Why Kindle Should Be An Open Book - Forbes.com - The Diigo Meta page

• 15 Sep 09
  

  Bao Wen Chen

  eBook O'Reilly

  • Unless Amazon embraces open e-book standards like epub, which allow readers to read books on a variety of devices, the Kindle will be gone within two or three years.
  • "Very few documents are read by millions of people. Millions of documents--notes to yourself, your spouse, your friends--are read by only a few people. There's an entire space in the middle, though, that will be the basis of a new information economy. That's the space that we are making accessible with the Microsoft Network." (These aren't Myhrvold's exact words but the gist of his remarks as I remember them.)
  • 9 more annotations...
  • • "What you said is completely right, but it's not the Microsoft Network that is going to deliver that information economy. It's the World Wide Web."
    • The only problem was we'd already embraced the alternative: We had downloaded free Web server software and published documents using an open standards format. That meant anyone could read them using a free browser.
    • While MSN had better tools and interfaces than the primitive World Wide Web, it was clear to us that the Web's low barriers to entry would help it to evolve more quickly, would bring in more competition and innovation, and would eventually win the day.
    • The file format was a problem for us from the get-go: Amazon's Kindle file format doesn't provide support for tables or for so-called monospaced fonts, two formatting features that we use heavily in our line of technical books. And there is a viable alternative: Epub, the open format from the International Digital Publishing Forum, is based on the Web's native format, HTML, and provides full table and font support. This is the first "strategy tax" paid by those who embrace proprietary platforms: They can't support the needs of every niche and must prioritize their support for mainstream needs.
    • The single point of purchase was also a non-starter for us, since my fundamental understanding of information marketplaces is that they grow bigger and more lucrative for everyone when there is a rich ecosystem of cooperating players.
    • And frankly, this is what we saw with the original World Wide Web. Most of the initial content was free. Even now, the bulk of the content on the Web is supported by advertising. But that advertising business model has created more than one multibillion-dollar company. Meanwhile, other business models also thrive, much as I predicted back in 1996 when I wrote Publishing Models for Internet Commerce.
    • In developing the business plan for the Kindle, Amazon was no doubt influenced by the great success of Apple
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      ) with the iPod: Proprietary hardware and proprietary file formats made Apple into the kingpin of the digital music industry. But what Amazon seems to have missed is the important role that "free" played in the success of the iPod. People didn't populate their iPods solely with music purchased from Apple. It was easy for them to "rip" their own CDs into the standard mp3 file format and load their entire music collection onto the device.
    • Apple has played the same game to perfection with the iPhone App Store. The Cupertino company seems to have a knack for balancing the benefits of both open and closed architectures that Amazon has yet to discover. While Apple maintains tight control over what goes into the App Store, there's a loophole big enough to drive a truck through: Any Web page can act as an application for the iPhone.
    • Open allows experimentation. Open encourages competition. Open wins. Amazon needs to get with the program. Or, like AOL and MSN, Amazon will wind up another online pioneer who ends up a belated guest at the party it planned to host.
• 04 Aug 09
  

  Ezra F

  "Open allows experimentation. Open encourages competition. Open wins. Amazon needs to get with the program. Or, like AOL and MSN, Amazon will wind up another online pioneer who ends up a belated guest at the party it planned to host."

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• 06 Jul 09
  

  Avi Warshavsky
  • Why Kindle Should Be An Open Book
• 

  Jeffrey Canton

  amazon kindle commentary ebook

  • Yet I have a bold prediction: Unless Amazon embraces open e-book standards like epub, which allow readers to read books on a variety of devices, the Kindle will be gone within two or three years.
• 15 May 09
  

  Susan Nugent

  kindle amazon ebook epub o'reilly

• 10 Apr 09
  

  Claude Almansi

  Unless Amazon embraces open standards, the Kindle's lead will become a very short story.

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• 03 Apr 09
  

  Robert Calvachi

  Why Kindle Should Be An Open Book

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• 02 Mar 09
  

  Sara Felice

  Great piece from Tim O'Reilly on what will kill the Kindle: open standards. If they don't, he says "Amazon will wind up another online pioneer who ends up a belated guest at the party it planned to host."

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• 

  Peggy George

  Unless Amazon embraces open e-book standards like epub, which allow readers to read books on a variety of devices, the Kindle will be gone within two or three years.

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• 28 Feb 09
  

  Will Richardson

  [I find this pretty amazing, and I wonder if this is just transition stuff or if it will last.]
  
  We released one of our books, David Pogue's iPhone: The Missing Manual as an application bundle with Stanza through the iPhone store. In the six weeks since it was released, it has outsold its print counterpart even though that paper-based version has been the best-selling computer book in the market, and is outselling its closest competitor by a ratio of 3:1. Even though the iPhone application is only 20% of the price of the printed book ($4.95 vs. $24.95), it doesn't appear to be cutting into sales of the bound edition.

  shifts media

• 27 Feb 09
  

  Lucy Gray

  mentioned by Jim Fruchterman in his last session

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• 24 Feb 09
  

  Gary Edwards

  Like someone finding out that the rapture has happened, and they've been left behind, Tim O'Reilly shakes his fists and shouts to the heavens that Amazon must support open standards. He argues that in-spite of incredible market success, the Amazon Kindle will fail because the document format is not Open. He even argues that Apple, with the iPod and iPhone, have figured out how to blend Open Web formats and application development with proprietary hardware initiatives.... <br><br>"The Amazon Kindle has sparked huge media interest in e-books and has seemingly jump-started the market. Its instant wireless access to hundreds of thousands of e-books and seamless one-click purchasing process would seem to give it an enormous edge over other dedicated e-book platforms. Yet I have a bold prediction: Unless Amazon embraces open e-book standards like epub, which allow readers to read books on a variety of devices, the Kindle will be gone within two or three years."<br><br>
  
  TO points to ePub as an open format, apparently not realizing the format falls far short of Open Web advances designed to enable a complete publication-typesetter model. The WebKit and Mozilla open source communities are pushing the envelope of Open Web development with an extremely advanced document model based on HTML5, CSS3, SVG/Canvas, and JavaScript4+. ePub on the other hand is stuck in 1998, supporting the aging HTML4 - CSS2.1 specs. Very sad.<br><br>

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• 

  Emily O

  This article (thanks to LISnews flagging it) forces me to think hard before buying a Kindle, price considerations aside.

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• 

  Mike Henderson

  ebook

  • Yet I have a bold prediction: Unless Amazon embraces open e-book standards like epub, which allow readers to read books on a variety of devices, the Kindle will be gone within two or three years.
• 23 Feb 09
  

  Robert Weir

  kindle

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  Tobias Schirmer

  amazon kindle internet oreilly business_models standards free open

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  Antonio Tombolini

  "Unless Amazon embraces open e-book standards like epub, which allow readers to read books on a variety of devices, the Kindle will be gone within two or three years."

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