Will Kindle apps kill off the device?
Posted on 19. Feb, 2010 by JD in News, iPad, kindle
A day after the Kindle app lobbed onto the Blackberry (in the US only – hear the teeth gnashing elsewhere around the world?), it’s time to ask whether Amazon is in danger of apping themselves out of the Kindle hardware business. If that’s their goal, I think they’re heading in the right direction.
Let me explain: as someone who owns Kindle on the iPhone and the device itself, I’ve found that I’m a heavy user of the software but almost never pick up the hardware.
Once the Kindle app lands on the Blackberry worldwide, and the big momma – the Android platform and its 60,000 handsets a day that Google-partnered makers are pumping out, it may be that only older readers and those with eyesight issues will have a reason to buy the Kindle device.
It’s likely that in the foreseeable future (could it be more than 12 months away? Surely not), the Kindle app could be available to anyone with an iPhone, Blackberry or Android phone. According to tech analyst ComScore, on latest figures that would be 72.1 per cent of all mobile phone users in the US. The numbers must be in a similar ballpark globally.
Here are the pros and cons I’ve found, which I’ll subtly call…
The Kindle v App Deathmatch:
App
- You already have your Phone with you most of the time for, like, calling people.
- The App is free, the hardware is $US259.
- You usually remember to keep it charged – and you’ve already got/paid for the 3G connection.
- Most early adopting ebook readers are young and a cell/mobile phone is already part of their lifestyle.
- You don’t have to schlep another device around.
- I don’t have any readability problems in the iPhone app (I understand some do).
- It’s just as easy to buy books across the 3G on your phone.
- Despite Amazon’s indications of a “snazzy” app store of its own, the Kindle device is still a one-trick wonder.
- With the multipurpose iPad launching in a few weeks the tablet/reader hardware race is already lost for Amazon.
- Despite the disappointment of some (who expected perfection?), the iPad looks good and will probably be a hit. If Apple allow the Kindle app on the iPad, there’s one less reason to buy Amazon hardware (a canny strategy, in my view).
- If you want to take on Apple in the hardware sector, you’re going up against the best – who already have plans for the second-gen device.
Kindle
- The Kindle is easier to read for those with less-than-perfect eyesight.
- You can read large format items (newspapers and mags) on it more easily.
- Um … it looks more like an book from ye olden dayes??
So, for me, only the app leaves the deathmatch cage. So that make persistent rumours and confirmed acquisitions that point to Amazon being full steam ahead in the hardware biz, very, very puzzling.
Damn, in my view the Kindle 3 would have to be a brilliant and extraordinarily cheap device to get any traction. In any case, is flogging the hardware horse the right strategy for Amazon?
Hey Mr Bezos, how about ditching the hardware, switching to ePub and again being the go-to content provider for everyone??
Sorry, I've trained myself to look straight through the help.
You are correct. It seems the hardware is now just for curling up on the sofa with a good read on a rainy winter’s day, or to luxuriate over the weekend paper on your balcony while sipping your brunch espresso.
Very lah-te-dah, Nick. Maybe you could browse a novel while watching the help polish the silver and muck out the stables. heh heh.