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Ebook Industry Changes (linkspam)
Five things make a linkspam? Lots of changes in the ebookery world:
Overdrive stops supporting Mobipocket--a side effect of the new Kindle library ebooks. Most of those older ebooks will be converted to Kindle (which is Mobipocket format with different DRM setup); some will be lost entirely. Overdrive is planning to refund library purchases of those books.
CONCLUSION: Digital purchases are not intended to be forever; they're "until the company that manages the servers decides they're not worth supporting anymore."
Vook stops making content to focus on software. Vookbooks, if you didn't know (I'm fairly oblivious & only know they exist because I hang out in too many ebook forums) are interactive, app-like ebooks.
CONCLUSION: If there's a substantial market for "enhanced" ebooks, nobody knows what to do with it yet. (My thoughts: There's a market, but it's not the book market, just like the market for movies is not "enhanced stage plays.")
California Reader Privacy Act signed into law; a nice step towards treating ebook access like pbook access: something that the gov't doesn't have the right to spy on without a compelling (read: court-provable) reason.
CONCLUSION: Yay, someone's paying attention to the frightening amount of personal info moving through the business world with no controls.
Kindle Fire could be iPad killer; skeptics are dismissing it because of the limited functions and "paltry" 8gb storage (wtF? how many movies do you need in your pocket?) without noticing that very few people need the full capabilities of an iPad.
CONCLUSION: There's a long history of small, focused, inexpensive devices driving out large, powerful, costly ones. All the Fire has to be to sweep the market is reliable, not ultra-powerful.
Ebook price-fixing lawsuit focuses on Apple in collusion w/publishers; 5 publishers insist that they spontaneously decided to switch to the "agency model" because it seemed like the best business practice; they didn't coordinate with Apple to squeeze Amazon and convince consumers that ebooks "should" cost more than $10 nope nope nope.
CONCLUSION: While this looks like a very simple, "obviously pricefixing" case, I gather the legalities are complicated. While we can all recognize "companies working together to get more profits," not all of that translates to illegal business practices; companies aren't barred from grabbing business habits from each other--just from coordinating them in advance.
Overdrive stops supporting Mobipocket--a side effect of the new Kindle library ebooks. Most of those older ebooks will be converted to Kindle (which is Mobipocket format with different DRM setup); some will be lost entirely. Overdrive is planning to refund library purchases of those books.
CONCLUSION: Digital purchases are not intended to be forever; they're "until the company that manages the servers decides they're not worth supporting anymore."
Vook stops making content to focus on software. Vookbooks, if you didn't know (I'm fairly oblivious & only know they exist because I hang out in too many ebook forums) are interactive, app-like ebooks.
CONCLUSION: If there's a substantial market for "enhanced" ebooks, nobody knows what to do with it yet. (My thoughts: There's a market, but it's not the book market, just like the market for movies is not "enhanced stage plays.")
California Reader Privacy Act signed into law; a nice step towards treating ebook access like pbook access: something that the gov't doesn't have the right to spy on without a compelling (read: court-provable) reason.
CONCLUSION: Yay, someone's paying attention to the frightening amount of personal info moving through the business world with no controls.
Kindle Fire could be iPad killer; skeptics are dismissing it because of the limited functions and "paltry" 8gb storage (wtF? how many movies do you need in your pocket?) without noticing that very few people need the full capabilities of an iPad.
CONCLUSION: There's a long history of small, focused, inexpensive devices driving out large, powerful, costly ones. All the Fire has to be to sweep the market is reliable, not ultra-powerful.
Ebook price-fixing lawsuit focuses on Apple in collusion w/publishers; 5 publishers insist that they spontaneously decided to switch to the "agency model" because it seemed like the best business practice; they didn't coordinate with Apple to squeeze Amazon and convince consumers that ebooks "should" cost more than $10 nope nope nope.
CONCLUSION: While this looks like a very simple, "obviously pricefixing" case, I gather the legalities are complicated. While we can all recognize "companies working together to get more profits," not all of that translates to illegal business practices; companies aren't barred from grabbing business habits from each other--just from coordinating them in advance.
no subject
Where did you see that reported? I read a fair amount of Kindle Fire coverage, and nobody hinted that they were selling these things below cost.
But, also, it's really clear why Amazon is selling these tablets so cheaply. it's the same reason printers are cheap and ink is expensive. They want you to buy your video and ebooks and apps from Amazon. They want you to get an Amazon prime account, so any time you think about buying a physical object via the internet, the first place you think about buying it is Amazon, because you won't have to pay shipping. This isn't evil mastermind time.
(Now, yes, absolutely, because Amazon will have EVEN MORE records about your personal habits, one may be concerned about all of this centralized store of info about you. If a record exists, it can subpoenaed in a lawsuit or a criminal prosecution. It can be hacked and used to torment you. It can be sold and used to sell you shit you don't want. But these concerns don't warrant anyone imagining Jeff Bezos sitting around cackling and stroking a cat to celebrate his evil dominance over the world.)
no subject