RSSWith its own iPhone app, Kindle becomes a genuine brand
By Tim Conneally | Published March 4, 2009, 11:16 AM
Amazon today has officially launched the Kindle application for iPhone and iPod Touch. While Amazon's flagship e-paper reader and Apple's devices are in fundamentally different device classes, bringing the e-book platform to the iPhone completely changes the Kindle brand.
The era of the Kindle as "The iPod of books," is no more. Now that the actual iPod has access to the same library of 240,000 books, it's the era of the Kindle platform.
It only makes too much sense. After all, Amazon is not, by design, a consumer electronics manufacturer. Peel back the integument of cloud service provider, digital content download market, and all the other facets to Amazon's business, and at the core you have a bookstore. Making Kindle content readable on the iPhone and iPod shows that selling Kindle hardware just might not the primary drive for Amazon when making literature simple and available could be.
But doing this involves a serious change to the way books are consumed. "Kindle for iPhone and iPod touch is a great way for customers to catch up on their current book wherever they are, like in line at the grocery store or between meetings," said Ian Freed, Vice President of Amazon Kindle. With Whispersync, a user can pick up on his iPhone where he left on his Kindle, making quick and constant consumption of literature the norm.
Speaking as an "immersive reader," the idea of reading a novel in short, two page bursts is frightening. Many authors can scarcely complete a single thought in less than five pages, so opportunistic reading such as that mentioned by Freed may not work too well with the Marcel Prousts of the world. It strikes me as the same as trying to watch a two-hour movie in five minute chunks over the course of three days. It can be done, but the critical element of continuity is lost.
While Amazon does not market Kindle for iPhone as a primary vehicle for e-book consumption, it can certainly be used as one. Books can be downloaded over the air, and text can be resized, annotated and bookmarked just like it can on the Kindle. iPhone users even have access to Amazon's Manage Your Kindle services. However, the onus is on the reader to try to complete Remembrance of Things Past on a 3.5" screen.
I read quite a lot using my iPhone but I wish the price of books became cheaper. US9.99 for a non developed country is still expensive.
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|I can't see anyone seriously reading a lot of books on their iphone. The screen is just too small. I downloaded it though for a very different reason. You get to read the first chapter or so for free. That's very handy.
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|Been wondering who would do this first - I was betting Amazon but I thought it might be Google or possibly even Apple. This is the future of all publishing, and it will be huge. In fact, downloaded books and magazines have every potential to outpace net-delivered music. Now Amazon just needs to get their app onto other platforms.
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|This is a brilliant move by Amazon since it should: (1) increase the sale of their Kindle content to the existing multi-million user base of iPhones and iPod Touch; (2) differentiate the Kindle product from the iPhone while continuing to leverage it; (3) preserves their content product (the books) and tempers the inevitable entry of an Apple iReader product and ebook content distribution via iTunes which is truly competitive with Amazon's franchise. Bravo, Amazon. It is refreshing to see a company with the vision to realize that marketing is not a zero sum game.
Rob Durst
Technology and Business Development Consultant
www.durstgroup.com
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|A reader's comment from the NY Times "BITS" blog from a couple of days ago in an article about why iPhone users are willing to pay for content:
"Apple has mastered the art of creating perception around consumer tech devices as a status/fashion statement combined with the psychology of the impulse buy. 'Spend $.99 to make my cool device even cooler ? Absolutely!' And millions do. It's brilliant."
What's unfortunate about this business model is the fact that what's "cool" today will be "so yesterday" in a very short time, and Apple knows there is an extremely large market of consumers who are *very* invested in the their self image with regard to owning the new "hip" tech device and/or app; and they will make numerous impulse purchases to assure that image is maintained...just like they did when they slept on line for three days in front of the Apple store to one of the first to acquire an iPhone.
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