Sunday, January 29, 2012

Why Aren't eReaders Standardized?

This is probably a foolish question, because many items in our world are not standardized . But they should be. We all know hot dog buns come eight to a package, but the wieners come ten to a package. I could name numerous examples of such annoying practices, but at least we, the customers, are not restricted from purchasing either.

My complaint is with e-readers: Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Sony, Diesal, and Apple.
This is a huge problem, if you ask me. I bought a Kindle, but I also have books on B&N, the Sony Store, and a few scattered others. I only buy books from Amazon, though. Why? Because I have a Kindle. If I preferred to buy the book from B&N, then I would need to buy a Nook. Right?

This is grossly unfair, and very tacky, in my opinion.

We can buy gasoline from any station we want and pay for it in any manner. I carry three credit cards, but prefer to use one particular card. I've not been turned down yet when I pull out that card at any station. Suppose Shell required the driver to have a Shell credit card to purchase a tank of gas?

The same is true with our televisions. We pay for a server, but that server doesn't mind if I have a Motorola, a Sony, or a Samsung television. All's fair and everyone plays nice.

Cell phones. I have T-Mobile as my server, but I don't need to buy a certain phone, do I, to have T-Mobile?

I'm finding the electronic reader problem more and more aggravating. Yes, Amazon carries every book known to mankind, but need they be so exclusive with their eBooks? I'm not picking on Amazon, because all of them are the same way.

Should this problem be addressed in Congress, so that The People will have a voice in this matter? Forget I even mentioned such an absurd thing. What am I thinking, trying to get Congress to make a decision?

 Celia Yeary-Romance...and a little bit 'o Texas  
http://www.celiayeary.blogspot.com
http://www.celiayeary.com
http://sweetheartsofthewest.blogspot.com 
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11 comments:

  1. B. J. RobinsonJanuary 29, 2012 at 10:18 AM

    I buy from Barnes and Noble because I had a Nook before I got my iPad. It would make things great if they were standard,but I don't see that happening, since they're in competition. At least we can download free apps from all of them. So really, you can download Amazon on that account, Barnes and Noble on that one, etc. but such a hassle, that I buy from B&N. I do buy some from Amazon, but not eBooks due to this. I have things set up so my Nook books download to my Nook or iPad or iPhone or iPod, and I can pull them up and read them on either device.

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  2. Paula MartinJanuary 29, 2012 at 10:41 AM

    Agree there should be one format which is downloadable to all e-readers.
    My 'gripe' is about DVDs being 'zoned' to different regions, so (for example) my main DVD player will only play Zone 2 (Europe region) DVDs and not Zone 1 (USA) discs. Sometimes, though, I want movies which are only produced in the USA. I know there are ways of 'comverting' your DVD player to play all regions, but why should we? Why can't it just be standard on all DVD players? Okay, rant over ;-)

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  3. LK HunsakerJanuary 29, 2012 at 11:14 AM

    I agree, Celia! It's ridiculous and unfair to readers. I only buy what I can put on my Sony.

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  4. Carra CopelinJanuary 29, 2012 at 2:03 PM

    Oh, my goodness, I guess we all agree on this one in some manner. My main complaint is with remotes. None of them work the same and I'm tired of having to learn or keep so many different ones. To play my DVD player in my office, I need 3 different ones!

    But to your subject of the day, I can see the distress of the author trying to make their books available to all readers. It's involved. I was given a Kindle and have never checked out any other seller. You did give me a chuckle, though, over getting the government involved. Good one!!

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  5. UnknownJanuary 29, 2012 at 4:47 PM

    B.J.-You're smart to have multiple devices to read on. Like you, I don't see any standardization in the future--it's all about the money. Thanks for your input.

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  6. UnknownJanuary 29, 2012 at 4:48 PM

    Paula--Oh, DVDs! I forgot about those!We don't even use ours much because we can never figure out what we can do and what we can't.
    This electronic age is driving me crazy.

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  7. UnknownJanuary 29, 2012 at 4:50 PM

    LK--You know, I sell more books from Sony from one particular publisher than the others. I cannot figure this out...but wherever I get my money, I'm okay with it.
    One friend who has more money than she can spend has a Nook and a Kindle and is thinking of buying a third one.
    I'm not sure I'd do that even if I had money to throw away.

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  8. UnknownJanuary 29, 2012 at 4:52 PM

    Carra--how did I forget remotes! We did fine as long as we had the old bulky tvs, but now we have three flatscreens--I know, it's silly--and each one has it's one unique remote, but one tv need two remotes.
    Drives me insane.
    Oh, yeah, ou government--isn't that something?
    Thanks for you opinion--love it.

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  9. Diane CraverFebruary 2, 2012 at 6:40 AM

    It's fun to see where our ebooks are selling from. That's interesting you sell more from B & N for the Nook.

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  10. UnknownFebruary 3, 2012 at 4:46 PM

    Diane--I would never know if the publisher didn't list where they were bought. That's when I even learned I had books on B&N!! How stupid is that? Even so, I forget to promote using their links. I have them saved on my books, but often just revert to Amazon for no good reason.

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  11. Sandy NachlingerFebruary 7, 2012 at 1:24 PM

    Right on! I agree with you 100%, especially the "grossly unfair and very tacky" part. (Tacky is one of my favorite words.) But let's don't get Congress involved. We want this resolved during our lifetime!

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