Comments on: 1-Click: Amazon Buys Lexcycle, Creators of Stanza

By: Dylan

Dylan — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:58:15 +0000

Hmmmm… I’m begining to feel like Amazon has the midas’ touch of ebooks — if midas’ touch was the swine flu instead of gold.

Yes, I may be biased—but only because I enjoy my eBooks and every time I turn around amazon is doing something to undercut my reading experience.

Their product is shoddy at best, and instead of improving it they have a pattern of monopolizing the business and killing technology that does work. I only hope they don’t do this with Stanza….

The thing I like about Stanza as is is the availability to purchase from a large amount of retailers–if one iphone store doesn’t have my book, another does. Comparitive shopping–it’s that simple.

In addition, some retailers have really stepped up the reading experience. Take for example BooksOnBoard ( it’s listed on the top spot in Stanza catalog).

BooksOnBoard has developed a QikClik technology that takes 3 clicks from selection to download, so I don’t have to go through the huge hassle of most retailers (including Amazon) which made me hesitant on ereading in early on.

With Amazon taking over Lexcycle what will happen to technological advances like this? Will we be left with the same old Kindle problems ? will all the good advances be swept under the rug in order for Amazon to stay on top?

Personally, I just want my reading experience to keep improving. There are still alot of bugs that need to be worked out to make it simpler, but I’m afraid that if Amazon keeps aquiring rather than making advances –the readers will be the ones left with the short end of the stick

By: Rick Lobrecht

Rick Lobrecht — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:13:24 +0000

This acquisition probably comes with a technology agreement with eReader – Barnes & Noble now. Maybe Amazon wants to be able to one up any upcoming hardware reader that B&N would come out with, by allowing the Kindle to read the competing format.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 03:11:16 +0000

I’m pretty sure Amazon figured it was easier to buy Stanza and make it their Kindle app than to put the programming effort into adding all of the features that are lacking from the current Kindle app. I suspect that either the current Kindle app will soon disappear in favor of Stanza, or Amazon will borrow a bunch of code from Stanza to upgrade the Kindle app’s features. There are probably some other benefits for Amazon, but that seems like the most obvious.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 01:24:23 +0000

Agree with JK — it’s a move to eliminate a competitor and maybe gain some IP or excellent employees to join the Amazon team.

By: James Kendrick

James Kendrick — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 21:16:56 +0000

This is a bizarre acquisition in my book. This gives Amazon the two biggest ebook programs on any handheld platform. My suspicion is that Amazon will eventually shut Stanza down completely and get rid of it. It removes a big competitor for selling content, Fictionwise/ eReader on the iPhone platform.