I was just reading a DBW article on the new partnership between Microsoft and Barnes & Noble. This does not affect me directly as the Nook reader is not available in Canada.
What it does remind me is the fractured and inappropriately so eReader market. No one will own all the eReaders so it is necessary to remove DRM from eBooks to make them device agnostic. Competition should properly be only on the level of the books themselves, not as it is presently. If one prefers a certain eReader over others, that seems a sensible level of competition - but the eBooks themselves should not be restricted to a single device.
Writers will overcome this to some extent by preparing their work in several formats - I've heard good things about Smashwords in that regard.
But, for now it is still the Wild West in cyberspace for writers and readers and the Marshall has yet to ride into town....or perhaps a better metaphor would be Prince John has yet to be humbled by the barons at Runnymede.
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