By Narayan Saimbi
If I were to ask you to name any brand of e-reader, the Amazon Kindle would likely be the first device that comes to mind.
Launching in 2007, with its iconic e-ink display, the Amazon Kindle was the premier device in bringing e-reading to the mainstream. For the first time, you could have a whole library of books in the palm of your hand- this concept was further realised by the introduction of a subscription service for unlimited books through the Kindle Store. The Kindle was so premier, in fact, that Amazon still holds a dominant position in the e-reader market, with an estimated 72% of the market share.
Of course, the Kindle has had its fair share of controversies over the years. Between the removal of George Orwell’s dystopian classic 1984 in 2009, and its controversial return policy negatively affecting independent authors in 2022, Amazon has not exactly been free from criticism on its policies surrounding its e-reading product.
However, as of late, there has been a whole new wave of criticism that’s been thrown Amazon’s way, with a specific focus on a reduction of consumer ownership concerning books purchased on the Kindle store. In February 2025, Amazon announced that Kindle users could no longer download their e-books to their computer via USB. Whilst e-books could still be downloaded over Wifi to the Kindle app and Wifi-enabled Kindle devices, this change essentially removed the ability for users to backup their Kindle e-books on another device, and have them available as physical files. What this signified was that any purchase of an e-book on the Kindle store could no longer be backed up externally by the user, keeping users locked in the Amazon ecosystem and reducing the physical ownership of the purchased media.
The decision to remove this aspect of physical ownership in purchasing a book on the Kindle store was criticised online, with mainstream outlets such as The Verge commenting on the decision.
However, across YouTube and wider corners of the internet, the anti-Amazon sentiment grew significantly larger than simply bashing the company for its policy changes. Users instead began searching for methods to remove Amazon’s control and influence over their devices, via methods such as ‘jailbreaking’.
Of course, I cannot legally condone breaking the terms and services, and potential warranty on an Amazon-branded device. However, this does seem to represent a growing resistance to these cloud- centred systems that have been slowly adopted by almost all forms of media entertainment.
Whether it’s Xbox’s Game Pass for video games, Netflix for TV shows, Spotify for music and now the Amazon Kindle for e-books, there appears to be a growing distaste for both cloud streaming and “buy-to-license” business models across the internet. Pockets of resistance that promote physical ownership of media are present, and are growing continuously every day. Whilst these desires for physical media could simply be a trend, they could equally represent a collective outcry against the idea that consumers can only obtain a license for what they buy in the place of actual ownership- a license, may I add, that major corporations can take away at any given moment.
Over the years, there have been more e-readers that have entered the market- one of these is the Kobo. Unlike the Kindle, the Kobo offers a more open-source approach, such as permitting file sharing between users, and granting users the ability to read books from public libraries. In my opinion, if you want an e-reader that allows you to back up your e-books, share them with others and give the user more control of the media they buy, the Kobo is the better device of choice- the file sharing and open-source features really put the ‘books in your hands’, so to speak.
Regardless of which e-reader you choose, I think it’s important to keep this sentiment of physical ownership in your mind. In a world where even the most simple things are getting more and more costly every day, the choice to spend money on something that can be taken away in a second makes less and less sense with each passing day.
A device that was once revolutionised e-reading, and put convenience in the customers’ back pocket, the Kindle has become its own worst enemy. In a world where an increasing amount of people want to physically own their media again. Amazon just doesn’t seem to be getting that.
Whether this is just a phase, or a sign of a future to come, it’s clear that big corporations are slowly creating a world where we should own nothing and be happy. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a pretty bleak world to me.
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