Amazon Taps its Inner Apple | Hacker News Reader

Amazon Taps its Inner Apple

fastcompany.com

28 pointsmlinsey17 comments

It may not be all that likely, but I wonder what would happen if Amazon and Apple collaborate instead of dance-fight?

If Apple is working on an ebook reader it'd be the simplest way for them to take a slice of the pie - just show the reader to Amazon and say "That's a nice ebook business you've got there, it'd be a shame if something were to happen to it."

It depends on how much pie they'd like I guess.

I can't see Apple and Amazon working together. Apple tends to want to dominate the entire supply-chain and I think that only works when they're dealing with comparatively unsavy companies. Amazon gets the web well enough that they're not going to hand over control to Apple wholesale and I think that'd be a deal-breaker for Apple.

I can see them taking the publishing side end-to-end. Add stuff to Pages to simplify publishing a book -- all aspects, cover to cover. Become a middleman for offering indexing services. Have an online publishing service that automatically translates your file as an eBook, lets you order ego copes, and also enables bookstores to order it as product.

I know there are services out there, but the physical product is a bit shaky, and they don't have slick software integration with the service. Apple is in a great position for that kind of integration.

"Bezos claimed that Kindle e-books add 35% to a physical book's sales on Amazon whenever Kindle editions are available"

Wow, that's impressive.

Not exactly - he said Kindle sales make up 35% of Amazon's sales for books with a Kindle version. Not clear whether it added sales or siphoned off physical book sales.

That's what I'd heard in the past - but the my quote is directly from the article.

"For years, rumors of an Apple touch-screen media tablet have circulated, despite a now famous quote by Steve Jobs: "It doesn't matter how good or bad [the Kindle] is, the fact is that people don't read anymore. Forty percent of the people in the United States read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don't read anymore."

For Jobs-watchers, this was a clear indication that he must be planning an e-reader, for Apple's grand poobah is the master of the red herring. In the past, he downplayed video on the iPod, insisting that no one would watch a movie on a 2-inch screen; denied that Apple was working on a phone; and claimed that anything less than a full-featured laptop wasn't in the cards -- until last year's release of the MacBook Air. When Jobs goes to the trouble of criticizing a competitor's products, downplays its significance, or offers a blanket statement about not pursuing a certain market, that's when he often goes in for the kill."

Gotta love that guy!

The Kindle just looks more and more like an intermediate form, like MP3-enabled CD players (remember those?) Once you get people comfy with reading books on a screen, I'm not sure it's as big a step to the iPhone or a laptop, even if the (fairly convincing) case laid out for an Apple reader pad doesn't come to pass.

Of course, Amazon can win in distribution on other platforms, they are much better off for creating the Kindle themselves, and the Kindle compares well to AppleTV, a product seemingly far less likely to set the world ablaze. But this article offers some reasonable evidence that the Kindle doesn't seem as much like the iPod for books as the forerunner to it.

The other devices just have the wrong sort of screen. It's much more comfortable to read for long periods off the e-ink screens designed for it than off a laptop screen.

The e-ink displays are lovely. Still, dual-mode screens like the OLPC are bound to pop up more often in laptops and mobile devices. Then again, it hasn't kept Japanese phone users from reading on their phones.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1050138/lg-to-show-...

The Kindle just looks more and more like an intermediate form, like MP3-enabled CD players

More like DRM-crippled players. What's missing is the equivalent of Protools for publishing. Ironic because there's already something like Oasis. LaTex is a bit esoteric for most people. So are most "desktop publishing" offerings. Most word processors don't go far enough. Does Pages have this functionality?

Music is going from a "hits" business to a "long-tail" model. Devices like this can do it for books as well. Software that enables this is going to sell well.

Publishers better start selling e-Books directly at a price that leaves no margin for Amazon. This will both make the Kindle irrelevant to customers and Amazon's returns marginal. The longer they wait the less likely they will be able to sustain costs of leaving their print channels behind.

"...more expensive Kindle... test-market to college students."

Good luck with that.

This is why we don't snip quotes to make them sound better for our own snark. FTA:

Amazon has announced a larger, more expensive Kindle DX for textbooks and periodicals, which it will test-market to college students.

Last year I paid $500 - the price of a Kindle - for my textbooks. I didn't open most of them. Returning them was a pain in the ass. I hate going out and buying them, period. If there's a device that lets me buy books each semester for only $50 total, or - not to suggest illegal activities - that lets me download them via my college's student hub, then I'm going to take the DX and never let go of it.

College students know a good deal when they see it.

Or lets your lecturer distribute their own for the $2.50 he claims is all he's actually making on each one.

The problem is that you can resell hard copy books. I usually spend ~$250/semester on used text books at the beginning of each semester (I'll buy them online), and get about $100 from selling them back (usually to the campus book store, although sometimes online if I feel I'm being ripped off too badly).

Net, I'm only paying $150/semester for books whose retail price is closer to $500. I don't think that publishers will be willing to price electronic books at 70% off retail like they would need to (since there is no resale of electronic books).

Ideally, they should 'rent' me the book for a semester for a huge discount (~80% off retail, say), and I have the option of 'upgrading' my rental to a purchase at the end of the semester (with no penalty over having just bought it outright upfront) if I decide I want to keep it.

That's basically what happens now on the secondary market. I get to 'rent' a book for a semester for the cost of the bid/offer spread, with the option to not the rental and just pay the original price.

I don't think you represent the average. Also, publishers try to deter this sort of activity by publishing updated editions every 2-4 years. This messes you up if you get holding the ball or if this year is the first edition. It also discourages booksellers from holding used books in stock (you can't send those back).

Then you have people keeping textbooks for various reasons. One of them is that it's hard to buy/sell books. You need to get in early.

Your $150 relies on both buying & selling used.

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