Electronista: “Where the Kindle will truly hurt, however, is software. By the nature of the screen, Amazon virtually has to make its device single-purpose: e-paper doesn’t work for much else beyond text. … It should also be noted that Apple is paradoxically the most open here. It’s using EPUB, a format that’s shared by the Nook, QUE, Sony Reader and other devices. Amazon’s Kindle format doesn’t require copy protection, but it’s only ever useful within hardware and software Amazon makes.”
NYT: Three Reasons Why the iPad WILL Kill Amazon’s Kindle
“If you look at the way many of us consume content online, it’s shifting from just reading words to consuming multimedia. We view images, watch videos and add our own commentary to the content we ingest. … The Kindle’s technology isn’t evolving fast enough. … The Kindle is too expensive for a single-purpose device.”
TC: “The best plan for Amazon isn’t to try to buy customers or try to match Apple’s approach. Rather, they’ll need to re-think their consumer experience from start to finish. They’ve done a great job so far of digitizing books, but now if they want to compete with Steve Jobs’ inventiveness, they’ll have to step up to be a must-have device in consumers’ digital lives. Of course, they can also just surrender and continue to sell books through their existing iPhone app, which should be compatible with the iPad like all the other apps in the App Store.”
NYT: Three Reasons Why the iPad WON’T Kill Amazon’s Kindle
“Sure, the Kindle’s potential market may have shrunk today, since the two-books-a-year folks will now choose the more versatile iPad. But the Kindle (and other devices with E Ink screens) will continue to be the best device for lovers of long-form reading, period. (And they do love it; check the Kindle forums for the passion of Kindle owners.) The iPad’s backlit screen, higher price and more limited battery all make it a poorer choice for curling up with a novel. … A Kindle with color? With a Pixel Qi screen? A Kindle tablet to rival the iPad? One indication that Amazon plans to continue releasing new Kindles in the months and years ahead comes from the Web site of its design division, Lab126 … Amazon smartly separated its Kindle hardware division from its Kindle e-book store and has since released or announced Kindle apps for the iPhone, PC, Mac and BlackBerry. Despite the fact that many consumers will now choose an iPad over a Kindle, Amazon will likely undercut Apple on e-book prices.”
TC: “Will consumers prefer a multi-purpose entertainment tablet over a single-purpose reading device as their prices converge? This is a religious question; sides will be drawn. … Today, Kindle enjoys a price advantage over the iPad. It is nearly half the price, starting at $260 versus $500 for the iPad, although the cheapest Kindle DX with an equivalent 9.7 inch screen is $489. That is pretty close already. What happens when the price of iPad-like devices trend down to a point of consumer indifference? … Apple, Google and Microsoft have massive investments in their respective mobile platforms. In particular, Apple is king of the mobile mountain. As Jobs declared today, ‘Apple is now the largest mobile device company in the world’. … Amazon knows this. Last week they announced a developer API is coming. So the question remains how robust is the API and will the developer community bite, or is it game over?
NYT: “With Apple, under a formula that tethers the maximum e-book price to the print price on the same book, publishers will be able to charge $12.99 to $14.99 for most general fiction and nonfiction titles – higher than the common $9.99 price that Amazon had effectively set for new releases and best sellers. Apple will keep 30 percent of each sale, and publishers will take 70 percent. … In the short term, authors and publishers will most likely earn less from book sales on the iPad. On the Kindle, Amazon subsidizes the $9.99 price by paying publishers a higher wholesale price equivalent to what booksellers typically pay for print editions. But publishers were concerned that Amazon, as the dominant player, would eventually demand lower digital wholesale prices.”
RWW: “Apple’s largest advantage right now is that it’s the default e-book store on the iPad. The iPhone, however, has clearly shown that downloading a free app from the app store is something users are very comfortable with and Amazon and B&N have enough marketing power to spread the word about their apps.”
Gruber: “Apple now owns and controls their own mobile CPUs. There aren’t many companies in the world that can say that. And from what I saw today, Apple doesn’t just own and control a mobile CPU, they own and control the hands-down best mobile CPU in the world. Software aside (which is a huge thing to put aside), it may well be that no other company could make a device today matching the price, size, and performance of the iPad. They’re not getting into the CPU business for kicks, they’re getting into it to kick ass.“
[...] eReader for Nonreaders Carr: As a text delivery system, the iPad is perfectly suited to readers who do not read anymore; http://j.mp/aPHW0E [...]
Gerrit Eicker 10:14 on 28. January 2010 Permalink |
Electronista: “Where the Kindle will truly hurt, however, is software. By the nature of the screen, Amazon virtually has to make its device single-purpose: e-paper doesn’t work for much else beyond text. … It should also be noted that Apple is paradoxically the most open here. It’s using EPUB, a format that’s shared by the Nook, QUE, Sony Reader and other devices. Amazon’s Kindle format doesn’t require copy protection, but it’s only ever useful within hardware and software Amazon makes.”
NYT: Three Reasons Why the iPad WILL Kill Amazon’s Kindle
“If you look at the way many of us consume content online, it’s shifting from just reading words to consuming multimedia. We view images, watch videos and add our own commentary to the content we ingest. … The Kindle’s technology isn’t evolving fast enough. … The Kindle is too expensive for a single-purpose device.”
TC: “The best plan for Amazon isn’t to try to buy customers or try to match Apple’s approach. Rather, they’ll need to re-think their consumer experience from start to finish. They’ve done a great job so far of digitizing books, but now if they want to compete with Steve Jobs’ inventiveness, they’ll have to step up to be a must-have device in consumers’ digital lives. Of course, they can also just surrender and continue to sell books through their existing iPhone app, which should be compatible with the iPad like all the other apps in the App Store.”
NYT: Three Reasons Why the iPad WON’T Kill Amazon’s Kindle
“Sure, the Kindle’s potential market may have shrunk today, since the two-books-a-year folks will now choose the more versatile iPad. But the Kindle (and other devices with E Ink screens) will continue to be the best device for lovers of long-form reading, period. (And they do love it; check the Kindle forums for the passion of Kindle owners.) The iPad’s backlit screen, higher price and more limited battery all make it a poorer choice for curling up with a novel. … A Kindle with color? With a Pixel Qi screen? A Kindle tablet to rival the iPad? One indication that Amazon plans to continue releasing new Kindles in the months and years ahead comes from the Web site of its design division, Lab126 … Amazon smartly separated its Kindle hardware division from its Kindle e-book store and has since released or announced Kindle apps for the iPhone, PC, Mac and BlackBerry. Despite the fact that many consumers will now choose an iPad over a Kindle, Amazon will likely undercut Apple on e-book prices.”
TC: “Will consumers prefer a multi-purpose entertainment tablet over a single-purpose reading device as their prices converge? This is a religious question; sides will be drawn. … Today, Kindle enjoys a price advantage over the iPad. It is nearly half the price, starting at $260 versus $500 for the iPad, although the cheapest Kindle DX with an equivalent 9.7 inch screen is $489. That is pretty close already. What happens when the price of iPad-like devices trend down to a point of consumer indifference? … Apple, Google and Microsoft have massive investments in their respective mobile platforms. In particular, Apple is king of the mobile mountain. As Jobs declared today, ‘Apple is now the largest mobile device company in the world’. … Amazon knows this. Last week they announced a developer API is coming. So the question remains how robust is the API and will the developer community bite, or is it game over?
NYT: “With Apple, under a formula that tethers the maximum e-book price to the print price on the same book, publishers will be able to charge $12.99 to $14.99 for most general fiction and nonfiction titles – higher than the common $9.99 price that Amazon had effectively set for new releases and best sellers. Apple will keep 30 percent of each sale, and publishers will take 70 percent. … In the short term, authors and publishers will most likely earn less from book sales on the iPad. On the Kindle, Amazon subsidizes the $9.99 price by paying publishers a higher wholesale price equivalent to what booksellers typically pay for print editions. But publishers were concerned that Amazon, as the dominant player, would eventually demand lower digital wholesale prices.”
RWW: “Apple’s largest advantage right now is that it’s the default e-book store on the iPad. The iPhone, however, has clearly shown that downloading a free app from the app store is something users are very comfortable with and Amazon and B&N have enough marketing power to spread the word about their apps.”
Gruber: “Apple now owns and controls their own mobile CPUs. There aren’t many companies in the world that can say that. And from what I saw today, Apple doesn’t just own and control a mobile CPU, they own and control the hands-down best mobile CPU in the world. Software aside (which is a huge thing to put aside), it may well be that no other company could make a device today matching the price, size, and performance of the iPad. They’re not getting into the CPU business for kicks, they’re getting into it to kick ass.“
Media and the iPad « Wir sprechen Online. 07:56 on 29. January 2010 Permalink |
[...] News values of the coming iPad overwhelmed social and old media, a collage of shame in journalism: http://j.mp/8XT1Mh [...]
eReaders Comparison « Wir sprechen Online. 08:52 on 1. February 2010 Permalink |
[...] An eReaders comparison table: iPad vs. Kindle and Kindle DX, Nook, Sony Daily Edition, Que; http://j.mp/d77t6G [...]
eReader Wars « Wir sprechen Online. 11:34 on 13. March 2010 Permalink |
[...] Coldewey: The Kindle and iPad are two important forces in the current e-reader wars; alternatives: http://j.mp/a19E2E [...]
Kindle Goes iPad « Wir sprechen Online. 17:06 on 22. March 2010 Permalink |
[...] Goes iPad Amazon announces Kindle apps for tablet computers, including the iPad; http://j.mp/9vQKGZ [...]
iPad: Publishing Dreams « Wir sprechen Online. 06:58 on 31. March 2010 Permalink |
[...] Publishing Dreams Miller, News Corp: The iPad is not a communications device, it is a media consumption device; http://j.mp/9Y6cL1 [...]
iPad: eReader for Nonreaders « Wir sprechen Online. 06:45 on 2. April 2010 Permalink |
[...] eReader for Nonreaders Carr: As a text delivery system, the iPad is perfectly suited to readers who do not read anymore; http://j.mp/aPHW0E [...]
iPad « Wir sprechen Online. 09:18 on 25. May 2010 Permalink |
[...] The iPad changes everything, again: even the lack of multitasking is a feature; http://j.mp/aoA92h [...]
iPad Magazines « Wir sprechen Online. 06:45 on 31. August 2010 Permalink |
[...] RWW: How are magazines using the iPad? What is the user experience like? What still needs to be done; [...]