Amazon dropping support for more Kindles

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by nana77

Pardon, but, controversely, how might them loose interest when, anyway:

(It was from this link that has already been posted on the forum: https://coolest-gadgets.com/ebooks-statistics/).

But outside of the US, Kindle is not the top seller.

[cgsmom]

Originally Posted by Courant

If you have a Kindle, why remove the DRM? I only remove DRM in order to use a different e reader.

I have a book bought (although I think it was free at the time) from Amazon several years ago. I decided to re-read it. It came up on my Kindle, however I could not change the font style, line spacing, or margins. I could only change the font size. When I looked up the book on Amazon, it did not say that I owned it. It was in my library. The version of the file in my library is totally useless. (It was not that way when I read it the first time.)

If Amazon is going to modify the books I have purchased, then I am going to make sure I have a liberated backup copy.

[DiapDealer]

Not that it changes the fact that you need to remove DRM before you can make modifications; but it is typically the fault of the publisher when users can't change fonts, line spacing and margins. Amazon isn't in the habit of modifying published books. Authors/publishers would scream bloody-murder if they did.

[John F]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

There is nothing at all wrong with my Kindle Touch. No reason for Amazon to just drop support for it.

How often do you read on your Kindle touch vs your Libra 2?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by John F

How often do you read on your Kindle touch vs your Libra 2?

I read with my Libra 2. I don't read with the Kindle Touch.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Quoth

See Plays For Sure, Google Graveyard and more. Amazon did abandon an ebook ecosystem before and the income from ebooks is now almost nothing compared to Amazon revenue.

Originally Posted by nana77

Pardon, but, controversely, how might them loose interest when, anyway:

You did read the words that I have bolded in the quote from @Quoth's post? Once books were important to Amazon, now they make up a very small share of Amazon's revenue. If management was to decide to get out of the book business, the effect on Amazon as a whole would be minimal.

Amazon just might decide to jump off the Red Queen's racetrack when it comes to trying to stay ahead of the people busily breakinging their DRM. That there are now commercial implementations of DRM removal might make that decision even easier.

[cgsmom]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Not that it changes the fact that you need to remove DRM before you can make modifications; but it is typically the fault of the publisher when users can't change fonts, line spacing and margins. Amazon isn't in the habit of modifying published books. Authors/publishers would scream bloody-murder if they did.

Well, when I bought this book and read on my Voyage, everything worked perfectly. I could change all the settings I wanted to. Now it doesn’t. When I look up that book on Amazon it doesn’t say that I have it, however it is in my library. I don’t know who changed it, Amazon or the publisher, but I’m glad I have my liberated copy.

[issybird]

I'm scratching my head here.

Who's still using a 2012 phone?

When we buy a Kindle book, the terms of sale say it's a license only. Where's the beef? If you didn't agree to the TOS, now's not the time to register an objection.

If DRM is evil, it seem to me that's debasing the word "evil". There's a lot of evil in the world, I regret to note. What word do we employ when it's something that's objectively evil?

[DNSB]

I know at least 3 people who are still using old phones. Oddly, 2 of them are barely older than their phones.

And as a comment on the inability to implement security updates due to hardware blocking the implementation of TLS 1.3, note that the Kobo Glo and Touch are still receiving firmware updates including TLS 1.3 and the last official firmware update for the Kobo Mini from January, 2016 added TLS 1.3 support.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by issybird

I'm scratching my head here.

Who's still using a 2012 phone?

When we buy a Kindle book, the terms of sale say it's a license only. Where's the beef? If you didn't agree to the TOS, now's not the time to register an objection.

If DRM is evil, it seem to me that's debasing the word "evil". There's a lot of evil in the world, I regret to note. What word do we employ when it's something that's objectively evil?

There's a big difference between a Reader and a Phone. For example, my previous phone was an iPhone SE 2nd edition. It cannot run some of the apps I use now. But THE kindle Touch can still handle eBooks just as well as it did when it was new.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

There's a big difference between a Reader and a Phone. For example, my previous phone was an iPhone SE 2nd edition. It cannot run some of the apps I use now. But THE kindle Touch can still handle eBooks just as well as it did when it was new.

That's fair and I don't disagree, as far as it goes. But if Amazon is unwilling to deliver old formats to old devices, it comes out to the same thing in the end.

I was using an iPad Air 2 into last year, as my own anecdotal example. But the apps ceased updating and it no longer served its purpose, more's the pity, as I have no issue with old tech (in fact, I love it) so long as it works.

My own rule of thumb is that once a device is ten years old, it owes you nothing. I hope my Kobos aren't reading this!

[issybird]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I know at least 3 people who are still using old phones. Oddly, 2 of them are barely older than their phones.

I loved a couple of my old flip phones. But once 2G and then 3G were obsoleted, it's not as if I could have kept using them. And 3G was phased out here in 2022, ten years later than the newest Kindle in question.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by cgsmom

Well, when I bought this book and read on my Voyage, everything worked perfectly. I could change all the settings I wanted to. Now it doesn’t. When I look up that book on Amazon it doesn’t say that I have it, however it is in my library. I don’t know who changed it, Amazon or the publisher, but I’m glad I have my liberated copy.

It could be that there was some update to the book and it got a new ASIN.

If you look it up via whatever they call "Content & Devices" this week the link to the book should bring up a slightly different page than finding with a general search, and that page should indicate that it is in your library.

[nana77]

Originally Posted by DNSB

You did read the words that I have bolded in the quote from @Quoth's post? Once books were important to Amazon, now they make up a very small share of Amazon's revenue. If management was to decide to get out of the book business, the effect on Amazon as a whole would be minimal.

Amazon just might decide to jump off the Red Queen's racetrack when it comes to trying to stay ahead of the people busily breakinging their DRM. That there are now commercial implementations of DRM removal might make that decision even easier.

Originally Posted by issybird

When we buy a Kindle book, the terms of sale say it's a license only. Where's the beef? If you didn't agree to the TOS, now's not the time to register an objection.

If DRM is evil, it seem to me that's debasing the word "evil". There's a lot of evil in the world, I regret to note. What word do we employ when it's something that's objectively evil?

Imho, it could be not just because of the DRM; my hope is that having a business model that might be on the chart's first place, but in real world is having sold a lot of "bundles" that often didn't get read, plus another lot of books every now and then, generated by AI; well if that model is a failure that would be a good sign (also, it probably was on preventative to endure limited?).
I don't recall well but can it be that authors - on some specific sales - would have being paid only when, or if, the books have been read? I.e. several of those bundles that sells the novels for cheap might be monies that doesn't goes to the authors if the book remain on a TBR pile?

[maddz]

Originally Posted by nana77

I don't recall well but can it be that authors - on some specific sales - would have being paid only when, or if, the books have been read? I.e. several of those bundles that sells the novels for cheap might be monies that doesn't goes to the authors if the book remain on a TBR pile?

No, I think that's not the case because it's a sale. I met an author at a living history festival some years ago who'd recently had her ouvre in a Kindle Big Deal, and she said her sales had been bumped by that. It's the subscription programs like Kindle Unlimited that don't pay unless the book is read.

I think it's this that's driving the recent changes - if you borrow via KU or similar, download, strip DRM and transfer to a non-Kindle device, the store can't track your reading in order to pay authors. I said last year when downloads were removed that it should only ever have applied to borrows, not sales.