Stanza for other devices (meaning more customers), aiding that process would make sense. As I’ve said before, not everyone in the world owns an iPhone.

The alternative would be that Amazon wants to quash non-Kindle access to their store. This doesn’t seem to make sense, as it means they are limiting their potential customer base.

The third possibility, that Amazon wants to quash ePub, just seems ludicrous. The genie’s already out of that bottle. But if future Stanza apps support AZW and not ePub (or just not support it as well as AZW), that would track with Amazon thinking.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by mtravellerh

Once upon a time there was a browser called Netscape. Anyone remembers what happened to it? Well, so do I.

It became Firefox and it's quite good now.

[sirbruce]

I think they realize Stanza is a popular reader and want to get their books available on it. I think there might also be some technology development cross-sharing they can use to improve Kindle with Stanza code and vice-versa.

As for ultimately embracing more formats? That remains to be seen.

[kovidgoyal]

The biggest reason, IMO, for this takeover (though I doubt that Amazon would ever admit this), is that Lexcycle was encouraging the development of independent book retailers, by providing a popular platform from which they could sell books.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

The biggest reason, IMO, for this takeover (though I doubt that Amazon would ever admit this), is that Lexcycle was encouraging the development of independent book retailers, by providing a popular platform from which they could sell books.

But an act like that would only delay the development of other apps, especially as ePub is open source, and Amazon isn't likely to be able to buy up all the apps that might come out of that.

I think Amazon sees Stanza specifically as the app to get Amazon onto more devices, as opposed to keeping other retailers out. After all, they already have the virtual warehouse everyone else lusts after, so they will have it easier convincing others to buy from them once they have an available app for their device.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

But an act like that would only delay the development of other apps, especially as ePub is open source, and Amazon isn't likely to be able to buy up all the apps that might come out of that.

Yeah but all that's really needed is a delay, in order to acheive monopoly.

I think Amazon sees Stanza specifically as the app to get Amazon onto more devices, as opposed to keeping other retailers out. After all, they already have the virtual warehouse everyone else lusts after, so they will have it easier convincing others to buy from them once they have an available app for their device.

Look at it this way, Lexcycle was threatening to become a viable online distribution channel for publishers that didn't want to use Amazon. It isn't any longer.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Yeah but all that's really needed is a delay, in order to acheive monopoly.

Look at it this way, Lexcycle was threatening to become a viable online distribution channel for publishers that didn't want to use Amazon. It isn't any longer.

Sure... but that's a long way from monopoly, considering the advancement of ePub, the many other formats, the wealth of open-source conversion apps, and the already-established internet-based distribution channels.

The most this could accomplish is to create two global markets: The United States; and Everybody Else. And as long as there are other formats out there, the U.S. market won't be Amazon's monopoly for quite some time.