We told you: Don’t cheat in our poll on how many devices you used to read e-books. I hate DRM-imposed gizmo limits. But I didn’t want anything fudged to serve a cause, however notable. 152 of you answered, and you appear to have been truthful, just as I wanted. So what our results as of this writing, since we began the poll Friday morning at the suggestion of Michael Harris?
88 percent within Mobipocket.com’s four-device limit
In other words, Mobipocket.com of four devices would not get in the way of 88 percent of the respondents if device limits were the only variable to worry about. Since this is TeleRead.org, I suspect that the percentage in the general population would be even higher, maybe even in the mid 90s. Meanwhile, in fairness to Adobe‘s Digital Editions, keep in mind that device limit is six, in which case 98 percent would be within that number.
Major caveats
That said, some important caveats exist. Some people answered while forgetting to account for all their devices, and, of course, keep in mind other hassles of DRM, such as the fact you can’t even read Kindle-format bestsellers on your PC, or that Microsoft Reader (device limit of eight with a Passport account) is Windows-centric. What’s more, new technology could deprive you of future access to your purchases. So, yes, plenty of reasons still exist to dislike DRM, which I suspect will just incur more user wrath as people come up against device limits. Meanwhile, if nothing else, DRM penalizes e-book novices from the start by increasing the risk that they will buy the wrong kind of book for the software they’re running.
About that 102 percent: The percentage add up to 102. I’m assuming that’s because of a minor math glitch—crude rounding?—in the WordPress polling plug-we used. It should not affect the general results.
Image: CC-licensed photo from JBonnain.
I often ran foul of Microsoft Reader’s device limit, despite only ever having 1 PDA and 1 PC activated. The software kept deciding it needed to be reactivated. I don’t know about Mobipocket, but anything that tries to detect a device uniquely is bound to fail and cause false lockouts, even if you are under their limits!