Lexcycle has been acquired by Amazon

[anurag]

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.

I think I agree with Kovid about the motivations behind Amazon's purchase. Amazon is trying hard, but I don't think this will naturally lead to a monopoly. Dedicated reader hardware and software continues to improve, and so does the app development platform for smartphones. Even if Amazon builds a lead in the access space, it won't be too hard to break that lead by providing an alternative access platform that is comparable to, or even better than Amazon's. (think Google vs Altavista).
There is enough non-Amazon content out there, lots of non-Amazon retailers willing to invest heavily in ebooks, and a lot of smart and ambitious technology folks interested in the ebook space (I'd say most of them are here on mobileread!). But the alternative would have to be available and popular soon - within a year, maybe two.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

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.

I'm not saying they'll succeed, indeed I believe they wont, and I'm doing my level best to ensure they don't But that, IMO, is the motivation behind the takeover.

[bhartman36]

I don't see this as an apocalyptic scenario, by any means. In fact, it seems to fit in pretty well with the "sell our books everywhere" strategy that Amazon revealed when they put out their iPhone app.

In Stanza, they've got a ready-made distribution channel on to other ereaders. Think of it this way: Amazon currently controls the AZW/Topaz format. If what they're intending to sell is books, do they care very much what you read the book on? Probably not. (Again, this was demonstrated by the iPhone app.) What they care about most is that you can read an Amazon book on any player out there (including the Kindle, of course), but that you still have to buy the book to do so (i.e., it's not really of benefit to them to let people break the DRM outright).

So what I think Amazon is looking to do is to take Stanza and extend it to every platform possible, so that anyone with a reading device can use it to buy Amazon books. (There are, after all, quite a few non-iPhone phones out there.)

As far as Stanza dropping support for other stores: I suppose that's possible, but I think it would be a needless strategy, and might even bring the law down on Amazon. No store is even close to Amazon's size. How much of a threat are they, really? Even Fictionwise has a distance to go. Rather than trying to shut down these relatively small channels, wouldn't it make more sense to make lemonade out of lemons, and simply allow the Kindle access to these other stores? If you've got the most versatile ebook around, and the biggest store behind it, isn't that the best position to be in?

[kovidgoyal]

Right now the Stanza reader works only on the iPhone, Amazon already has an iPhone reader. Furthermore it has an in house reader software development team in Mobipocket. EPUB is an open standard that is particularly easy to develop reading software for, by buying Stanza, Amazon doesn't gain any great wealth of proprietary code. The unique thing about Lexcycle was their attempt to develop a platform for independent retailers.

If Amazon wanted to make their books available on multiple platforms, they could easily have done so via the Mobipocket software (which they also took over and then stifled).

Now that is not to say that Amazon won't end up making their books multi-platform, they will have to, or they will become irrelevant.

The question here is why Amazon took over Stanza, today. The only reason that makes sense, is to control the spread of non Amazon retail channels. And competitors to Amazon are certainly not insignificant today.

[anurag]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

The question here is why Amazon took over Stanza, today. The only reason that makes sense, is to control the spread of non Amazon retail channels. And competitors to Amazon are certainly not insignificant today.

More than just retail, this gives them control over existing and future free channels too - FeedBooks, Manybooks, Gutenberg, MobileRead are all ebook sources that Amazon would be happy to stifle. But I don't think that's going to happen if some of us have anything to do with it.

[Phogg]

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.

We're doomed!

Originally Posted by susan_cassidy

Yeah, it evolved into Mozilla, which begat Firefox, which is a great browser.

The code survived but the company didn't. You may want to also consider the fate of BeOS, never to have been seen again, officially that is.

I not at all happy about this. A little competition is good for an evolving industry but Amazon is buying it up.

[Seabound]

What's a good alternative to Stanza on the iPhone/iPod Touch?

Originally Posted by Seabound

What's a good alternative to Stanza on the iPhone/iPod Touch?

eReader has more features and I prefer it but it doesn't handle multiple formats.

[Seabound]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

I'm not saying they'll succeed, indeed I believe they wont, and I'm doing my level best to ensure they don't But that, IMO, is the motivation behind the takeover.

Kovid, how about building your own iPhone App?

[Ankh]

Originally Posted by anurag

More than just retail, this gives them control over existing and future free channels too - FeedBooks, Manybooks, Gutenberg, MobileRead are all ebook sources that Amazon would be happy to stifle.

Uhm... you forgot Google, didn't you?

[Seabound]

Originally Posted by akira28

eReader has more features and I prefer it but it doesn't handle multiple formats.

Yes, I already have the eReader app.

Originally Posted by sirbruce

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

And all on board are going to be taken for a ride. Hold on to your wallets!

[anurag]

Originally Posted by Ankh

Uhm... you forgot Google, didn't you?

Did you mean I forgot Google Book Search or Google the search engine?

If you meant the search engine, searching for ebooks through Google is not as convenient as searching through an ebook catalog in a dedicated reader. Stanza has built-in Gutenberg and FeedBooks catalog integration which most iPhone users would prefer to Google any day.