Well Kindle has finally hit the streets and the Sony vs Amazon smackdown has begun in earnest.
First-off, whatever the ultimate fate of the Kindle, Amazon has certainly got the PR game in hand. Kindle is all over the popular press right now, including a lengthy Newsweek cover piece by Steven Levy. The Sony Reader may have a year’s head start but I wonder how much of that sales advantage will evaporate in the coming weeks.
In one sense Amazon is at a slight disadvantage due to the fact that Sony, being first to market with the Reader, has already tapped some portion of the ereader appliance early adopter market. Are such leading edge buyers ready to cough up another $400 for this latest hotness? And then there is the absurdity of DRM content lockdowns and format incompatibilities that continues with Kindle. For my Reader, for instance, I have purchased a couple of dozen DRM-locked BBeB format books that I can’t resell and can’t legally convert for use on another device, such as Kindle. Of course I knew this going in so I’m not whining, just saying “Behold device lock-in, in your face !”.
But the main area in which Amazon looks to win is selection. I have wasted a lot of time searching around the relatively sparse Sony Connect site for books to buy. Think about that. A customer who is ready to buy, but nothing to sell him. I don’t know the business internals of Sony Connect, but it sure seems that they rolled their own store instead of partnering with an established bookseller with a comprehensive stock. The Reader, like Kindle, is the quintessential long-tail gadget, but without a deep backlist it’s little more than a novelty. A couple of months ago Sony announced a partnership with Borders that would deepen and/or replace the offerings of the current Connect store. But nothing yet and, well it may be too late to help thwart the Kindle release and overwhelming PR blitz. Anyway, isn’t Borders an Amazon partner?
Much has been written about the Web-connectivity features of Kindle, and I agree that OTA book purchases represent a second significant advantage to Amazon. But IMHO, Web browsing not a particularly good use of the current generation of e-ink based devices. Due to the slow refresh rates and relatively low pixel resolution of e-ink screens graphics must be converted, animations culled and text reformatted. Why else would Amazon try to charge you monthly fees for otherwise free content? The EVDO-connected Kindle may be good for basic emailing and reading RSS or other Web text, but many of us can already do that on our mobile phones. And if I felt the need to purchase a portable, non-laptop web device I’d have to go with the $299 iPod Touch, trading EVDO for WiFi and because the iPod display is faster and renders much more detail than the e-Ink displays of Kindle or the Reader.
So while the net connection for Kindle may allow all kinds of communications activities, it really need only exist in order to facilitate impulse purchasing from the large Amazon catalog. Other uses are marketing gravy.
But despite its debatable email utility, WAP-reminiscent formatting woes or Web format conversion vigs, the Kindle appears to offer superior ereader utility to that of the Reader. If Sony wants to stay in the game, at the very least they had better respond to the access and selection advantages of Kindle. Perhaps they can address the access challenge with a USB-based WiFi accessory, something small and self-powered. As for the selection and backlist, well that’s Amazon’s turf and strength. Maybe the Borders partnership can help. Perhaps Sony can compete by eliminating DRM-restrictions although I doubt publishers are yet ready for such a move. Whatever Sony does it had better be quick and smart because Amazon just grabbed their lunchbox.