A few brief thoughts upon the announcement of Amazon's Kindle ebook reader:
- Given that even my most skeptical friends have literally been desperate for ebooks for years now, there's definitely demand for such a device -- the question is whether all the pieces are in place, and whether regular people agree with us geeks.
- The choice of EVDO over wifi is very telling. I travel a lot, so I'm keenly aware of exactly how far wifi has to go to become really ubiquitous. And even the many places that wifi is available are tangled up an a complicated set of different payment and access schemes. Bundling access through an EVDO network that "feels" free is one of the most interesting parts of the announcement. Odd that they branded the network as "Whispernet", unless of course they plan to use it for other things in the future.
- I don't think they should be charging for blogs that are distributed to Kindle users. Obviously, I have a dog in this fight, since I've wanted a dedicated blog reading-device for years, but I don't even think it's got the potential to be a great business for blog publishers. Having blog content be free would be the perfect gateway drug to Kindle usage.
- I was really unsettled by the specificity of Robert Scoble's April Fool's joke about such a device, since it ended up being very accurate. On the other hand, I know that there are bloggers who've known about the Kindle, in one form or another, for a year or so.
- The 10-minute video extolling the Kindle featuring Jeff Bezos and a dozen best-selling authors is perhaps the most visible evidence of just how much Amazon dominates the book distribution industry.
- The videos promoting Kindle also show that, though he might not have Steve Jobs' showmanship, Bezos seems to be perhaps the most articulate CEO of any of the big technology companies when it comes to explaining the benefits of his own products.
- They should kick-start the market by giving these out as free Wikipedia devices to schools. One per classroom.
- Distributing books through Whispernet and controlling their sale dodges a lot of the more obvious blowback that they'd get about DRM and monopolistic sales channels if they'd have chosen to use a desktop app like the iTunes store does. Smart, or lucky?
- Does the fact that books or other content have to be converted to MOBI format mean that they're eliminating the potential for Long Tail revenues from Kindle users? They say they've got 100 out of 112 best-sellers supported already, but isn't the killer app the books that aren't NY Times best-sellers?
- A five-thousand word cover story in Newsweek entitled "The Future of Reading"? That's perhaps the most impressive PR coup for a hardware device that I've ever seen. The story is pretty good, but even the iPhone wasn't greeted with that kind of reception. ("The Future of Talking"?)
- I love reading on my iPod Touch, and indeed, it's a better reading device than it is an iPod. It's a little too small to really curl up with, as one does with a book, but when I showed it to an acquaintance in the book publishing industry a few weeks ago, she understood how I could say it was a lot closer to the "right" ebook experience than anything that's been foisted on us in the past. It'll be interesting to see if Kindle continues that trend.
Update: D'oh! I forgot two of the main points I wanted to make:
- I should be able to get a Kindle client for my laptop, and then if I buy a book every other week, I get free EVDO access. Maybe I'd have to pay for a card, but Whispernet is a great service.
- Amazon Prime members should get a Kindle for free. Make that program actually offer some tangible benefits to members. And again, free Whispernet for Prime members would be killer.
back when they were trying to sign up bloggers in the spring, i had an opportunity to play with the device for about fifteen minutes. the screen is surprisingly crisp. however, the form factor felt clunky-- to me, it still felt a generation or three away from fully baked.
ebooks with wikipedia on it for every student. That is the most innovative thought I have heard in a while. Talk about revolutionizing education.
I hope they are itouch's too.
Makes me wonder when this country will be ready for that?
Did Guy really say, ""No brainer" twice? The video reminds me of late night advertorials, whish is disgusting since the promoters are not some schmoes off the street. In fact, they are the people that have the most to loose (or perceive they do) if anything like file sharing comes to ebooks; they can't seem to get enough of the DRM.
Content may make this the leader as far as books are concerned (Simply b/c of Amazon's strong ties to that industry), but for the other content this seems ridiculous and targeted at those folks that use Jitterbug for cell phone service.
Why do people keep saying that the connectivity service is baked into the original price? It is not, that is why blogs cost $0.99 (RSS versions anyway). It is ridiculous. I don't read enough books not worthy of hard copy purchase, period.
At $400 it competes heavily with OLPC and even the noted laptop Dell began offering today. I realize Bezos designed this with content producers in mind as much as consumers, but this goes completely overboard.
I don't think it seems well thought out as a product. A browser? But then portrayed as single-purpose and intimate? I guess having 3G made them feel compelled to do more with the connectivity.
I think the missing 'app' on this device is a newspaper subscription.
If you subscribed to a newspapers kindle version, it would download the mornings paper to your kindle overnight (or a set time in the morning). then you have the mornings paper on your kindle on the underground/bus. It would break the device free of the 'book' world into the information world.
Imagine a kindle version of cosmopolitan?
My only disagreement with this post is tangential: for those of us living outside of major urban areas, Amazon Prime places vast amounts of stuff in our hands in a two-day turnaround. I usually can't get to Borders or B&N that fast, and when I do, they don't have what I'm looking for... plus I do a lot of general shopping on Amazon anyway. When I think about the times I have either added something to a purchase to get free shipping (please, no comments about how irrational that is) or waited to buy something or paid the postage and grumbled -- well, it pays for itself. For example, the difference between getting white-box digital optical and HDMI cables from Amazon (and not having to wait a week) versus buying them from Best Buy covered my half of Prime right there.
Anyway, your points about Kindle are spot on.
Doh! Sorry, there is a newspaper subscription and I missed that...
Well, speaking of wifi and EVDO... so who should Google buy, Sprint or Skype? (or both?)
I agree with others above that OLPC is a much better wikipedia-carrier.
(Which doesn't mean it's not a good *promotional* idea for Amazon to give Kindles to schools.)
Hmm, maybe they need a Kindle client app for OLPC!
This device seems designed to make the needs of the store come first and the user second or third. Jobs claimed the average ipod has less than 10% itunes paid content, whereas Kindle it seems they want to do everything possible to make it the reverse, which is why they are filtering/charging for blogs and it can't read the billions of existing PDFs. Amazon has convinced the music industry to give up DRM with its mp3 store, yet they couldn't convince the book industry?