The latest on digital design trends and consumer behavior from Avenue A | RazorfishAmazon’s eBook Trojan Horse: Don’t Be Fooled By Kindle
November 20th, 2007 by Garrick SchmittTags: Digital Consumer Behavior
Amazon.com’s eReader, Kindle, is getting all sorts of press this week. But the real news isn’t the physical device — which vaguely looks like some orthopedic iPod knock-off — instead it’s the very sly release of Amazon’s Upgrade Program which offers consumers full online book access for a nominal fee.
While Apple’s Steve Jobs may have trained consumers, the design community, and certainly the press, to focus on physical products it’s Amazon’s ingenious software which promises to radically alter the way we consume books, online at least. The question is not whether the “Kindle is the iPod of reading” (it’s not) but whether the device is connected to a “Napster of reading” (e.g. massive digital library) which Amazon’s Upgrade Program certainly *could* become. And legally, to boot.
Amazon’s Upgrade Program works like this: After a purchasing a book through Amazon.com, you are offered an “upgrade” for a nominal fee that allows full access to the book, online, via Amazon’s Online Reader (i.e. the one that today enables consumers to “Search Inside”).
Your “eBook” is then fully accessible via the Amazon Online Reader. This gives users full and permanent access to the book, with the ability to print pages, copy text and tag/bookmark. It also enables you to access the book via any computer — no downloading necessary! In a world where ubiquitous connectivity isn’t far off and devices are becoming more and more portable, Amazon is quickly positioning itself as the ultimate digital content provider.
Google and Microsoft have roiled the publishing industry by scanning books and allowing their search engines to add the digital texts to their ever-growing search indexes, but Amazon’s move may have far more impact — providing the content and a full-fledged Online Reader with the ability to print, annotate and share pages/notations; all without ever downloading a thing.
So, for now, take the Kindle for what it is: a clumsy looking device that distracts from Amazon’s real prize — the software, UI and distribution model to change the way we discover, share and read in the future.
3 Responses to “Amazon’s eBook Trojan Horse: Don’t Be Fooled By Kindle”
The Kindle features pervasive Internet access that taps into Sprints 3G cellular network instead of Wi-Fi to load it’s content. Amazon still expects that most users will download their content online from ‘Whispernet’ versus using the USB or memory card slot.
Consumers demand multi-functional devices that can do allot of things real well and that has easy/cost effective access to content especially at the $399 price range. Yet we have also seen that if a device does one thing real good it can still manage to secure a ‘prime real estate’ spot in the consumers pocket even at a premium price tag.
To echo Garrick final statement, even with it’s eBook reader, simple web browser and email client the strength of this device will not be the product itself but the distribution model and how that will change the way we consume and share books in the future.
In an interview yesterday with the new york times’s John Markoff, Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs pretty much perdicted the death of the Kindle.
“It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” he said. “Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.”
I completely agree with him on this, just looking back at how my own reading habits have changed over the past 4 years, I just cant imagine buying a device for reading books anymore. Don’t get me wrong I still love a good book here and there and I still get my 10 min. fix rummaging though a bunch of blogs and news sites every day.
For me it’s like snacking throughout the day versus sitting down for lunch. I see myself more as an opportunistic media/content consumer grabbing it when I can. I still think Amazon has a fantastic delivery model here and I hope to see them expand it or integrate it with current consumer multifunction devices.
eBook entitled The Book Trailer Revolution:Marketing and Promotion Through Digital Video was released last week. Though specific to book promotion, the valuable experience and information shared regarding digital video production and distribution could easily be applied to a variety of other industries. http://www.cosproductions.com/Resources/Index.html