Uh, oh. Looks like I was wrong about Amazon.com

Anyone, anywhere?

Mike, you write: "I just don't see how anyone, anywhere can compete with Amazon.com in electronic books."

I do. How about everywhere that's not the US? So far the Kindle is only available in the US, and it only uses the dowdy EV-DO standard that's barely used anywhere else in the world.

Naturally, if Amazon put 3G HSDPA in and started selling it worldwide, it might be harder for "anyone, anywhere" to compete with Amazon. But given the content licensing issues Amazon has to work through in every single region (look at how slowly Apple did it for the iTunes Store) Amazon has a tough, tough job ahead of it.

Anyone, anywhere?

Mike, you write: "I just don't see how anyone, anywhere can compete with Amazon.com in electronic books."

I do. How about everywhere that's not the US? So far the Kindle is only available in the US, and it only uses the dowdy EV-DO standard that's barely used anywhere else in the world.

Naturally, if Amazon put 3G HSDPA in and started selling it worldwide, it might be harder for "anyone, anywhere" to compete with Amazon. But given the content licensing issues Amazon has to work through in every single region (look at how slowly Apple did it for the iTunes Store) Amazon has a tough, tough job ahead of it.

Lotsa hype

Lotsa hype considering a wide selection of ebooks have been available for multipe devices for a long time. I gave up on a separate book device (Franklin) to consolidate on my PDA and lessen the baggage when travelling. I had the free MobiPocket reader first on my Palm, and still use it now that I've moved to a Blackberry. If Amazon has bought out Mobi as another reader commented, I sure hope they don't mess up a great product.

I do!

re: "I just don't see how anyone, anywhere can compete with Amazon.com in electronic books. "

I do!

The http://mininova.com 's of the world will soon wipe out electronic books from commercial sales sites such as amazon.

ps - you spelled market, "maket". :) (sorry, thot you'd want to know)

Not convinced

In theory it's an amazing idea, but it's actually pleasurable to read things on the kind, but reading anything on a mobile device is awful. Still, it sets an exciting direction.

I read the author's original

I read the author's original article and obviously this one too. I think the original article and this were reasonably well thought out and identified important issues with Amazon and the roll-out of Kindle. Some of the original replies seemed to have the opinion that Amazon was already 'expert' on Ebooks. I think the Ebook world is still much too young to declare a winner.

I do think that the Kindle has been a bold strategic initiative in the Ebook area. The Kindle however was far from an original concept except in two areas. The Sony and other Ebooks have been out for some time and the Sony Ebook has the exact same display quality/capability, its even from the same manufacturer. But, at the same time Kindle suffers the same limitations of all Ebooks today, which include a screen that while large is still too small and they are only black-and-white. Newspapers, text books and high-quality printing will not be replaced by Ebooks until this situation changes.

The first original idea with the Kindle was to include embedded EVDO networking so that the Kindle eliminated the need to have a PC as an intermediary device and books can be purchased anywhere geographically (at least in the USA).

The more significant attribute of the Kindle was the DRM component that Amazon owned and from the early signs they were going to keep completely to themselves. Jeff Bezos was very shrewd to quietly purchase Mobipocket not too long before announcing the Kindle. Mobipocket has a large library of Ebooks already available and has been a leading contender for Ebook DRM. If you call the Kindle a 'leading DRM contender' in the Ebook world, Amazon now owns both of the leading choices and they are not saying what they intend to do with Mobipocket.

I think the author has correctly identified Amazon's move to make their Ebook library available on mobile phones as something significant. How this plays out could have a significant impact on the future of Ebooks. If Amazaon licenses their Ebook DRM to additional Ebook/display systems and then opens the licensing to additional distribution systems they may have a product that will make a real impact in the Ebook world.

Personally, if Amazon uses their DRM to force all purchases through Amazon, I for one hope they fail. Amazon has already shown a willingness and interest in locking up the distribution channel whenever they can. During the last election, they talked a publisher into releasing books on the candidate wives as exclusive to only Amazon and only Kindle format. This control of distribution is not going to be healthy for anyone but Amazon.

DRM is the most important issue today in the Ebook world. The Kindle and other Ebooks will go through many evolutionary changes over the next few years but who owns and controls the Ebook DRM will have the most significant impact of what Ebooks mean in the years to come.

Indeed, Amazon are quite the

Indeed, Amazon are quite the "maket"ers...

Author

Wow, you're really full of yourself.

Lol ur pretty damn egotistic

Lol ur pretty damn egotistic if you think you know all the right ways to run something like selling ebooks and can judge if they're doing things right or wrong. Amazon is in the business, and has access to all the numbers, customer behaviors etc. Ur just speculating. And then you try and pass it off as fact like "if amazon does X and Y they will succeed" in a published magazine. Seriously if you somehow have all the magical foresight as to what will succeed why don't you start your own damn company? Oh wait, it's because you're actually just a stupid reporter paid to come up with lame ideas. You only got thru journalism school by using those services that right your papers for you... You have no intelligence whatsoever.