My take on Kindle x EPub

[sirmaru]

I have PC readers for Sony, Amazon and B&N. Thus, I can read eBooks from any of them.

Why go through extra work to convert. Sony and B&N are both ePub and NOT compatible.

For reading away from the house I have Sony PRS 900 and in hours will recieve my Amazon Kindle WiFi LG 3.

I only read purchased books, not free. One gets what one pays for. I usually read non-fiction with a very occasional fiction book.

[rblover]

It depends on what you read. I read mostly classics-not recent best sellers-so most of what I would get from a library is already available for free, or nearly free, in the Kindle store, anyway. I also prefer to own-rather than borrow-books. So, downloading from libraries does not appeal to me as much as I had once thought it would.

I had been considering a Sony, and a Nook, but have since decided on a Kindle. I need a reader which reads Word/Doc. files, and that leaves the Nook out. Amazon's e-publishing biz is growing faster than Sony's, and the Kindle's screen has better contrast than does the Sony's. The Kindle turns pages faster, too. Sony wants to charge me $30.00 extra for less storage, and epub capability, plus charge me more to sell me additional SD cards to put more books on. Thanks, but no thanks, Sony. The Sonys which are priced comparably to the Kindle have no built in WiFi, or 3G, and only hold a battery charge for about half as long as a Kindle.

If you prefer to borrow current best sellers, then use a library, and buy a Nook, or Sony, or whatever. As I understand it, with the Sonys, you'll have to download books to your computer, and then from your computer to your Sony Reader....a two step process. With the Kindle I can download books in one step, directly to the reader, with the WiFi, or 3G if I get that model. Epub capability may be nice, but I don't need it...so why should I pay extra for it?

[rblover]

People...with 1.8 million public domain books, and 630,000 non-public domain books, to choose from, on Amazon, with more titles being added daily, are you SERIOUSLY telling me that you can't find anything to read on Amazon without being able to access a dozen other vendors, or borrow from a local library? Get real!

Amazon offered a very good, useful, product, at a reasonable price, which does all it needs to do, and then some, and makes the process of using it as simple, and painless, as can be. And STILL some of you are NOT satisfied...because it doesn't make you coffeee, and massage your feet, or whatever? Get a life.

[rblover]

It depends on what you read. I read mostly classics-not recent best sellers-so most of what I would get from a library is already available for free, or nearly free, in the Kindle store, anyway. I also prefer to own-rather than borrow-books. So, downloading from libraries does not appeal to me as much as I had once thought it would.

I had been considering a Sony, and a Nook, but have since decided on a Kindle. I need a reader which reads Word/Doc. files, and that leaves the Nook out. Amazon's e-publishing biz is growing faster than Sony's, and the Kindle's screen has better contrast than does the Sony's. The Kindle turns pages faster, too. Sony wants to charge me $30.00 extra for less storage, and epub capability, plus charge me more to sell me additional SD cards to put more books on. Thanks, but no thanks, Sony. The Sonys which are priced comparably to the Kindle have no built in WiFi, or 3G, and only hold a battery charge for about half as long as a Kindle.

If you prefer to borrow current best sellers, then use a library, and buy a Nook, or Sony, or whatever. As I understand it, with the Sonys, you'll have to download books to your computer, and then from your computer to your Sony Reader....a two step process. With the Kindle I can download books in one step, directly to the reader, with the WiFi, or 3G if I get that model. Epub capability may be nice, but I don't need it...so why should I pay extra for it?

[Strolls]

Originally Posted by tomsem

By this argument, there would be no ebook lending on Sony Reader, or Nook, or Kobo. They each have stores they'd like you to buy from, and so it is equally 'not in their interest' to allow library borrowing. But they do, and they promote the feature strongly.

Nope. Amazon is the market leader, and others have explained why this helps lock users into Amazon and also keeps things simple, much like the iTunes store is Apple-centric.

Sony Reader, or Nook, and Kobo are not market leaders (anyone know or have any estimates of how far behind Amazon their e-reader sales lie?) and thus they have to go the extra mile to attract customers.

Amazon's ideal user is someone who's not technically inclined, who will impulse buy a Kindle without giving a thought to formats or library access. Such a customer will not only happily impulse buy books, but they're also likely dismiss the format and library "problems" when they arise and overcome them by buying the books. My job is technical support for non-technical users, and they're a huge segment of the population - if you're techie enough to be posting on this forum, then you may not realise that most people aren't like you. I see this every day - people buy a device without fully researching it (the way you and I would), and then when they realise its shortcomings they either buy something else to accommodate this need (buy extra software for their PC, or buy the ebook from Amazon instead of using the library) or they just make do.

If you're going to spend hours pouring over the specifications of various devices and you want to handle different formats, then you're not the largest segment of the e-reader market, but that is a shortcoming of the Kindle. So this is a chance for Sony, Nook and Kobo to catch up - a lost sale to Amazon is a sale gained to them, but it's also a larger proportion of their sales.

Originally Posted by tomsem

OverDrive justifiably claims that their lending system drives sales. ... I suspect the reason they haven't done this to date, is that the cost of establishing the necessary contractual relationships and lining up content is greater than the benefit they'd derive. But at some point Amazon will do it: customers want it, libraries want to serve their patrons, OD wants to make more money.

Yes, but it undermines Amazon's ability to sell or - in the future - rent you books.

I buy the argument that OverDrive drives sales of devices, but of books? I'm not so sure. I believe that libraries in general promote literacy and thus promote book sales, but anyone who buys an e-reader is already literate.

If Sony, Nook and Kobo can establish the necessary contractual relationships, then surely it would be just as easy for Amazon to do so?

Originally Posted by rblover

People...with 1.8 million public domain books, and 630,000 non-public domain books, to choose from, on Amazon, with more titles being added daily, are you SERIOUSLY telling me that you can't find anything to read on Amazon without being able to access a dozen other vendors, or borrow from a local library?

It's not a matter of being able to find anything to read on Amazon, it's a matter of being able to find this particular book that my friend recommended to me, or that I need for my studies.

Having said that, no one here is whining. This is an amateur industry-analysis thread.

Stroller.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

However, Amazon might consider (and I assume this is possible) a one-time per device software upgrade for a fee -- $10 for example -- which allows you to install a module which will recognize and decode Adobe ADE files.

I wonder if someone with the Kindle Software Development Kit is already working on this. If you look at the guidelines on their web site, I would say it is ambiguous as to whether it would be allowed:

https://kindlepublishing.amazon.com/...s%2Fkdk%2Fhome

One conceivable problem is that if this would increase 3G traffic, AT&T might have to be compensated out of the app's revenue. This kind of concern is mentioned in the link above. Maybe there is a way to in the SDK to block such use, but I can only guess if or how it could work.

While it is quite possible that there is a carefully considered anti-public-library business strategy in place here, you can't rule out disorganization. Maybe Amazon assigned a programmer to it and he or she was incompetent. Maybe Amazon will be glad for their app store to sell such, Amazon of course then getting its cut.

Because Amazon is a rather secretive company, you can speculate all day. It will be interesting to see what they allow in their app store once ramped up.