PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
As the e-reader market emerges in to the public eye, the sector stands divided in to two schools of thought regarding digital rights.
On the one hand, devices such as the Kindle closely follow the closed format model that has made Apple such a success in the digital media player sector, while others, like the BeBook or Sony’s Reader favour an open system that plays any file-type.
“There’ll be two schools of thought – the open and the closed formats,” predicted Sony’s head of Networked Communications, Anthony Brown in an interview with PCR.
“Having an open format is the key, because consumers like choice, and if you’re locked to a format or a store or portal, if you’re not giving the consumer that choice, then there’s going to be a problem.”
Andy Gordon, managing director of e-tailer Advanced MP3 agreed with this sentiment: “If – like MP3 players – they become constrained by file types, they just become a pain in the arse, for want of a better term. It really needs to be as simple and as easy as it can be made.”
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