Why I Chose Kobo Over Kindle

In internet terms, a closed shop is bad news. It runs utterly contrary to the Hacker Ethic; or, for those who care little about a free and open web, it seeks to monopolize the market.

Kindle Books are downloaded in a file format specific to Kindle devices. 

It is possible to smash open the casing and extract the literature inside, but that's fiddly, involves two different programs and exists in a state of dubious legality.

That is a closed shop.  That demands that anyone buying a Kindle Book only use it on a Kindle device.

Of course, the morality of this is mitigated somewhat, by the fact that you could download a free reader for your PC or Apple device.  But that's not an e-Reader. That belies the whole point of an eBook.  You might as well buy the paper copy for that.

The majority of shoppers don't care about monopolization and its attendant issues. They are the sort of people who'll purchase anything, as long as there's a benefit in it for them.

And there is a benefit in buying a Kindle. Amazon is behind it and therefore it boasts the biggest potential library of books to read. 

But it's a closed shop, and I, for one, can't get past that point.

It's of vague linguistic amusement how the internet can subvert meanings. 

In real life, a closed shop is one where the workers are protected by a union.  Happy days!  In the cyberworld, it's when a product is ring-fenced to prevent its expansion.

A great example is to look at iTunes. Buy music from an iTunes shop, then attempt to transfer it (without third party software developed in response) to another mp3 music device. Or even to change computers.

It doesn't work.  iTunes immediately clamps down and treats you like you're trying to steal the legally purchased tunes.  Which is why I prefer Songbird.

It's in Amazon's interest for all Kindle Books to be read on a Kindle device. The company has developed the latter.  It makes money from all of the e-Readers that it sells, but more so on its own product. 

The last thing that the company wants is for people to start reading Kindle Books on Kobo, Nook, Sony Readers or whatever else the market produces. It's better to put those out of business completely.  No company is better placed for monopolizing literature than Amazon right now.

And that's the thing which triggers alarm bells in my mind.  The barest sniff that any single source could hold the only keys to the library makes me wrinkle up my nose.  Particularly since the company ethics don't quite match my own.

There's no sinister accusation here, merely the observation that I would rather have a wider choice of books than those which a major corporation deems permissible reading.  Or, more to the point, I'd like to have a choice in where and how I read that literature.

It must be obvious by now why I opted for a Kobo e-Reader. It does the job.  It allows me to read books, but it's not a closed shop.

I selected it, as it appeared to be the most open of them all. In fact, its selling point is the ability to easily transfer any literature or file from it, onto any other device of your choosing.

As you can imagine, I have totally geeked out over this, since I received it last week. I've got the Kobo eReader Touch Edition (silver quilt) and I've certainly put it through its paces.

I have found that the Kobo remembers my place, even if I've forgotten to place a bookmark.

The Wifi element updates the PC reader too.When I returned to the Kobo application there, it knew what I'd been reading out in the Haworth parsonage grounds.

By running my finger over various passages, I can highlight then save them.  These can be sent to Facebook or stored for future perusal.  I can annotate the book itself; or add notes separately.

I can also pull up chapters, indices, and author's notes; search the book; add it to bookshelves of my own devising; and rate it according to preference.

It's all very easy and fast to navigate. This is the first time I'd held any e-Reader in my hand, and I was soon into every feature.  Even if the hands-on imperative fails, then there's an in-built quick tour and help pages to guide you through.

I could have done all of that with a Kindle.  It's no biggie to claim one of literature's greatest classic novels and read it.

But this wasn't why I had a Kobo.  I had other tests to perform; and it coped extremely well.

First stop was to Cory Doctorow's website.  His novels are not only fabulous, and possibly the most exciting of their cyberpunk genre, but they're also free.  He relies on the Hacker Ethic of the free exchange of information.

If, after you've gorged your imagination on his amazing works, you feel moved to buy a copy, then please do so.  (As a business strategy, it really works.  I read Little Brother free of charge, then loved it so much that a friend bought the paperwork for me. Then I bought another two copies as gifts myself!)

As his novels have been transformed into an array of formats (by fans mostly), I was able to experiment to my heart's content.  Kobo accepted them all.

The final test was this:  could I get Kindle Books onto my Kobo?  The answer is:  yes, I can; and a lot more easily than I was expecting. 

From an Amazon marketing point of view, e-Readers should ideally become synonymous with Kindle.  Lots of profit there from consumers following the herd and only buying this brand.

Naturally this incurs a dangerous line to walk.  I did something a fortnight ago, which would have chilled the blood of any Amazon executive in earshot.  I asked my parents for a kindle.  Note the small 'k'. 

I wasn't necessarily asking for the brand, but for an e-Reader. As soon as the request was granted, I began researching e-Readers in general.  Amazon's Kindle was only foremost in those I examined.

If the brand crosses the line into describing a product in general, then it may lose its trademark protection, at least in some countries. Such generic words as aspirin*, kerosene and thermos started life as exclusive brand names. But when people started referring to all willow bark derivative painkillers as Aspirin, then it lost the capital letter and the company behind it lost the right to protect the name from competitiors.

(*It's been pointed out that Aspirin did not lose its trademark protection throughout the world.  In fact, Bayer were able to safeguard its brand in 83 countries.)

Another exchange, this time between a friend and I, would have similarly upset Amazon's marketing team. 

"Did you get a Kindle for your birthday?"  He asked me.

"Yes!"  I blithely responded.  "I got a Kobo!"  Then went on to tell him how wonderful it was reading Jane Eyre in the place where it was written.

You can almost imagine the gods of Amazon screaming out in desperation, "No!  You didn't get a Kindle!  You got a Kobo!"