B&N CEO on the future of Nook

[haydnfan]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Let's face it, if sideloading/the ability to remove DRM suddenly went away, we'd all be reading Kindles.

Speak for yourself, my Kobo library is much larger than my Kindle library. If walled gardens became permanent I would be on the Kobo side.

[John F]

Originally Posted by haydnfan

Speak for yourself, my Kobo library is much larger than my Kindle library. If walled gardens became permanent I would be on the Kobo side.

And there is also libraries to consider.

[ps67]

I don't think that somebody but Amazon could have the force of constraining their reader in walled gardens. And I am not sure even for Amazon

For example Kobo sells their ebook in Kepub for downloading in Kobo devices (or Kobo app) but they sell Epub eventually with ADE DRM to be read on other devices. And it can read DRMed books bought elsewhere trough ADE. And many other devices don't even need to pass trough ADE. This thread is about Nook but I don't know if nook sells also ADE DRMed books, may be convenient to do it also for them.

About Amazon: may they are tempted by walled gardens in fact You can't read any book bought from Amazon elsewhere without conversion if it comes in AZW3 or KFX (other than DRM issues). Only if it comes in mobi, the worst ebook format still in circulation, You can read it elsewhere.

And about reading on a Kindle something not purchased from them: You can send to them the book but You will read in the mobi format, while books can be converted into AZW3 and KFX only because of calibre. And the cover books signifies that sideloading is not something they encourage too much.

Amazon is getting closer and closer but I don't think they will be able to reach the situation:
1. read my books only on my devices or app: may be they could but I don't know if it is convenient for them;
2. don't read on my devices anything but Ebooks purchased from me: it seems difficult because they should prevent USB downloading also for their books.

But my impression is that apart a minority most reader simply buy a book, download it trough wi fii and read it on their Kindle or Kobo or Nook or what else so they are already in the walled garden and don't need to escape from it.

[Rbneader]

Yep.

Most people want their tools to just work. Hammers just work. Screwdrivers just work. Ovens just work. They're busy, and tired, and have jobs and families and more important things to do. Their ereader should just work.

And, for most people, fiction books are fungible entertainment. People who read occasionally - the vast, vast majority - read popular things in genres they like. There's always another book on the latest top 10 list if the one they thought of isn't available.

[John F]

Originally Posted by ps67

...

About Amazon: may they are tempted by walled gardens in fact You can't read any book bought from Amazon elsewhere without conversion if it comes in AZW3 or KFX (other than DRM issues). Only if it comes in mobi, the worst ebook format still in circulation, You can read it elsewhere.

...

Is the above true? I assume you mean if you have a DRM free AZW3 file, you can only read it on Kindle ereaders/apps? I just tried opening a DRM free AZW3 file in Calibre, and Calibre was able to open it (this was a epub converted AZW3), so I assume a DRM free AZW3 file purchased from Amazon would be able to be read by Calibre?

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by ps67

This thread is about Nook but I don't know if nook sells also ADE DRMed books, may be convenient to do it also for them.

No they don't.

I can't say for sure, but I suspect if they did, they would be selling more books.

[HLS]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Thank goodness. I think B&N pulling back from ebooks would be a big mistake.

I hope B&N goes back to investing in the Nook.

Well, being under new ownership I am excited on what new devices they will come up with.

[barryem]

The original ebooks were plain text files with no formatting other than paragraph breaks and word wrap. That was it. No bold or italics or anything else other than plain text. And the early readers of ebooks were very happy to get them and read them.

Today, no matter which format you get and no matter what you read it on it's vastly more sophisticated, so hating a device or format that doesn't give all the features one has decided are "essential" seems to me much about vanity and showing off how refined one's taste is.

We're living in a reading golden age! We have so many good choices, with no bad ones, of devices, formats and options that there's something for each of us. There isn't much wrong with any of it. Let's appreciate what we have.

By the way, I referenced the plain text of the early ebooks but I might have gone back a bit farther for a more glaring contrast. Until the 10th century words in english were printed without spaces between them. Let'shearitforspacesbetweenwords!!

We've got it so good these days.

Barry

[ps67]

Originally Posted by John F

Is the above true? I assume you mean if you have a DRM free AZW3 file, you can only read it on Kindle ereaders/apps? I just tried opening a DRM free AZW3 file in Calibre, and Calibre was able to open it (this was a epub converted AZW3), so I assume a DRM free AZW3 file purchased from Amazon would be able to be read by Calibre?

I did not explain exactly what I wanted to say. Of course if calibre can convert a format can also read it. But AZW3/KF8 (the real format is KF8) is a proprietary format while epub2 and epub3 are standard. As far as I know Amazon did not spread anything about it: calibre can read it because Kovid (or somebody else) studied and understood it. This is beyond the intention of Amazon.

And for KFX the situation is even worst because it is a continuously changing format with heavy DRM incorporated in it, so the calibre plugin must rely on Kindle Previewer to work.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Which is what keeps my Nook viable.

Let's face it, if sideloading/the ability to remove DRM suddenly went away, we'd all be reading Kindles.

We'd go back to pBooks.

[John F]

Originally Posted by ps67

I did not explain exactly what I wanted to say. Of course if calibre can convert a format can also read it. But AZW3/KF8 (the real format is KF8) is a proprietary format while epub2 and epub3 are standard. As far as I know Amazon did not spread anything about it: calibre can read it because Kovid (or somebody else) studied and understood it. This is beyond the intention of Amazon.

And for KFX the situation is even worst because it is a continuously changing format with heavy DRM incorporated in it, so the calibre plugin must rely on Kindle Previewer to work.

You mentioned mobi in your post I quoted. I believe that at this point, AZW3 is very similar to mobi: they are both frozen, well understood, and anyone could write a reader for them.

That was all I was commenting on.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

We'd go back to pBooks.

That seems a little dramatic. Kindle lacks a lot of the niceties of Kobo, and Nook lacks even features of Kindle. But my Nook ST with Glowlight was enough to pull me away from paperbooks. And eink devices have only gotten better since then.

For your grumbles about Kindle, if you had one loaded with books of your choice and were stuck using only it for two weeks, you would be fine.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

But my Nook ST with Glowlight was enough to pull me away from paperbooks.

My 2007 Cybook Gen3 was good enough to do that. No way I'm ever going back to pbooks.

[Pajamaman]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

That's an old story, going back to when folks would hack their Nooks to add the Kindle app.

Do you buy books from them?

Because, if not, the only money they make off you is whatever markup they get on the hardware. Just as when folks outside the US were using reshippers to get the Nooks B&N refused to sell them.

Ten years and they've learned nothing...

Sony got out of the e-reader market because they weren't selling e-books, and yet...

Sony continues to sell e-ink devices, but to a niche pdf-reading market. They continue to find value in producing e-readers. Why not B&N? I assume B&N sell a lot more e-readers than Sony.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

Sony got out of the e-reader market because they weren't selling e-books, and yet...

Sony continues to sell e-ink devices, but to a niche pdf-reading market. They continue to find value in producing e-readers. Why not B&N? I assume B&N sell a lot more e-readers than Sony.

Sony are selling those at high prices to law firms and others with similar requirements.