Defective by Design is targeting the Kindle

[Ervserver]

I think people are posting negative Kindle reviews not only to sway the ratings on Amazon but also to torque off Kindle owners. Looks like its working. What is it that makes someone so sensitive about a piece of electronics. If you own a Kindle and love it then it doesn't matter what others say about it.

[rlauzon]

Originally Posted by Alisa

I just don't get why the Kindle is so polarizing. People seem to be getting really angry about it. Hundreds of people have written "reviews" on the Amazon site, many with appalling misinformation, that are just rants about why they don't want one. It's truly bizarre. If I don't want a product, I don't buy it. I don't go ranting to people about why they shouldn't either. It reminds me of the strangers that came up to me in parking lots accosting me about why I shouldn't have bought my Prius.

Because Amazon has the potential to force standards on the eBook marketplace.

I think that many people were hoping that when Amazon got into the eBook market that it would topple the Tower of eBabel and we'd get "One, True, eBook format" that everyone would have to support.

What we got was a poorly designed device, that's overpriced compared to the others in the marketplace, and, as far as DRM is concerned, is even worse than the competition.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by rlauzon

What we got was a poorly designed device, that's overpriced compared to the others in the marketplace, and, as far as DRM is concerned, is even worse than the competition.

But so what if it is? It's just one more on the pile, then. That's no reason to slam people who bought one. And as I understand Amazon's reasoning behind the Kindle/store package, I wouldn't even slam Amazon over it. (If anything, give grief to publishers for making Amazon's choice of selling model the only choice they had.)

[rlauzon]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

But so what if it is? It's just one more on the pile, then. That's no reason to slam people who bought one.

People who are bitter often don't think about what they are saying until it's too late.

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

And as I understand Amazon's reasoning behind the Kindle/store package, I wouldn't even slam Amazon over it. (If anything, give grief to publishers for making Amazon's choice of selling model the only choice they had.)

Amazon had many choices. One of which was to tell the big publishers to drop the DRM requirement or their eBook reader wouldn't support them. So, Amazon does deserve plenty of grief.

On top of that, Amazon, like many eBook sellers, is misrepresenting their eBook purchases as "sale of an eBook" when it really is a "sale of an eBook license" (and an abnormally restrictive license at that).

The whole "Defective by Design" thing is trying to educate people who are ignorant of DRM, so that they understand exactly what they are getting. It's one thing for someone to understand that they are paying $400 for a reader and then paying $10 to borrow a book from Amazon, it's quite another for someone to not understand this and, after a year, find that their reader and eBooks represent money thrown away.

[coldcell]

I think a large number of the rants are necessary. It might sting if you're a Kindle owner having regrets (the told-you-so factor), but not if you're a "happy customer".

If it's puzzling that people hate a piece of hardware so much, how crazy is it that some hate negative reviews of it with equal vitriol? The radical anti-Kindle serve to unbalance the radical pro-Kindle, and thereby make sure that any person diving into that kind of investment WANTS the full facts after so many conflicting views. That's a Good Thing.

Also, any hardware maker that can put their products up to applaud or critique and accept both equally deserves kudos. Amazon hasn't been filtering the tags (yet) so they do get my respect for that.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by rlauzon

Amazon had many choices. One of which was to tell the big publishers to drop the DRM requirement or their eBook reader wouldn't support them. So, Amazon does deserve plenty of grief.

I seriously doubt Amazon is willing to alienate the bulk of their big publisher clients by saying something like that... much less that any of its major publishers would cave to that at this time... leaving them with a bunch of unknown publishers only for their spanking new device. More likely, get the pubs involved, then try to sell them on killing DRM later. We'll see.

[rlauzon]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

I seriously doubt Amazon is willing to alienate the bulk of their big publisher clients by saying something like that...

They did that when Amazon decided to offer used books side-by-side with new ones on their site. So I don't think that dictating to the publishers is something that Amazon is afraid of.

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

much less that any of its major publishers would cave to that at this time...

As I've said before, what the publishers want is irrelevant. They have no place in the eBook market. Amazon's big enough that, if they someday get eBooks right, will dominate the market. If that happens, what the publishers want won't make any difference.

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

leaving them with a bunch of unknown publishers only for their spanking new device.

Something interesting: I've been reading mainly "unknown" authors lately and I'm finding them far better than the "best seller" authors.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by rlauzon

As I've said before, what the publishers want is irrelevant. They have no place in the eBook market.

It won't be irelevant as long as people want their books to be available as e-books. For now, at least, they still have the best hand and dominate the game. They can still come to dominate the e-book market, depending on how they handle themselves.

Originally Posted by rlauzon

Something interesting: I've been reading mainly "unknown" authors lately and I'm finding them far better than the "best seller" authors.

Yeah, that happens to me a lot, too. When I mentioned the unknown publishers, I wasn't making a statement about their quality... mainly their quantity, and the fact that mainstream markets aren't going to know them, or their authors, as well as the Big Pubs' clients... which in turn will affect marketability.

[rlauzon]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

It won't be irelevant as long as people want their books to be available as e-books. For now, at least, they still have the best hand and dominate the game. They can still come to dominate the e-book market, depending on how they handle themselves.

So far, all the big publishers have done is complain about how weak the eBook market is (by offering exorbitantly high priced eBook rentals). So I highly doubt that they will ever dominate the market.

You also assume that they have the content that people with eBook readers want. I assert that, for the most part, that assumption is wrong.

[JSWolf]

Think of it this way, the Kindle is marketed to the average person. Not just the tech savvy who know better. Now the average person isn't going to care about the Kindle's DRM as long as the book in question can be downloaded and read on the Kindle with no hassle. I know this is a hassle for those of us who want to be able to format shift or know that the ebook we purchase today can someday be read on some other device sometime in the future when the Kindle is just a distant memory.

[rlauzon]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Think of it this way, the Kindle is marketed to the average person. Not just the tech savvy who know better. Now the average person isn't going to care about the Kindle's DRM as long as the book in question can be downloaded and read on the Kindle with no hassle. I know this is a hassle for those of us who want to be able to format shift or know that the ebook we purchase today can someday be read on some other device sometime in the future when the Kindle is just a distant memory.

If you went to the average person and said:
You have 2 choices.
1) Pay, up front, for $400, an eBook reader, then pay $10 per eBook.
Your eBook reader can fail at any time and may render your purchased eBooks unreadable. You cannot buy used books nor can you borrow books from your friends. Oh, and Amazon is keeping track of what books you read when you use their service.
2) Continue with the current process - where books might cost more, but they might cost less. But you get to buy used books and borrow books from your friends. And no one keeps track of what books you read.

Guess which one they will pick.

[Liviu_5]

Originally Posted by rlauzon

If you went to the average person and said:
You have 2 choices.
1) Pay, up front, for $400, an eBook reader, then pay $10 per eBook.
Your eBook reader can fail at any time and may render your purchased eBooks unreadable. You cannot buy used books nor can you borrow books from your friends. Oh, and Amazon is keeping track of what books you read when you use their service.
2) Continue with the current process - where books might cost more, but they might cost less. But you get to buy used books and borrow books from your friends. And no one keeps track of what books you read.

Guess which one they will pick.

Very well put and encapsulating why the latest quarter e-book sales were 25M $ compared to 7-8B$ for print books.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

You can always find a way to "bend" the phrasing your way. For example:

Tell someone that they'll have to pay up front, $400, for an MP3 player. Then $10. for a CD that isn't even on a real disc, or $1 for a music file that also isn't on a disc. The files you bought have DRM, can only be played on that player you bought, and they can't be converted to MP3. Unless you record it on a blank CD first, then burn it to MP3. And oh, yes, Apple will keep track of everything you've bought, and everything you've searched for, in perpetuity.

Guess what? People went for that one.

It's easy to make something sound bad, if you only describe it in terms of what sounds bad. But how bout this:

Tell someone that they can buy an e-book online, anywhere, anytime, for the computer, laptop, handheld, smartphone, UMPC, gameboy, or blackberry that they already have. The e-book will cost less than a printed book. They can read it anywhere. They can change the font size to their liking... also the font color and background, making it easier on the eyes. They can bookmark files. They can search. They can even buy specialized e-book readers, if they want to, that make the reading more enjoyable, for as little as $300. They can store entire libraries on a single CD, saving scads of space. Buying e-books help to limit the clear-cutting of our planet for paper. And they can share the files with other devices.

Suddenly, e-books don't sound so bad.

[rlauzon]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

... And oh, yes, Apple will keep track of everything you've bought, and everything you've searched for, in perpetuity.

Guess what? People went for that one.

An iPod is more of a fashion statement than an MP3 player. And they've figured that less than 25% of the music that is on iPods came from iTunes.

So you are incorrect: people didn't go for that one.

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

.It's easy to make something sound bad, if you only describe it in terms of what sounds bad.

It's also easy to mislead people.

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Tell someone that they can buy an e-book online, anywhere, anytime, for the computer, laptop, handheld, smartphone, UMPC, gameboy, or blackberry that they already have.

You've already stepped outside of reality.

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

The e-book will cost less than a printed book.

Misleading. Because of DRM used eBooks cannot exist. I have yet to see any DRMed eBooks going for less than a used paper book. Mostly they are more than the price of the hardcover edition.

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

And they can share the files with other devices.

No, they can't. That's the whole purpose of DRM.

So let's apply reality to your statement:
Tell someone that they can buy an e-book online, from a small subset of companies that support a certain format (let's make it Mobipocket to keep it simple), anytime (as long as Mobipocket's DRM servers don't crash - again), for some of the the computers, handheld, smartphone, UMPC, gameboy, or blackberry that they already have - as long as you use closed, proprietary operating systems like Windows - If you use Linux, you are out of luck.

The e-book will probably cost more than a hardcover price of the printed book. Don't think about buying it used - you can't. The same goes for borrowing your friend's copy. Oh, and guess what? You really didn't "buy" that eBook like you would have bought a paper book. You really bought a license to read it on a small number of devices for a limited time.

They can read it anywhere. They can change the font size to their liking... also the font color and background, making it easier on the eyes. They can bookmark files. They can search. (But only if the reader software supports it.)

They can even buy specialized e-book readers, if they want to, that make the reading more enjoyable, for as little as $300.

They can store entire libraries on a single CD, saving scads of space. But when you go back to try to re-read the books in that library, you may not be able to. All you can do is repurchase the eBook.

Buying e-books help to limit the clear-cutting of our planet for paper.

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Suddenly, e-books don't sound so bad.

Once reality is applied, it sounds pretty bad to me.

[tsgreer]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Think of it this way, the Kindle is marketed to the average person. Not just the tech savvy who know better. Now the average person isn't going to care about the Kindle's DRM as long as the book in question can be downloaded and read on the Kindle with no hassle. I know this is a hassle for those of us who want to be able to format shift or know that the ebook we purchase today can someday be read on some other device sometime in the future when the Kindle is just a distant memory.

Great way of putting it. I personally hate having to be tech-savvy to read a book. I am not being sarcastic. I do love the "like it-download it-read it" aspect of the Kindle.

I couldn't do that with the Sony Reader because I am Mac and they had software that had to be installed. The entire time I have owned my Sony Reader, I haven't been able to buy one single book from them. So I get to say what a lot of non-US people say about Amazon's Kindle: "I guess Sony didn't want my money."

The Kindle has allowed me to buy several books and most of the time I wasn't even near my computer. Of course, I should be reading all the drm-free mobileread downloads I have installed first, but that's another story!