{"id":247655,"date":"2010-01-29T16:22:29","date_gmt":"2010-01-29T21:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xconomy.com\/?p=61017"},"modified":"2010-01-29T16:22:29","modified_gmt":"2010-01-29T21:22:29","slug":"why-the-apple-ipad-is-a-kindle-killer-or-not%e2%80%94and-how-amazon-must-step-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/247655","title":{"rendered":"Why the Apple iPad Is a Kindle Killer, or Not\u2014and How Amazon Must Step Up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Digital Books<\/a>, Software<\/a>, Competition<\/a><\/div>\n

\t\t\"Amazon\"<\/a>
\n\t\tGregory T. Huang wrote:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Almost everyone in the consumer tech industry has been thinking about how the Apple iPad, unveiled on Wednesday<\/a>, affects their line of business—whether it\u2019s gaming, video, mobile content and advertising, mobile interfaces, or digital books. Especially digital books.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, Ben Elowitz, the CEO and co-founder of Seattle-based Wetpaint, argued in TechCrunch<\/a> that the iPad will put the Amazon Kindle out of business—and he gave his top 10 reasons. Meanwhile, Scott Jacobson of Seattle\u2019s Madrona Venture Group, writing in TechFlash<\/a>, gave five reasons why the iPad will not<\/em> kill off the Kindle. I\u2019m waiting for someone to give us 2.5 reasons why we should care.<\/p>\n

OK, I\u2019ll do that. One, although the iPad is a multi-purpose device, e-book reading is clearly one of its sweet spots. By rolling out the iBooks store, Apple is saying, we think we can make serious money on this now. Two, it\u2019s super interesting to watch a behemoth like Apple emerge on the scene so suddenly, and in so many different markets—forcing a lot of big companies to raise their game<\/a>. The corollary to that (reason two-and-a-half) is that Amazon and Apple are prepping for a really major battle over the way consumers experience digital books—and we should all benefit from that. (Well, some of us still like our old-fashioned books, but that\u2019s beside the point.)<\/p>\n

From his writing, Elowitz appears to have no big love for Amazon—perhaps his deep experience in online retail at Blue Nile has something to do with that. He points to the superior economics and experience of reading a book on the iPad, as well as the iPad\u2019s support of the ePub format versus the Kindle\u2019s proprietary format, as reasons for the Kindle\u2019s demise. Plus there\u2019s a \u201ccool factor\u201d associated with Apple, he says. \u201cEven those of us who are smart enough to know better still fall in love with Apple products, and carry them with pride. Amazon just doesn\u2019t have that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAmazon is already scared,\u201d Elowitz writes. \u201cThe best plan for Amazon isn\u2019t to try to buy customers or try to match Apple\u2019s approach. Rather, they\u2019ll need to re-think their consumer experience from start to finish. They\u2019ve done a great job so far of digitizing books, but now if they want to compete with Steve Jobs\u2019 inventiveness, they\u2019ll have to step up to be a must-have device in consumers\u2019 digital lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jacobson, on the other hand, is a former Amazon exec who helped launch the original Kindle. He is also a shareholder in both Amazon and Apple, and professes that his household includes two Kindles, four iPhones\/iPod Touches, and two iMacs (and soon, an iPad). He points out that the Kindle is designed for hardcore readers—it\u2019s meant to do one thing, and do it really well, and it includes a battle-tested recommendations system. (As compared with iTunes recommendations, which \u201cstill suck\u201d when it comes to music, he says.)<\/p>\n

Most interestingly, Jacobson argues that Amazon can\u2019t afford to lose this battle. \u201cWhile the transition from physical to digital will take far longer for books than it has for music, Amazon can\u2019t afford to allow Apple to dominate the market for e-books the way it dominates the market for MP3s,\u201d he writes. \u201cAmazon needs to step up its game. The nice thing about competition is that it fosters innovation. And we the consumers will be the beneficiaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Digital Books, Software, Competition Gregory T. Huang wrote: Almost everyone in the consumer tech industry has been thinking about how the Apple iPad, unveiled on Wednesday, affects their line of business—whether it\u2019s gaming, video, mobile content and advertising, mobile interfaces, or digital books. Especially digital books. Yesterday, Ben Elowitz, the CEO and co-founder of Seattle-based […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1747,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,7,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mobile","category-news","category-software"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1747"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247655\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}