There’s a sure phase of oldsters that suppose Amazon is on a campaign to lock down Kindles and take away all options which are associated to non-Amazon books, and make it so all bought Kindle ebooks are endlessly tied to Amazon till loss of life, at which era they’re imagined to disappear into the unknown with their license house owners.
Contemplating all of the issues that Amazon has performed to anger Kindle customers through the years, it isn’t shocking that some would come to that conclusion. Nonetheless, perhaps issues aren’t what they appear on the floor.
Maybe a few of it may be chalked as much as good quaint penny-pinching and short-sightedness. The individuals calling the photographs on the prime in all probability don’t contemplate the impact that a few of their choices will trigger down the road.
D&T Elimination
Lots of people have been crucial of Amazon since they eliminated the flexibility to obtain ebooks from their web site to switch to Kindles through USB. Some see this as a transparent signal that Amazon intends to shut off all avenues to get Kindle ebooks out of their ecosystem, regardless that there are presently 3 different methods to acquire bought Kindle ebooks for backup and switch.
What if Amazon determined to eliminate D&T for different causes? First off, it’s a characteristic that dates again greater than 15 years going again to the start of Kindles when web connectivity wasn’t as widespread as it’s at this time.
There’s additionally the truth that D&T has solely ever provided Amazon’s older e-book codecs. Amazon has been utilizing their newer KFX format since no less than 2015, but they’ve continued providing older codecs via D&T since then. All of Amazon’s present apps and units moved on to KFX years in the past. The very fact they by no means up to date D&T to make use of KFX simply exhibits that it was solely ever meant for older Kindles.
Take a look at it from a bean counter’s perspective. In this type of state of affairs they’d doubtless advocate for eliminating an older system that few individuals depend on these days as a substitute of sinking money and time into it to modernize it for a more recent format and newer Kindles, whereas concurrently supporting older Kindles that don’t help KFX format.
Unbroken DRM?
One factor I discover puzzling about the entire DRM equation with Amazon is the truth that they’ve a model of KFX with DRM that may’t be damaged, or no less than it hasn’t been damaged thus far, and but Amazon solely chooses to make use of that on sure books (some textbooks, for instance).
If Amazon has a model of KFX DRM that may’t be damaged, why aren’t they utilizing that on all of their ebooks in the event that they need to lock issues down much more?
Kindle Jailbreak Nonetheless Allowed
It’s been nearly 3 months for the reason that Winterbreak Jailbreak was launched that works on all present Kindles and most older ones, and but Amazon nonetheless hasn’t issued a software program replace to shut the opening that makes that jailbreak attainable. I’m certain Amazon will concern a “safety” repair ultimately, however they’re clearly not placing a lot effort into it.
Conclusion
Amazon has a historical past of doing a little questionable issues in the case of Kindles and Kindle ebooks, however I don’t know if all of it might be attributed to an effort to lock Kindles down. Their efforts to lock issues down appear half-assed at greatest. Perhaps a few of it’s merely a pure cycle of change based mostly on monetary choices that aren’t all the time in favor of shoppers.
In spite of everything, Amazon has by no means been afraid of ticking individuals off within the identify of upper earnings. Their software program division doesn’t appear to pay a lot consideration to Kindles today, and so they’re doubtless doing every little thing they will to reduce prices on the Kindle entrance.
