There’s a certain segment of folks that think Amazon is on a crusade to lock down Kindles and remove all features that are related to non-Amazon books, and make it so all purchased Kindle ebooks are forever tied to Amazon until death, at which time they’re supposed to disappear into the unknown with their license owners.
Considering all the things that Amazon has done to anger Kindle users over the years, it isn’t surprising that some would come to that conclusion. However, maybe things aren’t what they seem on the surface.
Perhaps some of it can be chalked up to good old fashioned penny-pinching and short-sightedness. The people calling the shots at the top probably don’t consider the effect that some of their decisions will cause down the line.
D&T Removal
A lot of people have been critical of Amazon since they removed the ability to download ebooks from their website to transfer to Kindles via USB. Some see this as a clear sign that Amazon intends to close off all avenues to get Kindle ebooks out of their ecosystem, even though there are currently 3 other ways to obtain purchased Kindle ebooks for backup and transfer.
What if Amazon decided to get rid of D&T for other reasons? First off, it’s a feature that dates back more than 15 years going back to the beginning of Kindles when internet connectivity wasn’t as widespread as it is today.
There’s also the fact that D&T has only ever offered Amazon’s older ebook formats. Amazon has been using their newer KFX format since at least 2015, yet they’ve continued offering older formats through D&T since then. All of Amazon’s current apps and devices moved on to KFX years ago. The fact they never updated D&T to use KFX just shows that it was only ever intended for older Kindles.
Look at it from a bean counter’s point of view. In this kind of situation they’d likely advocate for getting rid of an older system that few people rely on nowadays instead of sinking time and money into it to modernize it for a newer format and newer Kindles, while simultaneously supporting older Kindles that don’t support KFX format.
Unbroken DRM?
One thing I find puzzling about the whole DRM equation with Amazon is the fact that they have a version of KFX with DRM that can’t be broken, or at least it hasn’t been broken to date, and yet Amazon only chooses to use that on certain books (some textbooks, for example).
If Amazon has a version of KFX DRM that can’t be broken, why aren’t they using that on all of their ebooks if they want to lock things down even more?
Kindle Jailbreak Still Allowed
It’s been almost 3 months since the Winterbreak Jailbreak was released that works on all current Kindles and most older ones, and yet Amazon still hasn’t issued a software update to close the hole that makes that jailbreak possible. I’m sure Amazon will issue a “security” fix eventually, but they’re clearly not putting much effort into it.
Conclusion
Amazon has a history of doing some questionable things when it comes to Kindles and Kindle ebooks, but I don’t know if it all can be attributed to an effort to lock Kindles down. Their efforts to lock things down seem half-assed at best. Maybe some of it is simply a natural cycle of change based on financial decisions that aren’t always in favor of customers.
After all, Amazon has never been afraid of ticking people off in the name of higher profits. Their software division doesn’t seem to pay much attention to Kindles these days, and they’re likely doing everything they can to minimize costs on the Kindle front.
