I’ve seen more than a few format wars. Now I’m watching another one coming at the burgeoning category of e-readers and it astonishes me that businesses still have trouble learning a basic precept: Listen to your customer. Customers want simplicity, and a clear path to upgrades, and the comfort that they are not buying into a dead-end technology.

It’s not hard, is it? So why can’t businesses get it right? They have their own history to instruct them. Back at the dawn of the home video era, early adopters had a choice between Beta and VHS tapes. According to the technically adept early adopters, the Beta format was “better” in terms of picture and mechanical design. But it was limited to just one hour (which was later extended) and machines to play it were available only from Sony. Sound familiar? In contrast, the VHS format was widely available, from competing electronic companies, which led to lower prices. Sony eventually saw the light and licensed its format to other companies, but by then it was too late. Beta died, leaving VHS as the sole consumer home video format.

When I started at CBS/Fox Video in the mid 1980s, we had to maintain duplicate inventory to ensure that consumers could rent or buy our movies regardless of their home video machines. The Beta and VHS tape cartridges were different sizes, meaning they couldn’t easily be stacked and mixed and shipped together. (Though the difference in size did help consumers distinguish between them at stores.)

At the dawn of the DVD era in the mid 1990s, we almost faced another format war. Two incompatible CD-sized video discs were being pitched by two different consortia of electronics companies. Each consortium was lusting after the patent royalties that would flow if their format won. This time around, cooler heads prevailed. The two formats were massaged together, royalty payments were negotiated, and the DVD was introduced as the next easy step for consumers trading up from their VHS machines. Improved sound and picture, and no worries about buying the wrong format. The DVD took off, bringing billions of dollars into the business. Why? Customers won out.

With HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray consumers are faced with new formats that appear to be identical not only to each other, but also to the “classic” DVD. Despite hefty marketing campaigns, neither format is taking off. Consumers were confused and sat this one out. By the time the HD-DVD camp threw in the towel, consumers were seriously looking to the internet as their next “format”; another format war had caused the loss of untold millions (billions?) this time around.

With these brilliant business decisions to guide them, what are the book publishers doing? What are the makers and marketers of eBook readers doing? They’re not listening to their customers, are they?

Sure, they’re doing some listening, as the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader attempt to compete on features (though I’m waiting for the waterproof eBook to take to the beach). But if you buy eBooks from Amazon’s Kindle store, you can’t read them on the Sony Reader. And then there’s the Barnes & Noble Nook. And all the other electronic gizmos coming along to help you read your eBooks. Some formats you can read on your iPhone, some you can’t. If, after a year, you decide that some other gizmo has leapfrogged your Kindle, your eBooks can’t make the transition.

From a consumer point-of-view, this is ridiculous. From the publishers’ perspective, it’s just as bad. They have the task of converting their books into numerous eBook formats, which entails extra costs at a time they’re trying to cut costs. Yes, the quest is underway for universal formats, but that won’t help the poor buyer of a Kindle who’s locked into a particular format.

Will this be like Beta vs VHS, with winners and losers? Or will it be more like HD-DVD vs Blu-ray, wherein the whole industry took a dive? The answer is easy and early enough to attend to. Listen to the customers. Give them what they want (within reason, of course). Make things simple for the consumer or they will make things unfortunately simple for the companies involved.

Ken Horowitz is a former senior executive at New Line, Fox and other home entertainment companies and CEO of PoleStar Partners