CrunchGear is pointing its readers to an interesting new survey conducted by Catalyst Group. Bottom line: Sony better hurry up and dig the Amazon’s arrows out of its back before they become fatal. The key observations from the report note the Amazon Kindle device’s key strengths as:
- Clearer navigation – Users found the Kindle easier to navigate despite mentioning that they would rather have a touch screen interface
- Better shopping experience – Users found the Kindle’s shopping experience easier since it allowed them to download items directly onto the device without the need of a computer
- More aesthetically pleasing – Users found the Kindle more “sophisticated” and “elegant” looking
- Better tactile “feel” – Users commented that handling the Kindle felt more “natural” and “pleasing”
See the rest of the report here.
In what appears to be a bid to accelerate the growth of its Kindle business, Amazon.com dropped the price of its 6″ Kindle 2 device to $299 today. This brings the Kindle’s price in line with devices from competitors such as the Sony; however, you won’t hear Amazon.com’s spokeperson talking about that in their statement describing the reasons for the price decrease:
“We’ve been able to increase the volume of Kindles we’re manufacturing and decrease the cost of doing so … whenever we are able to create cost efficiencies like this, we pass the savings along to our customers.”
Sure….because extracting less money from customers is what all companies try to do. Will this be enough to lure customers to the Kindle, despite the flagging economy? Only time will tell. [Amazon via Gizmodo]
The e-book industry is shaping up quickly: last week, Borders UK announced its own e-book reader, developed in conjunction with with Elonex. They join Barnes and Noble (who is rumored to be releasing a device) and Amazon.com as a new breed of bookseller/publisher that is attempting to avoid suffering the same fate as the music industry:
The moves by Borders and in the future by Barnes & Nobles is also attempt to stave off a fate that music retail stores have faced as records went digital, says Epps. Still the transition is unlikely to be easy.
“It’s not a pretty picture right now for brick-and-mortar retailers,” says Epps. “E-books sales are growing but they can’t nearly bring in the same kind of revenue as physical books do,” she says.
Wired’s analysis of the situation missed one set of industry players: the publishers. While all of the e-reader vendors are currently dependent on publishers to provide content, that may change. Services, such as Amazon.com’s Digital Text Platform, could allow authors to sidestep the traditional publisher route either by publishing through the device seller, or publishing on their own site in standard formats (such as epub or PDF).
Which begs the question: when every bookstore is effectively a publisher, and authors have the ability to publish either through a device or directly, will there be any room left for publishers in the industry? It may end up that the publishers are the ones who should be worried about suffering the fate of the music industry, not the booksellers.
In a sinister sign of things to come, MediaPost has discovered Amazon.com patent applications for in-book advertising in ebooks. The discovery has sparked speculation amongst several news outlets that Amazon.com may be planning to introduce ad-supported Kindles as one way of battling the cost of the device as a barrier to adoption.
The two patent applications (available here and here) contain somewhat absurd justifications for this technology:
Indeed, most content providers that host “free” Internet sites are typically supported by advertisements. Of course, in regard to out-of-print or rare books, they typically do not include advertisements and, if they do, the advertisements are out of date and inapplicable. However, as disclosed below, as part of printing documents in an on-demand fashion, the on-demand printed content provides the opportunity to incorporate advertisements, as well as other subject matter, in an on-demand printed document.
So for all you Sherlock Holmes fans outraged at having wade through back copies of The Strand filled with ads for technologically inferior girdles, don’t worry, Amazon.com’s going to make everything alright.
Does Amazon honestly expect these patents to get issued? Or that people really will put up with invasive advertising in books just to get a device? Maybe. However, a cursory glance at the applications indicates there’s not much difference Amazon’s proposed technology, and the in-PDF advertising technology Adobe and Yahoo! launched a couple of years ago…and recently discontinued.
Devices such as Amazon.com’s Kindle and Sony’s PRS 505 feature drab grey-scale screens, and we almost thought that was going to change with the introduction of the Cool-er electronic book reader. Apparently, it featured color. Unfortunately, the color involved is the iPod-inspired colors of the device body itself, not the capability of the screen to display color.
Apparently, Cool-er’s bid to innovate stopped there. While the device is much lighter and cheaper than its competitors, it apparently cuts corners on the device’s functionality and quality according to Wired’s scathing review of the Cool-er device. Wired also took umbrage at the price of books featured in Cool-er’s online bookstore pricing, many of which weight in at nearly twice the price of the same title from Amazon or Sony. At $250, the device might be cheap to buy, but expensive to own. If anything, it may at least exert pressure on other device manufacturers to lower their device prices.