1 post tagged “audible.com”

Amazon's new eReader product, Kindle, was released today. From Amazon's product overview (in part):

• Revolutionary electronic-paper display provides a sharp, high-resolution screen that looks and reads like real paper.
• Simple to use: no computer, no cables, no syncing.
• Wireless connectivity enables you to shop the Kindle Store directly from your Kindle—whether you’re in the back of a taxi, at the airport, or in bed.
• Buy a book and it is auto-delivered wirelessly in less than one minute.
• More than 88,000 books available, including 100 of 112 current New York Times® Best Sellers.
• New York Times® Best Sellers and all New Releases $9.99, unless marked otherwise.

I haven't had a chance to use it (or even see it in person), so this is my take from afar.

Some features are very attractive:
+ Would be great for traveling: I can never decide which books to take when I go away, and even with Audible audiobooks, it's hard to decide before I go what I'll want to read
+ Looks to be fairly small and at 10 ounces, is pretty light
+ The liquid ink technology is said to make it easier to read text on-screen than typical displays
+ Comes bundled with EVDO wireless capability without an added monthly charge or contract

Having said that, I have some misgivings:
- The pricetag! Yikes, $399 just seems way too expensive.
- Walled garden.... from what I can tell, you can't browse the Internet on the Kindle. Huh? Wouldn't that be the perfect synergistic application for an ebook reader with built-in EVDO?
- You can read newspapers on the Kindle for $10-15 per month per subscription. (See "Huh?" above.) I can read the New York Times (and most other newspapers) online for free -- even Murdock is planning to make the online Wall Street Journal available at no cost.
- You can pay to read blogs on your Kindle. (See "Huh?" above.)
- Why is the keyboard so big? My guess... to make it easy to buy new books. Otherwise, why have a keyboard at all (or at least make it smaller).

What I'd love to see Kindle v2 include:
* A smaller keyboard
* Opera browser, to enable the ereader to double as a basic Internet tablet; of course this would mean dropping charges to read newspaper and blog content (see next point)
* Rather than charging subscriptions for news and blog content, create a monthly subscription model for ebook content (a la Audible.com); doing so would provide a predictable content revenue stream, and after spending $399, most Kindle buyers would still buy ebooks in addition to their monthly subscription cost.

I want to see Kindle succeed, I really do. Why? Because I want to buy Kindle v2, after Amazon has had a chance to tweak their initial offering. In the interim, I'll be watching ebay to benefit from early adopter buyer's remorse.

Edit: Seth Godin suggests that content should generally be free, with the hardware being the only real cost. His reasoning... "the people willing to buy the device are exactly the sort of people that an author like me wants to reach. No harm, no foul, all three of us win." Excellent point!