Something you are unlikely to see in my hands any time soon. (Image c/o JulesHolleboom.nl on Flickr)

A couple of days back I exchanged a series of tweets (some might say too many) with a number of people regarding Amazon’s Kindle and why I have so far refused to purchase one. The conversation came about as a result of Jo Bo Anderson’s tweet asking for e-reader recommendations. It seems that the Kindle was a very popular option (not that that is greatly surprising, they seem to be a fairly common sight as e-readers go) with a variety of people, particularly librarians. As a result of this conversation, SimonXIX has written an interesting and thoughtful blog post ‘justifying’ his purchase of said device (read it)*. Although I have blogged on this topic many times before, I thought maybe I should write a more detailed summary of my thoughts on the Kindle, in case other would be interested in a more complex argument than that presented in a tweet.

Before I go any further, I would like to make one thing clear for the benefit of those coming to this blog without knowing my background on the topic. Whilst I am not keen on Kindles, I am in no way anti-ebook. I think ebooks are great (see this post for proof). I have long argued that libraries should make ebooks available to their patrons (see this post from last year). I also own an e-reader, the PRS-505, which I wrote about here nearly three years ago. So, you see, not only pro-ebooks but also it would be fair to say I am an early adopter. Now, with that defence under my belt, the Kindle.

There is no denying that the Kindle is a great success. It is, as Simon pointed out, almost becoming synonymous with the term ‘e-reader’. The bulk of this success is down, primarily, to its functionality. It is ridiculously easy to purchase and download an ebook from Amazon. And not only is the functionality user-friendly, Amazon has developed a very strong relationship with customers through their overall service. As with any successful product, functionality and ‘the customer’ have been put to the forefront of Amazon’s offering. Little wonder they have become the most popular e-reader on the market (not that we have any accurate sales figures from Amazon), utterly dominating the competition. But this domination is also a big problem.

One of the biggest difficulties I have with the Kindle is that it doesn’t support the standard format, ePub. Now, whilst I am aware that it is possible to convert non-DRM ePub titles to ensure compatibility with the Kindle using software such as Calibre (and vice versa I believe), this is a big concern. Imagine you have had your Kindle for a few years and you have built up a substantial collection of ebooks. Imagine then that a new e-reader has come onto the market, superior to the Kindle in every way which does support the industry standard (possibly hard to imagine at the moment but keep with it), but does not utilise Amazon’s format, AZW. You are faced with a fairly obvious set of choices: stick with your Kindle regardless and hope they open up, convert all your existing titles to the format supported by the new ereader or purchase the new ereader and then re-purchase all your titles all over again. Not the greatest set of choices. Now consider if you had an ereader now that used epub and you wanted to ‘upgrade’ – all you would need to do is purchase the ereader and sync it with your existing library, simple.

With bookshops on the decline and Amazon on the rise, are we walking into a dangerous situation? (Image c/o MorBCN on Flickr)

Sure, this scenario is unlikely at present and right now the Kindle is clearly superior to other devices in terms of its ease of use. But technology moves on quickly. As I mentioned above, less than three years ago I bought my first e-reader. Back then I barely knew a single other person that had one. Since then, Kindles have rapidly improved, tablets have been developed and customer expectations of ereaders have moved on (there were no wi-fi enabled ereaders when I bought mine). Things change so why be stuck with a format that may not be able to adapt to such changes?

Of course, the other concern in relation to the format employed by Amazon is the danger of monopoly. Whilst Amazon has grown, independent booksellers appear to be in terminal decline and sales have even declined at the largest (and in many high streets only) bookstore in the country. Meanwhile, Kindles become ever more popular using a format that ensures that the majority of titles can only be purchased at Amazon. Alarmist it might be, but the road that leads down is not one that anyone should welcome. Do we really want there to be one giant company that we purchase books from? Particularly when that company has a history of removing titles from your device, no matter how it justifies such actions? For me, that is a very dangerous road to go down.

A Kobo reader - the competition are equally at fault. (Image c/o jivedanson on Flickr)

This is not to say that the blame for the current situation lies squarely at the feet of Amazon. The inability of competitors to come up with a compelling alternative to the Kindle is also a massive problem. No-one else has quite got the retail side right yet. No-one else has created a service that is anywhere near as functional and user-friendly as the Kindle. The fault for the current situation lies with competitors just as much as with Amazon. Perhaps my beef isn’t so much with Amazon as it is with the factors that have created this situation. Amazon simply took advantage of this situation to the advantage of their bottom line. It’s not like there should be any surprise whatsoever that a large company has put its own interests before that of the industry it is operating in.

The best anyone of us can hope for is that Amazon finally does open up the Kindle and allow consumers real choice across the board. Multiple retailers providing content that is accessible on multiple readers encouraging competitive pricing that benefits everyone. And if that were to happen, I may even buy a Kindle myself.

* I should add that Simon is correct in concluding I was at least semi-ironic when I stated ‘Love Kindles. Hate Libraries’ – I obviously do not actually believe that. Well, not entirely…