Pssst! Amazon Kindle to the entire publishing industry… Peek-A-Boo! Start praying.
Do I honestly think that the publishing industry will NOT be Apple’d by Amazon on pricing and a rock solid customer base by the end of this year?
Nah, the Publishing Community should have stopped the infighting and backed some other connected eInk device a year ago. Even the Sony does not have a wireless delivery system (A serious mistake on it’s part.) and the typical customer is not about converting files or playing with various DRM schemes. I think the recent bad business between Overdrive and Fictionwise shows a DRM based failure that people are still digesting which will lead them to the Amazon Kindle even more.
Forget all that, this is about customer convenience and instant gratification and at this point publishers should just grab the wave and hope you don’t get screwed because this train has left the station and unlike it’s detractors Amazon is not having to find, create, or sell a new gadget to the masses (Yeah, like any company can do that in 2009.) but it is simply sitting back gaining more customers and more press every day, every hour, every minute, every second you are not. So your choices as of now are either to make yourself available on the Kindle or to be a future bankruptcy headline in the making.
So going over to the Teddypig Top Recommended ePubs for readers and writers list let’s show who is currently available on the Amazon Kindle Whispernet and who is not. Oh and to see which authors are doing well on the Kindle for their ePubs click the boxes.
Tags: Kindle
Louise van Hine wrote,
I think you hit the nail on the head. The wireless delivery, plus the USB connection, makes the platform completely usable under all circumstances. I’ve had one for the past 8 months or so, and I can definitely see it causing the complete takeover of print publishing within a short time. It’s the equivalent of the VHS standard and unfortunately Sony is the Betamax.
Link | January 16th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
Yeah, I am not saying Amazon is the end all be all. But… with the economy and the publishing losses this year I think we can start putting a fork in this one. Looks like the Amazon Kindle is gonna be the eBook Reader/Content Delivery Service Standard to contend with for years to come.
Link | January 16th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
BevQB wrote,
TP and Louise, I both agree and disagree with you. I think that RIGHT NOW no one can touch the Kindle. However, rather than a betamax vs. VHS analogy, I think it will eventually become an Apple vs. Microsoft analogy- Apple was first, Apple is easiest, but it is Microsoft that dominates the market.
I base this on the fact that ePub is quickly becoming the standard format for ebooks- for everyone but Kindle. All that remains is for someone to break that techno-barrier and offer a device that is sold at Walmart, Kmart, etc that includes wi-fi and supports multiple formats, with ePub being its native format. I doubt if we’ll see any DRM’d formats supported, but if the DRM hearings produce any positive results, I think that a mass-market, technotard friendly device will soon follow and the Kindle will be the also-ran in the eReader wars- supported with fondness by some, as Apple is, but for all practical purposes it will no longer rule the eReader world.
Link | January 16th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
You are thinking in terms of DRM. What if you as a customer simply never sees the DRM again?
Sony has to worry about which DRM you use. Fictionwise has to worry about which DRM you use. Every other eBook Reader out there has to worry about which DRM you use.
With the Amazon Kindle customers, much like iTunes customers now, they already have a Kindle or an iPod or iPhone and are looking at things in terms of Services or Content available not what DRM it is in. They have nothing to do with DRM anymore. They do not care, they do not have to, then the battle is over because they are purchasing the entire Content of their Kindle from Amazon.
Variety of Content and Content Services available becomes the draw.
So honestly even if Sony turned around tomorrow and tried to engineer the same type of connection to their eBook store they still would not have the complete variety of Content Services and Content Amazon is providing on the Kindle. Now the purchase of Mobipocket becomes understandable.
The point is much like Publishers have been accused of making Writers into Content Providers, Kindle is now making Publishers into Content Providers. No more hardcover versus softcover prices or shelf location. Is your Content or News Service worth the price?
Now that answer is gonna make or break a lot of Publishers coming up here.
The only potential big name that could possibly compete with Amazon is Apple. They have chosen to stay away from eBooks and would have to do a lot of catch up besides providing a more reasonable gadget to read on.
That is the double blow at the moment. No one company has a wireless eInk device and Amazon’s access to Content in 2009.
Link | January 16th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
BevQB wrote,
No, I completely agree that the main benefit to the Kindle is that a reader need know very little about technology or how the Kindle works. Right now, anyone doing even the most rudimentary research before buying an eReader is going to see all the hoops that you have to jump through to get an ebook on all the eReaders EXCEPT the Kindle and won’t hesitate (assuming price is not a problem) to buy it instead of the ones that require tech-knowledge, particularly in light of the small price differences between the eReaders.
The only reason I mentioned DRM is because I think that getting rid of it will open the door for that Holy Grail of eReaders- low priced, easy to use, and sold at Walmart. And since, outside of Kindle, the format wars are all but over, this Holy Grail eReader will not suffer from technogeeks cautioning against it and confusing all the techno-challenged.
The choice will be clear- pay $359-$399 for the Kindle and then buy books only from Amazon. Or pay, let’s say $199, for the Holy Grail eReader and buy your books from anywhere. That’s where the Apple vs. Microsoft analogy becomes clear. Unfortunately that whole scenario only comes true if someone steps up to the plate and manufactures that Holy Grail $199 (or less) eReader.
But I think that, with the popularity of iPhone and iTouch, there’s going to be a good sized group of ebook readers that want to buy their ebooks in formats that can be read on multiple devices and that automatically eliminates the Kindle from attracting that share of the market. Add in all the early adapters who have extensive existing ebook libraries in various formats and I still think, even taking into account that some formats can be emailed to the Kindle, that the potential is there for a Holy Grail eReader to dominate the market as Microsoft did with PCs.
Link | January 16th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
Honestly Bev,
I think the whole DRM battle and the whole lack of support given to any single device or software eBook reader by the Publishing Community means that Amazon is gonna call the shots on this one. As I said they should have thought about all this back when Amazon bought Mobipocket. That was the giveaway it seems that suddenly made a seller into a service and all they had to do was add on a cheap gadget for them to make to tie it all together.
I swear Amazon is making huge bucks right now on the Kindle. Nothing in that thing is worth the price margins they are asking. So what I think is anyone else coming into the market to try and ask for that price so they too can start up and compete and all Amazon will have to do is drop their price so far down and slaughter them before there is even a chance of competition.
Then again, it is 2009. No one has the money to try and take a chance on selling a “Holy Grail” eBook Reader in this economy. The Publishers did not do it when they had the chance. So…
Link | January 16th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Louise van Hine wrote,
er…
if I could only buy my ebooks from Amazon I wouldn’t own a Kindle. I buy my books from anywhere, because everyone supports the Mobipocket format. The Kindle also reads .pdf format. And .pdf is about as universal as it gets.
Link | January 16th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
I agree.
See the typical user did not have to know all that and with the Kindle they can click and buy anywhere they are to their hearts content without ever having to know all that. To sell any new product or technology these days you have to have a killer app and that is the killer app.
Link | January 16th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
BevQB wrote,
Not having a Kindle of my own, you’ve got my curiosity up– Do those books purchased from other places automatically download to your Kindle? I believe I read somewhere that PDFs have to be emailed to the Kindle, but I’ve never heard anyone say whether they’re wonky looking. I mean PDFs are notorious for looking wonky when resized. Also, does the Kindle handle these non-native formats as well as it does its own– does it remember where you left off reading and allow you to add text notes, highlighting, etc. on these non-native format books?
Oh, and TP, you are SO right about Amazon being able to crush any and all competition through pricing. And it scares the hell outta me because, once they’ve crushed the competition, they can then set their prices anywhere they want when they’re the only game in town. They already control the audio book market through Audible and Brilliance Audio. So far, things have gone well there, but I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop. There’s just so much potential for Amazon to become a tyrant.
Link | January 16th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
No what is scarier is Borders going bust. This means more and more the Publishers either go to Walmart or Target or Costco to sell their books and you can not tell me those places are not worse than Amazon. Oh and Books-A-Million just makes me ill. I mean what a crappy store.
Link | January 16th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Louise van Hine wrote,
@Bev if the e-book outlet sends something via an email address to you, you can specify your Kindle email address – every kindle has one. If it doesn’t, and you are downloading to your computer, then you can select the format you want (Kindle and Mobipocket are formatted natively for the Kindle) you can transfer it from your computer via USB cable, or by sending it to yourself via email to your Kindle email address. That would be the same method as getting the file to any other e-device, however.
As far as PDFs go, it depends on how the PDF is formatted. I have read some PDFs that I had to resize the font on because it came over too big. But one of the lovely features of the Kindle is it has a resize text button. This also helps for people with eyestrain, or those who need “large print” editions. You can make your own “large print book” with the click of a button.
Link | January 16th, 2009 at 7:03 pm