Amazon’s Ebooks For Non-Kindle Devices
As good as Amazon’s Kindle ebook readers are (all three variants of them), it’s easy to discern that the real value they bring lies in the accompanying electronic book service. After all, the lack of a strong bookseller behind it is among the biggest reasons why non-Kindle readers continue to find difficulty in bringing their products to a larger segment of the market.
I’ve always thought Amazon will be hogging that service all to itself. After all, Apple has created one-sided markets doing the same thing – using content distribution as a selling point. That’s why it was a surprise when the iPhone Kindle app rolled out early in the year, allowing iPhone users to purchase and read Kindle-format ebooks directly on their handsets.
As it turns out, Amazon’s plans to expand the service doesn’t stop there. CEO Jeff Bezos has made those intentions clearer than ever, dropping a few hints about what is to come during a recent event sponsored by Wired Magazine. Put simply, he has set a clear separation between the hardware business of the Kindle and the accompanying ebook store.
Basically, the company will be looking to bring the ebook store component into devices beyond the Kindle and iPhone it currently supports. He says, “We are going to give the device team competition. We will make Kindle books, at the same $9.99 price points, available on the iPhone, and other mobile devices and other computing devices.”
In all honesty, I could care less about reading ebooks on machines other than the large screen of a netbook or a tablet. As such, I’m hoping the Kindle store opens its doors to regular purchase and reading directly from the PC, instead of concentrating the market on handheld devices. Oddly, though, he made no mention of opening the facility up for other ebook readers, such as the Sony Reader and Foxit.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/15/jeff-bezos-kindle-books-and-readers-are-separate-businesses/
As good as Amazon’s Kindle ebook readers are (all three variants of them), it’s easy to discern that the real value they bring lies in the accompanying electronic book service. After all, the lack of a strong bookseller behind it is among the biggest reasons why non-Kindle readers continue to find difficulty in bringing their products to a larger segment of the market.
I’ve always thought Amazon will be hogging that service all to itself. After all, Apple has created one-sided markets doing the same thing – using content distribution as a selling point. That’s why it was a surprise when the iPhone Kindle app rolled out early in the year, allowing iPhone users to purchase and read Kindle-format ebooks directly on their handsets.
As it turns out, Amazon’s plans to expand the service doesn’t stop there. CEO Jeff Bezos has made those intentions clearer than ever, dropping a few hints about what is to come during a recent event sponsored by Wired Magazine. Put simply, he has set a clear separation between the hardware business of the Kindle and the accompanying ebook store.
Basically, the company will be looking to bring the ebook store component into devices beyond the Kindle and iPhone it currently supports. He says, “We are going to give the device team competition. We will make Kindle books, at the same $9.99 price points, available on the iPhone, and other mobile devices and other computing devices.”
In all honesty, I could care less about reading ebooks on machines other than the large screen of a netbook or a tablet. As such, I’m hoping the Kindle store opens its doors to regular purchase and reading directly from the PC, instead of concentrating the market on handheld devices. Oddly, though, he made no mention of opening the facility up for other ebook readers, such as the Sony Reader and Foxit.
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