Amazon Prime’s new killer app: Kindle books by subscription

Amazon is doing a very good job of enticing people to buy the Kindle Fire. I opted to get a Kindle Touch instead of the Fire or an iPad. What's interesting is that I don't even think about getting an iPad.

I would have gotten one had Apple upgraded the camera for the iPad. But then the announcement for the Fire and Kindle Touch came out. All other tablet makers have been trying to compete with Apple by copying Apple. Amazon has created compelling reasons to consider it's devices and I think the strategy will be a great success. They aren't copying Apple.

What's shocking is how much Google has dropped the ball. They have Youtube and Google books and could have created compelling reasons to buy Android devices. I don't think about Youtube when I want to rent a movie I can't get on Netflix. It's clear that pretty soon I'll ditch Netflix and just go with Amazon Prime. This is even more likely given that books will be part of Amazon Prime.

Cool. I'm a lot less uncomfortable with DRM-restricted content on a limited appliance, if it's presented honestly as a temporary rental on subsidized hardware that's substantially cheaper than a legitimate purchase including first-sale rights.

I'm surprised the time period is so much longer than it takes to read one book, though. Netflix got a very strong start offering "keep n DVDs, we don't care which ones, swap them every day or two if USPS can keep up". An all-you-can-eat version of this for $50ish/month would be compelling.

This is the major move, much bigger than just boosting sales of Kindle and Amazon Prime. Amazon is testing a books by subscription service. They're using Kindle owners with Prime to limit their test market to good loyal customers. They're limiting the number of books you can check out to control their costs during the test, but it's likely the copyright owner gets some payout per read. With this limited test Amazon will understand the business model and technical requirements to roll this out on a much larger scale.

I expect we'll see an Amazon book subscription service for all Kindle readers with a payment plan based on the number of books you can check out at a time and the number of books you can check out per month.

“One book can be borrowed at a time, and there are no due dates. You can borrow a new book as frequently as once a month, directly on your registered Kindle device, and you will be prompted to return the book that you are currently borrowing.”

Hmm only once a month? That seems rather low.

I've been tempted to get Amazon Prime. The free shipping is great, and with their video streaming, I could also get rid of Netflix. This book deal is even sweeter, of course.

However, I really like Netflix. If AP's movie selection was different enough, I'd almost just subscribe to both. But in my browsing of Amazons selection, it seems they only have what Netflix has, just less of it

I see Amazon trying to build itself, at high cost (I'm sure the Prime membership doesn't cover all of the videos/books licensing plus free 2 day shipping), as the major source of digital entertainment content delivered through the Internet.

Once they've become the primary source and particularly if they're able to control access through their own hardware (Kindle devices), they'll be able to negotiate from a position of power with content providers. Without this type of negotiating power, Amazon (or any other digital media medium like Pandora, Netflix) will always be at the mercy of content creators.

Obviously, Amazon also has its dominant Internet retailing business so its in a good place regardless of whether the digital media services are successful. They now just want to rule the Internet world too.

Amazon is becoming the Costco of the Internet: you pay a yearly membership fee and get a ton of good deals.

Does anyone know if your bookmarks and annotations stay saved on your Kindle even after returning the ebook? It's all I really care about after having finished a book - saving my bookmarks/annotations for future reference.

Does Prime make a lot of sense in the US? In Germany I don't quite get it, because mail only takes two days anyway. It seems at most I would save a day here or then with a certain probability. Not enough to warrant the cost, and one book per month doesn't change that much.

Oh man...so tempting to get a Kindle now despite having an iPad 2.

This could be the start of a good thing, but I am really itching for them to get a more reasonable limit to how often you can get a new book, not because I read that much but because I don't waste time on books that aren't great.

However I see no reason for them to not included any book in the offer. If a particular publisher isn't interested remove his book from Amazon completely.

I searched but none seemed to mention it here so far... but how are they going to prevent piracy? How will they ensure that the borrowed books cannot be easily stored somewhere else permanently?

"one book a month"

That makes it pretty much useless.

EDIT

I guess I'm just not the target audience. For the record, I borrow three longer novels from the local library every one or two weeks (depending on how busy I am with work and life).

Any suggestions on books from the list? I couldn't find an easy way to see which books are included and it would be great to compile a suggested reading list from it.

is there an easy way to see or search for books that are available for this?

Another one reason to buy a kindle reader + kindle fire for your family.

As a Prime member, this is good news.