I've never owned a Kindle. What about you?

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by donnieparker

I won't buy a Kindle because they've turned e-readers into a race for the bottom. Since Amazon got involved, I think e-readers across the board have gotten more fragile, more cheaply made, and have suffered a lot of QC issues.

This is Amazon's "fault" somehow? The race to the low price has been Amazon following B&N and Kobo. Readers are no more fragile now than they ever have been. Current QC issues effect all devices that use a lighted screen and have to do with the screen's manufacturer more than any one device maker.

I bought a Sony PRS-350 a few years back, and the build quality is phenomenal. Three years later, and it's held up to some serious abuse. While I enjoy my new Kobo Aura, I know in three years it will be completely destroyed.

Yes, the x50 line from Sony were definitely some of the best. If your Aura is completely destroyed in three years I'd question your treatment of the device more than it's quality.

But now? In order to get to that magic 120 USD price point (or in the Aura's case, 150), serious corners have been cut. E-readers don't last. They break REALLY easily.

I'd like to see some proof that they break really easily. Screens for instance are no more fragile now than they were in 2006 when the Sony 500 came out.

In order to become the dominant eBook supplier, Amazon ruined the e-reader device market.

No, they've become a mass consumer item. Sure Amazon had a lot to do with them becoming widely accepted, but you've yet to explain how they "ruined the market".

I mean, look at Sony! They had to quit the U.S. market because people wouldn't pay more for a better quality reader!

BS. Sony hasn't done anything to entice new users to their devices for years. Their bookstore has always been an afterthought that they've never really tried at. The T1 and T2 are basically the same and the T3 isn't even all that different and their quality, perceived or real, is no more or less than any other brands. Sony could have easily gone back to a metal casing to increase the perceived quality of their devices. A metal casings cost isn't much different than plastic, but it's perceived as "higher quality" and thus can command a higher price. Sony chose to play follow the leader instead without really knowing how. There is now, and never really has been any thing really "premium" about Sony. It's just one more brand with a decent device.

So long story short, I can't buy from Amazon, when Amazon clearly has no interest in making or selling quality hardware. I enjoy reading on an e-reader, and I'm sad that there are no premium options anymore.

Amazon's hardware has always been as good of a quality as anyone elses. It's not their fault that the Reader market has always been mostly an after thought to Sony.

[Dr. Drib]

There are eight (8) things that I make certain I always have available, in no specific order:


1) toilet paper
2) soap
3) toothpaste
4) food
5) coffee
6) water
7) money
8) Kindle




CHANGE OF MIND: Change #8 to a priority.


Don

[soulfuldog]

There are plenty of valid reasons for people to never have owned a Kindle, and this thread makes interesting reading for that. However, there are quite a few examples of people who clearly have a dislike for Amazon but its as if they don't want to say that and try to dress it up with a more 'valid' reason.

"They (Kindle's) are just portable amazon shops."
"Amazon ruined the e-reader device market."

Originally Posted by bookaho!ic

I have never owned a kindle purely because in the UK you cannot borrow library books onto a kindle and you can with a kobo...

If I'd realised this before I bought a Kindle, this would have been the one reason for me not to buy it. Since my library didn't actually have e-books at the time it didn't really matter, and I've since learned it's not difficult to get round anyway. Though my Sony 350 makes it even easier now!

[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by l_macd

There are plenty of valid reasons for people to never have owned a Kindle, and this thread makes interesting reading for that. However, there are quite a few examples of people who clearly have a dislike for Amazon but its as if they don't want to say that and try to dress it up with a more 'valid' reason.

"They (Kindle's) are just portable amazon shops."
"Amazon ruined the e-reader device market."




If I'd realised this before I bought a Kindle, this would have been the one reason for me not to buy it. Since my library didn't actually have e-books at the time it didn't really matter, and I've since learned it's not difficult to get round anyway. Though my Sony 350 makes it even easier now!

Yup.

I don't shop at Walmart because I don't like Walmart. The stores I have been too are crowded, claustraphobic, and I don't like how they treat their employees. Other folks are free to shop at Walmart and I respect their choice.

I have no problem with people not owning or wanting to own a Kindle. I understand that people want things on their devices that I could care less about (formatting options, sd card, replaceable battery). I even get saying I don't own a Kindle because I don't like Amazon.

I get not owning an iPad because you don't like Apple. Apple annoys me, I think their products are over priced, but I wanted to play certain games which were only avialable on an iPad so I bought an iPad. Love it but Apple still annoys me. Something about the company makes me feel like I am trying to buy my way into the cool kids club and that just feels wrong.

I suppose I need to figure out why I get annoyed with the I don't like Amazon because they dominate the market, they want to be a monopoly, they have a walled garden, they destroyed ereaders things annoys me so much. They just rub me wrong.

[FacebookVirus]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

My K1 was used for 2 1/2 years before I boughtt a new device. It worked just fine and is still working today. My K3 is doing great and will be going home with my MIL this Thanksgiving. Her K2 is still trucking away but she wants access to my books without losing access to her books. So she is getting my K3 and using both the K2 and the K3. My DXG is with a friend in Afghanistan and doing great. I bought it before I bought the
K3.

My point? Kindles are pretty darn durable.

Without the Kindle, I doubt there would have been the Nook or the Kobo. Both came out two-three years after the Kindle. I would guess that BN and KOBO saw that e-readers were viable because of Amazons success.

Yes, Sony was there first but their devices were not selling all that well. They were expensive, poorly marketed, and had a crappy bookstore. Amazon launched the Kindle which was expensive, well marketed, and had a good bookstore, well priced books, excellent customer service, and took off pretty fast.

Sony didn't keep up. I think it was hurt more by the lack of WiFi then the materials it used. And its origianl attempt at a front lighting system was awful. So people who wanted an epub reader in the US bought a Nook, WiFi, epub, a better bookstore, and it was priced at the same as a Kindle.

I honestly think that Sony's biggest problem was that their bookstore was awful for so long. Most people are clueless about drag and drop and buying at other stores. This made the Sony less attractive to the average buyer. Another problem that Sony had was marketing. Outside of the ereader lovers, how many people actually knew about the Sony? Where was it being sold?

For a while Sony's were available at BN but that changed when BN decided to build the Nook. So you had to go to a Sony store. But there was no advertising so while the Kindle was front and center on Amazon's webpage, someone who was interested in an e-reader would have had to do a search on ereaders to even know about the Sony. When BN started selling the Nook, it was displayed front and center in its book stores. It was easy to find. Where was the Sony advertising?

So I don't buy that Amazon is responsible for the downfall of Sony's e-reader. Sony is responsible for that. The bookstore was awful and they didn't market the thing. No wonder it didn't do well in the US. Not selling the T3 in the US right now is flat out stupid.
...
Sony has only themselves to blame.

Completely agree. Sony not offering the T-3 in the US didn't made sense to me until I used the PW2.

If I was Sony I would give up, too.

[hildea]

Originally Posted by l_macd

However, there are quite a few examples of people who clearly have a dislike for Amazon but its as if they don't want to say that and try to dress it up with a more 'valid' reason.

I'll come out and say it then I don't own a Kindle and don't intend ever to do so because I don't like Amazon, and don't want to give them my money if I can help it. (I can give reasons why I don't like them if anyone's interested, but they're not all that original.)

But even if I didn't dislike Amazon I'd have gone for one of their competitors because I think it's unhealthy when one provider of a consumer product gets too huge market dominance. Some competition keeps everybody on their toes, and makes it easier to find products that fit a broader range of interests and preferences.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

I suppose I need to figure out...

Some people just love to hate the biggest or most important companies.

I've got some friends who say that they hate Microsoft. Some even go as far as saying: "I use Apple and/or Linux because I hate Microsoft." They can't give any sound reasons for it. They give you some things they don't like in Windows or Office or whatever, while ignoring blatant shortcomings or even faults in the systems they use themselves.

One guy I know who used Linux for 10 years (he was an evangelist if ever there was one) now uses an Apple. He was all about "free choice, free software, change your system however you want, configure as much as possibe", and now HE USES AN APPLE COMPUTER. It's almost the complete opposite of a Linux computer. (Apart from the fact that they are both Unix or Unix-like machines.)

When I asked him "Why didn't you switch to Windows from Linux?", the reaction was: "I will *NEVER* use Microsoft products!" Then I asked: "Why?" The reaction was some blabber that could be summarized as "Microsoft is evil."

So, he didn't use Linux because of Free Software, or customizability or whatever. He doesn't use Apple because he likes OS X or needs a program that only runs on OS X. He used Linux, and now Apple, because they're both not Microsoft.

Some people just do everything they can to avoid the biggest, or most popular or most important company just because of that: because they're the biggest, most popular, or most important.

There will be people who don't want a Kindle just because of the fact that it's the dominant e-reader at this point in time, and they try to cloak it by saying "I hate Amazon", while they can't give any actual reasons for hating Amazon.

===

I will never use Apple products (again), and I have reasons for that. The most important one is that I find Apple to be an arrogant company that wants to control everything, from the hardware down to the software; they'd like it best if you use their computer with the hardware they choose, their OS, their cloud, their phone, their television settop box (in the future, maybe their television), their tablet, and someday, maybe even their car and their Domotica system.

A lot of stuff that is primarily developed for Windows (like Microsoft Office, as prime example, by Microsoft), also is available for OS X, even though that OS only holds about 8% market share (at least, in Europe). The other way around, a lot of stuff that is primarily developed for OS X, does NOT run on Windows (Like Aperture, and Final Cut, by Apple).

The 90% market share company goes through the trouble to make their most important stuff available on an OS that only holds 8%, but the other way around, the favor is not or barely returned.

Apple has an aura of "Don't worry... Just use our products. You don't need to look anywhere else. We know what's best for you. You don't NEED anything else but Apple."

THAT is the reason why I hate Apple. *I* know what's best for me. How can *they* possibly know?

That annoys the hell out of me.

One of my colleagues once said: "Why should I have to think when using a computer? Steve Jobs already has done that for me." That's the pinnacle of the perfect Apple user: Steve Jobs thinks for me.

I feel sorry for that guy. He must feel very bad, having to live without a brain since October 5, 2011.

[Russell Brooks]

I get all my eBooks through Kindle. Although I don't own a Kindle, I read my eBooks either via my Android Smartphone or my laptop and sync them.

[pidgeon92]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I feel sorry for that guy. He must feel very bad, having to live without a brain since October 5, 2011.

Guess I've been living without mine since 1989.

[Quexos]

To answer the original question, I've never had a Kindle either as I worry about the proprietary format forcing you to stay within the Amazon environment. As in, I can just trash my epub collection should I decide to use a Kindle.
But other than that, it seems the Kindle is a very good reader, especially the last one, the PW2

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Quexos

To answer the original question, I've never had a Kindle either as I worry about the proprietary format forcing you to stay within the Amazon environment. As in, I can just trash my epub collection should I decide to use a Kindle.

That's nonsense.

As long as you either use DRM-free books or remove DRM (which is trivial to do, as long as the Unnamed Tools are supported by their makers), Calibre can convert from one format to the other.

My entire e-book library is EPUB only, apart from some very few exceptions that were only obtainable through Amazon. Calibre converts these to AZW3 just fine (and you can actually configure it to do it on uploading the books to the Kindle: you won't even notice that it's converting, apart from the fact that the upload takes a bit longer).

[ProfCrash]

If people do not want to strip DRM then that is a valid reason for not owning a Kindle if you have epubs. Not everyone wants to or feels comfortable removing DRM. It is a personal choice.

[Atunah]

I see a lot of different devices in peoples profiles here and there are so many countries represented. So I guess what one buys has also to do with what is available.
I am in the US, I bought my first kindle (K1) in 2008. I had never even heard of e-ink or anything like that until I kept seeing it on the amazon site. I assume Sony already had a unit out? But I never heard of it. I was a amazon shopper then and I am still now, so for me it made sense to go with a company who's customer service I was already familiar and happy with.
So its been always kindles for me. I don't really have any interest in any other devices. Wouldn't make sense to me. I like my stuff in one place and I like the amazon store. I also like the kindles itself. I still have my first and it still works and ergonomically, its still my favorite to hold in my hands. The wedge shape was genius.

I wouldn't mind the font options the kobo has, but no way would I put up with that complicated ordering and customer service stuff and then trying to figure out how to get my books on there. And I am friends with the Alf.
I just want to buy a book and read it. Every store has their own DRM for new books. Most of the stuff I buy would have DRM. I don't really care about the format. Epub reads just like Mobi when reading the books. I just don't want to have a mix of it. My book hoarding and reading is already out of control, I don't need the trouble of different devices, different DRM"s, different formats to figure out.
I'll stick with kindles, they work for me. Other devices work for other folks. Its all about the reading.

[Polarpenguin]

I've never owned a Kindle. When I was gifted my Sony Prs 300, which i'm still using, the Kindle hadn't been released in the UK.

When I do finally replace my Sony, I will be unlikely to buy a Kindle. The main reason, is library borrowing. UK libraries only lend epub. As a Calibre user I could get around this. However, I don't think DRM should be bypassed in these circumstances. Alf is my friend where my own books are concerned

[Lemurion]

I've never owned a Kindle, but I do have a lot of Kindle books. I just hadn't wanted to spend the money because I had other devices I could read the books on.

Having said that, I just bit the bullet and ordered a K4B tonight. Amazon sent me a coupon for $40 off the price of any Kindle, and I figured it would be silly for someone with close to 900 Kindle books not to have one.

At the $36 I paid for it, including shipping, I just don't see the point in not buying one. At least not for me.