> couldn't Hatchet just pull out of selling ebooks through Amazon and roll their own and/or start an distribution platform for ebooks structured like Hulu?
Sure, just like, any one of the computer manufacturers that Microsoft was pressuring in the 1990s could have just pulled out of selling computers with Windows and rolled their own OS.
> If the rest of the big 6 publishers got on board that would be pretty catastrophic for Amazon
OTOH, if the rest of the big 6 didn't, it would be catastrophic for Hachette.
"Sure, just like, any one of the computer manufacturers that Microsoft was pressuring in the 1990s could have just pulled out of selling computers with Windows and rolled their own OS."
Setting up an independent ebook sales portal isn't as hard as writing a new operating system and getting it adopted. Not by many orders of magnitude.
> Setting up an independent ebook sales portal isn't as hard as writing a new operating system
I'm sure some PC vendors like HP could probably have figured out how to put together an OS -- because many of them did. effectively marketing a consumer OS in the market Microsfot had dominated, and where all the app development was focussed on windows, OTOH...
No. Getting a user to adopt a new OS requires convincing him to format the drive (or create a partition), download a gig of data, then go through an hour or two of installation and configuration, then go through weeks to months of learning how to use the new OS.
Getting a user to set up his Kindle to read books from your indy store requires that he enter the Kindle's email address on your site, and your site's email address on the Kindle.
Sure, just like, any one of the computer manufacturers that Microsoft was pressuring in the 1990s could have just pulled out of selling computers with Windows and rolled their own OS.
> If the rest of the big 6 publishers got on board that would be pretty catastrophic for Amazon
OTOH, if the rest of the big 6 didn't, it would be catastrophic for Hachette.