Kobo in trouble in Canada and the US

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by oj829

2) paying lowest possible price is a race-to-the-bottom game which only leaves the biggest bear alive to shit in the woods as he will. Amazon's pricing is a loss-leader approach in an effort to be the last bear shitting.

Amazon hasn't taken a loss leader approach on eBooks in a long time, the loss leader so to speak is really more the devices now than the content. That's not to say they don't discount, but not to the extreme they did in early years. What they are better at is leveraging/promoting the various titles that publishers discount each month, even their "daily deals", which Kobo has too, are often publisher discounted titles. Take Amazon's discounting of some titles versus Kobo's never ending supply of coupon/discount codes and Kobo is often discounting as much or more than Amazon.

3) Low hurdle to "tooling" my Kobo purchases. I occasionally read "tooling" chatter from Kindle owners and I'm frankly horrified at the idea of spending that much time trying to read my books and retain copies of what I've "bought" until _I_ decide I no longer have the need/space/time for them.

It's no harder to disinfect Amazon books than it is books from Kobo or anywhere else. Or maybe I'm misunderstanding what you mean by tooling.

[frahse]

Originally Posted by Top100EbooksRank

Sharply reduced production costs for books
Deep cuts in the costs of distributing books
Increased per-unit profits for anyone who creates books arising from such cost reductions
A retail system that allows readers to instantly purchase books wherever they are, 24 hours per day
A system that allows readers to easily carry any number of books with them so they can read a book whenever they have a free moment
Reduced retail prices for books

.[/I]

You have entered the "Twilight Zone."

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

It's no harder to disinfect Amazon books than it is books from Kobo or anywhere else. Or maybe I'm misunderstanding what you mean by tooling.

Yes, that kind of confused me too. Most of the Kobo books are DRM'd just like Kindle books.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Yes, that kind of confused me too. Most of the Kobo books are DRM'd just like Kindle books.

I assume it's more of the usual delusions of EPUB superiority, because it's a "standard".

[meeera]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Yes, that kind of confused me too. Most of the Kobo books are DRM'd just like Kindle books.

If anything it's easier to 'tool' Amazon books, on average, in my experience. I've had zero misses with Amazon books, but some Kobo purchases end up having no ADE epub download available at all.

And the process is virtually identical.

[greenapple]

I hope kobo the ebook store will last another 50 years. I have bought a book from kobo without a download link and I can't make it mine. That book's fate depends on the survival of kobo.

[mojos]

Originally Posted by greenapple

I hope kobo the ebook store will last another 50 years. I have bought a book from kobo without a download link and I can't make it mine. That book's fate depends on the survival of kobo.

Yes, I also hope they'd last for that long since I like buying from them because of the coupons with huge discounts. It's really helped me save a lot since I'm currently a student at uni.

[oj829]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I assume it's more of the usual delusions of EPUB superiority, because it's a "standard".

Insofar as my favorite reader app (FBreader) only partially supports Kindle (according to their own website), and my favorite reader app before that (Aldiko) pretty much only dealt with epub back in the day and didn't even try, then yeah, it's a "standard" for me.

If I can't read it in FBReader (or APV Pro for PDFs), or on my Kobo glo, I really don't want to bother. The Free Market is supposed to be about choices. For me.

[oj829]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

It's no harder to disinfect Amazon books than it is books from Kobo or anywhere else. Or maybe I'm misunderstanding what you mean by tooling.

No, I'm sure you got it right about what I mean there.

I'm just saying that when I had to decide on a workflow which would allow me to buy ebooks without worrying about Mothership Servers going away, or publishers getting into a snit and yanking access, the Kindle path was not a good fit for me. Maybe that will change in the coming months once Adobe brings the RMSDK10 hammer down, and I will find myself retooling my workflow and Kindling exclusively. I'd rather not, but who knows...?

(I already notice that I can't use ADE 2.0 to return library books any more...)

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by oj829

Insofar as my favorite reader app (FBreader) only partially supports Kindle (according to their own website), and my favorite reader app before that (Aldiko) pretty much only dealt with epub back in the day and didn't even try, then yeah, it's a "standard" for me.

If I can't read it in FBReader (or APV Pro for PDFs), or on my Kobo glo, I really don't want to bother. The Free Market is supposed to be about choices. For me.

Just so long as it's only your standard, not a universal one.

So FBreader supports the EPUB "standard"... unless the book has DRM, or the book is a kepub or iBook. Which are most commercial books. DRM is the biggest reason why the EPUB standard is a myth, though there is also the fact that no one can actually agree on which parts of the "standard" to support...

And regardless, it is the height of simplicity to convert a mobi7/mobi8-formatted book to an EPUB, so you can read your Amazon purchases on Kobo/Nook/Sony/Marvin/FBreader/Mantano/Moon+/anything under the sun. (Because calibre is the only product available that fully supports all formats.) That's what I call real choice.

[oj829]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Just so long as it's only your standard, not a universal one.

So FBreader supports the EPUB "standard"... unless the book has DRM, or the book is a kepub or iBook.

Which it never is/does, thanks to tools, Calibre, Dropbox, and the fact that I don't buy any media from Apple.

Not sure what's so hard to understand about creating a book acquisition workflow - which works for me - which targets using the software I like, and doesn't fret about the vendors I don't buy from.

And regardless, it is the height of simplicity to convert a mobi7/mobi8-formatted book to an EPUB, so you can read your Amazon purchases on Kobo/Nook/Sony/Marvin/FBreader/Mantano/Moon+/anything under the sun. (Because calibre is the only product available that fully supports all formats.) That's what I call real choice.

Calibre is already central to my book acquistion/distribution workflow. I don't get what you're so upset about.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by oj829

Which it never is/does, thanks to tools, Calibre, Dropbox, and the fact that I don't buy any media from Apple.

Not sure what's so hard to understand about creating a book acquisition workflow - which works for me - which targets using the software I like, and doesn't fret about the vendors I don't buy from.



Calibre is already central to my book acquistion/distribution workflow. I don't get what you're so upset about.

The fact that you seem to have a problem with Amazon:

Originally Posted by oj829

3) Low hurdle to "tooling" my Kobo purchases. I occasionally read "tooling" chatter from Kindle owners and I'm frankly horrified at the idea of spending that much time trying to read my books and retain copies of what I've "bought" until _I_ decide I no longer have the need/space/time for them.

You seem to be trying to spread the delusion that Amazon somehow makes it harder to read their books than Kobo does. And again here:

Originally Posted by oj829

I'm just saying that when I had to decide on a workflow which would allow me to buy ebooks without worrying about Mothership Servers going away, or publishers getting into a snit and yanking access, the Kindle path was not a good fit for me. Maybe that will change in the coming months once Adobe brings the RMSDK10 hammer down, and I will find myself retooling my workflow and Kindling exclusively. I'd rather not, but who knows...?

So, in what way is Amazon a worse offender? Kobo can do the same thing, you know.... and is far more likely than Amazon to go out of business, and thus to turn off their servers. I assume that is why you save your books in calibre, so... why can't you do the same thing for Kindle books?

[oj829]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

The fact that you seem to have a problem with Amazon:

So, in what way is Amazon a worse offender? Kobo can do the same thing, you know.... and is far more likely than Amazon to go out of business, and thus to turn off their servers. I assume that is why you save your books in calibre, so... why can't you do the same thing for Kindle books?

Maybe things have changed, but when I set off on this adventure (before the tools were reborn as GUI plugins), the discussions I read about tooling Kindle purchases were (to me) overwhelming. What I saw was people fretting about, e.g., particular versions of kindle4pc, and other things that made my hair stand on end. I don't apologize for feeling intimidated. In fact, my first FIRST ebook vendor of choice was not Kobo but B&N, because at the time, all you needed was python, a script, your login ID and credit card number to read the books on software you actually wanted to use.

I'm not trying to spread FUD about being an Amazon customer today. Sounds like things have improved on the tooling front. I'm happy to hear it is as easy today as it is. But back to me...

Then OverDrive (epubs) became my biggest "vendor" because they run lending for my local library, and had an Android client that worked like a charm. Then Google (offering locked epubs) partnered with my local indie bookstore, which made them my regular ebookstore. Then Kobo took over that business, so my brick-and-mortar loyalties lead me there. That's how I got where I am today: part customer loyalty, part path-of-least-resistance.

For ME, going the Amazon route adds nothing but complications TODAY to my process. Now, if Adobe forces my hand, I'm sure I'll find myself at Bezos' door..... Customer loyalties aside, I am NOT buying any e-book I can't tool. From anybody.

[eschwartz]

The same python script that also unlocked Kindle Books?

...

Well, I see a google search returns a 2009 result from cabbage's blog about needing specific versions of Kindle4PC. I apologize for the mistake.

However, let it be known that those problems no longer exist. Also, if one happens to own a hardware Kindle it doesn't seem there was ever a problem with that.

Adding Amazon to your sources today shouldn't cause any troubles whatsoever. It's very easy to tool.

[sirmaru]

Kobo will go the way of Sony and Barnes & Noble. Apple will be right behind them. The standard is NOT epub - its Amazon Kindle format.

Those, who just stick to Amazon, don't need Calibre, Alf or any other eBook publisher; they just need Amazon to stay alive at least until the next generation of direct from server to human mind company is born and drives Amazon out.