I’ve heard a lot of complaining that Amazon is out to conquer publishing and obtain a monopoly. That may be true, but there’s a nasty anti-trust lawsuit at the far end of that tunnel. However, it won’t be Amazon’s fault.
It’s Apple’s. And it’s Barnes & Noble’s. And it’s Smashwords’. Why?
I read my books on Kindle. Why? Go to Amazon, find a book, and use the one-click. Moments later, that book is available on the cloud reader, on my old-school e-ink reader, my phone, all my computers… Now, you may point out Amazon’s dubious one-click patent, but that’s hardly a deal killer. What’s a deal killer is that I can’t do this with Nook. There’s a Nook app, but I have to go out and look for whatever I bought every time I want to read it on a different device. With Kindle, I can just click on a book, and if it’s not there, it downloads. Smashwords has no app to keep track of your purchases and port them into Adobe Editions. And iBooks? I haven’t used it, but since it’s not available on Android, my phone platform of choice, that’s a fail.
If you want to know why Amazon is heading for a monopoly, it’s because I can read my Kindle purchases anytime, anywhere, on almost any device. Almost every other ebook device and app uses the non-proprietary epub format. Before you declare war on Amazon, you need to do something much more important.
Step up.
Because I, the consumer, owe you nothing.
It’s not complicated. Amazon has made things easier and less expensive. That’s a tough combination to beat. I wish they’d treat their employees better–that business with the warehouse in Pennsylvania was a disgrace–so I wish someone would step up and provide real competition so I’d have somewhere else to go if their business practices offend my sensibilities, but right now they’re the 500-pound gorilla, and deservedly so.
With you 100%, Jim. I wish I could support B&N, but the Nook app is nowhere near as good as the Kindle app, so why would I want to buy a Nook? None of the other retailers’ online shopping experience is as good either, and let’s stop at a mention of B&N’s online customer service before I launch into a major rant. Amazon’s the bar they need to meet if they want to survive.