I noticed that Amazon developed a free app last year that makes it easy for people to read e-publications purchased from the Kindle store on their iPhones. However, they still require you to own a Kindle before buying Kindle books.
Amazon would clearly like to control the platform for e-publications, especially since they make a nice profit margin on each Kindle they sell. The free app attempts to create "coopetition" with Apple, giving Kindle users added value by allowing them to access their content through the iPhone, but still requiring they have a Kindle as their primary reader. The iPhone is probably fine for reading for ten minutes on the subway, the Kindle better for curling up with a novel on a Sunday afternoon. So the devices seem complementary, helping Amazon establish the Kindle format as a standard.
But I wonder what will happen as people devise ways to port content to the iPad and other devices. Is it possible to maintain closed standards for very long? As a consumer, I'd love to be able to access my purchased content on a Kindle, an iPad, a PC, a cheap Kindle knock-off, or any device I choose. And I'd be thrilled if there were dozens of discount e-publication sites all achieving parity in terms of selection and ease-of-use, and competing mostly on price.
Know who else would be happy with this situation? Google. If I'm buying from multiple sites, I'd want a centralized place to access my content. I'm sure Google would be happy to host it in the cloud. They would see all my reading preferences and could send me targeted advertising from the various e-book sites clamoring to attract my business.
I guess that's why Google tends to promote open standards and to be so popular with consumers and so disruptive to companies trying to dominate particular markets.
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