11-19-2007, 06:28 PM | #61 |
MIA ... but returning som
Posts: 1,600
Karma: 511342
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Germany
Device: PRS-505 and *Really* not owning a PRS-700
|
*grml* I didn't want to write here anymore ... NTL:
Yes, they did many things right - which is EXACTLY why it bothers me, that they did so many things completely wrong. 1. WHY THE HELL a new format? Mobipocket is nice, why not keep this? This would allow more people to read their books - people who already own a Reader would either buy the Kindle (no matter of the DRM/Format) or won't, it wouldn't cut down their Kindle-sales but would increase their book sales. 2. See 1 3. WHY ONLY IN THE US? Their is no reason for this 4. WHY Whispernet? 5. Why not add some simple converters (e.g. PDF)? 6. The point "Kindle reader on the PC" would not be a point if Point 1 would have been taken in view. These are very simple to fix points. In fact it would probably had been easier to create a Kindle WITHOUT those screwed up points. Why get a few nice things - but don't go the complete path? Why try some things and f**k up the rest so completely??? Oh well .. Whatever. Without those very simple points it would have been a good device, perhaps even the tipping points. Now - it is just another example of a company being braindead and (hopefully) screwing up. Last edited by Alexander Turcic; 11-19-2010 at 02:53 PM. |
11-19-2007, 07:05 PM | #62 |
Member
Posts: 16
Karma: 10
Join Date: Aug 2007
Device: Treo 700w
|
Storing on Amazon servers = high risk
Instinct tells us that a big outfit like Amazon is a good place to store books on their server. That's dead wrong. A year ago, Amazon very quietly and unilaterally deleted the ebook bookshelves of tens of thousands of ebook customers that had been buying from them for years. No explanation was given.
Two months ago, Amazon's Mobipocket server went down in Paris. It stayed down for ten days during which no one could download their Mobipocket ebooks. Yet, in spite of this very recent history, Amazon wants us to believe in the warm comfort of their servers to offload these books since one audiobook might use up ALL the space available on it. Bottom-line: Amazon has no loyalty to ebook customers, only to its profit center. If Kindle stumbles, then the buyers of the device and the books that go on it may well have nothing but bad memories. As to the 9.99 price, the publishers should be driving this for ebooks themselves, but they're not. Instead, Amazon is pricing well below cost in most cases, undermining other honorable ebook retailers that have stuck it out through all the device mis-steps. Under other Justice Departments, this violated a range of anti-trust conditions. It will be interesting to see if the current one has the courage to step in. Amazon is guilty of predatory pricing as the dominant market player in books. They want to reduce the consuemr to only one choice for ebooks: Amazon. Then, if Amazon stays in the ebook business, it will be interesting how quickly that "free" whispernet service starts costing every one $30 per month. Some folks can still remember when basic cable TV was free. We should support the smaller ebook retailers that have to care about the individual customer (because they don't have the Amazon war chest to replace lost customers by buying more). BooksOnBoard, Fictionwise, eReader.com, to name a few. BooksOnBoard seems to have matched - and in some cases beaten - Amazon Kindle pricing for now. Fictionwise also does this with many of their titles. |
Advert | |
|
11-19-2007, 07:06 PM | #63 | |
Addict
Posts: 206
Karma: 1723
Join Date: May 2006
Device: Kindle
|
Quote:
Well OBVIOUSLY they are a US-based company, wanted to have a cellular-based solution nation-wide, and made a deal with a carrier that required no contract (ie: book sales cover the cost of the delivery mechanism). Why the hell not be only in the US for now? The majority of their sales are in the US, the majority of their customers are in the US. Im sure we will see one in Germany there is some Europe-wide wireless deal that can be made. |
|
11-19-2007, 07:15 PM | #64 |
Connoisseur
Posts: 89
Karma: 34
Join Date: Nov 2006
Device: Amazon Kindle
|
Kindle books are not $9.99 the way iTunes tracks are $0.99. There are many many Kindle books that cost less than that (or more than that). They're just saying that they'll try to make everything on the bestseller list cost no more than that when they can get away with it, which isn't too bad a price (once you get past the idea that ebooks ever cost more than like $1).
As far as it being yet another proprietary format, that appears to be wrong. As far as I can tell the format *is* Mobipocket completely, just with the DRM setup so that *currently* you can only decrypt the books on a Kindle. If the format is successful then there's no *technical* reason why they couldn't be enabled for reading with Mobipocket reader, etc. Z. |
11-19-2007, 07:15 PM | #65 |
MIA ... but returning som
Posts: 1,600
Karma: 511342
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Germany
Device: PRS-505 and *Really* not owning a PRS-700
|
The majority of their customers are in the US? Are you really sure? Well, I would guess that Amazon sells more books outside the US than inside, though I have no figures to prove that.
Oh and: There is a US-wide GPRS/UMTS, which is also supported elsewhere. So there really is NO reason to use other niche techniques ... And don't tell me that there are no GPRS-carriers willing to break a similar deal ... Yes, they are a US-based company and they make the same mistakes tons of companys do: They ignore the rest of the world. Why? One content customes is three customers won - one discontent customer is seven customers lost. Make your own calculations... And yes, it is their right to sell only inside the US. But it is stupid. @Zoot: There is no *technical* reason - agreed. But there is no *technical* reason to use a different format at all - so it is all down to marketing. And right now we see Amazons marketing strategy. |
Advert | |
|
11-19-2007, 07:16 PM | #66 |
Kindlephilia
Posts: 2,017
Karma: 1139255
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Snowpacolypse 2010
Device: Too many to count
|
I'm a big Fictionwise customer and will continue to be one. I'll simply keep my purchases to non-DRM .PRC titles from now on. I have many DRM .PRC titles and also eReader .PDB titles that will have to be read on my T|X for now. If I really desire a new DRM title I'll look for it on Amazon.
Yes it's a huge pain in the posterior. I remember going through the same mess going from LP to 8-track to cassette to CD. Also VHS (never did Beta) to DVD. It's aggravating and costly for the consumer but at least I had options where I could record from the original media to the newer media, well except for 8-track Now there is no option except to read on the old system or (when possible) repurchase the books in the new format. I don't like it but I wanted a eInk device and I like the look of the Kindle and the features. (Yes, I'm in the minority but that retro look appeals to me.) |
11-19-2007, 07:30 PM | #67 | |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 7,452
Karma: 7185064
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Linköpng, Sweden
Device: Kindle Voyage, Nexus 5, Kindle PW
|
Quote:
|
|
11-19-2007, 07:30 PM | #68 |
Member
Posts: 16
Karma: 10
Join Date: Aug 2007
Device: Treo 700w
|
Amazon likely to shut down Mobipocket
Amazon's far more likely to shut Mobipocket down than to enable Kindle reading with Mobipocket Reader. I don't think I would buy any more Mobipocket ebooks. The Kindle cannot read or convert DRM Mobipocket ebooks so its loyal Mobipocket customers cannot buy the device and transfer over.
... And Amazon does shut things down as they did with ALL ebooks a year ago. They only have five people working in the Mobipocket Paris office. And when their server went down, they left the French guys hanging and down for ten solid days. This is a play for control and complete dominance, pure and simple. Amazon wants to end up dictating how much we pay for books, who gets to sell them, which authors get promoted, etc. You can best judge future behavior by monitoring past behavior. With Amazon, the last year alone tells the story. My bet: They will wind down Mobipocket over the next year and they will start charging for use of WhisperNet by next Christmas. A $99 device that can read all formats is the way to go. That can happen... except it probably won't read Sony or Kindle because Amazon and Sony won't let it. So that rules out Sony, Kindle and Mobipocket. Leaves Adobe and eReader, and Microsoft, but Microsoft seems already out of play with its format. Let's hope Adobe's up to the task. They allegedly have mobile solutions coming for Digital Editions soon. That will help - a lot. |
11-19-2007, 07:37 PM | #69 |
Member
Posts: 19
Karma: 64
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Hannover
Device: Cybook Gen3, Palm Zire21
|
Well ...
Last week I was in doubt, but happily now it's clear which device to buy. Around Christmas I will be a glad owner of a new CyBook.
|
11-19-2007, 07:38 PM | #70 | |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 11,470
Karma: 13095790
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Grass Valley, CA
Device: EB 1150, EZ Reader, Literati, iPad 2 & Air 2, iPhone 7
|
Quote:
Dale |
|
11-19-2007, 07:41 PM | #71 | |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 11,470
Karma: 13095790
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Grass Valley, CA
Device: EB 1150, EZ Reader, Literati, iPad 2 & Air 2, iPhone 7
|
Quote:
Dale |
|
11-19-2007, 07:49 PM | #72 | |
Addict
Posts: 206
Karma: 1723
Join Date: May 2006
Device: Kindle
|
Quote:
North American sales for amazon (in all categories: media, electronics, etc) are larger than the rest of the world combined (for amazon, mind you). Not by much, but enough. Its all there in their financial reports. Im sure they want to bring a kindle to the rest of their customers, but they had a great deal with sprint, a US carrier, and are focusing on the market they know the best. People are just pissed off because they want the experiment to take place on their home turf first. The playstation 2 launched in japan first, so did the game cube. Just relax, it will make it over. -d |
|
11-19-2007, 07:49 PM | #73 | |
Member
Posts: 19
Karma: 64
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Hannover
Device: Cybook Gen3, Palm Zire21
|
Quote:
Ts, ts, ts. Sebastian |
|
11-19-2007, 07:52 PM | #74 | |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 11,470
Karma: 13095790
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Grass Valley, CA
Device: EB 1150, EZ Reader, Literati, iPad 2 & Air 2, iPhone 7
|
Quote:
Dale |
|
11-19-2007, 07:53 PM | #75 | |
creator of calibre
Posts: 43,853
Karma: 22666666
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Mumbai, India
Device: Various
|
Quote:
I wish Amazon had taken the very little additional trouble to support an actual open ebook format, especially since they've taken the trouble to support HTML. Actually, the fact that they don't support epub/oebps leads me to suspect their HTML support is very limited. |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Buying Amazon.com books on a UK Kindle? | PeteWilliams | Amazon Kindle | 21 | 09-07-2013 10:38 PM |
The 10 Worst Books | Dr. Drib | Reading Recommendations | 514 | 02-26-2012 11:44 AM |
Newbie Kindle owners...looking for Kindle books on Amazon? | desertgrandma | Amazon Kindle | 9 | 10-03-2010 10:27 AM |
What's the strangest thing you've ordered from Amazon? | carld | Lounge | 21 | 08-29-2010 08:04 PM |
worst thing about 505 | hello | Sony Reader | 57 | 10-16-2007 11:36 AM |