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Comment by moskie | Hacker News Reader

Is there a hope that with more (successfully) competing e-book vendors, more DRM-free books will be in the works? As a Kindle owner, the biggest thing preventing me from considering buying a Google books based device would be the fact that I couldn't read the books I previously purchased through Amazon on it.

Is there any hope that DRM'ed e-books will have a similar trajectory as MP3s did?

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I have thought about this as well, and I hope (and think) there will be. The Kindle DRM wasn't a problem initially, because it was one of the first widely sold e-readers with a huge company backing it. however, as more devices come out that can compete with the quality of the Kindle, a change will need to happen.

I was about to type "No one will buy Amazon e-books without a Kindle, and no one will buy a Kindle if they can't read the books elsewhere", but I'm backstepping. The current Kindle business model reminds me of Apple/iTunes, something that makes me shudder. If they can still make enough money off DRM content, then maybe the incentive to make it open is small.

And the problem with saying "No one will buy Amazon e-books without a Kindle, and no one will buy a Kindle if they can't read the books elsewhere," is that it's already untrue. With the Kindle app on iOS and Android devices, plenty of people are doing just that. Don't really have numbers to back that up, though...

So another option came to mind: E-readers that can run apps. Apps like Kindle, or Google Books. That might just be wishful thinking, though.

The Nook 2nd Edition is apparently really easy to root and install apps on: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1138564

Right, that's true, but I was thinking just of e-ink devices. It's a tough sell, though, since e-ink devices are really only good for reading, so there might not be much incentive for creating an open e-ink device that can run 3rd party apps.

Amazon has started to allow 3rd party apps on the Kindle, but I don't think it's been very effective or popular, and I don't expect a Google Books app on there any time soon.

The N2E is an e-ink device :)

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/index.asp?PID=35699

I agree on the openness. I don't get the impression that many manufacturers are interested in an e-ink Android device though- B&N and Notion Ink are basically the only ones, IIRC.

yeah, you're right, you're not locked to the one _device_, just the one e-reader.

e-readers with apps would solve the problem, but I think that blurs the arena with tablets. a tablet with the Kindle app isn't really different than a Kindle with Angry Birds, right?

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