

Amazon Taps its Inner Apple - mlinsey
http://www.fastcompany.com/node/1297929/print

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dave_au
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.

~~~
wheels
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.

~~~
stcredzero
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.

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smanek
"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.

~~~
pchristensen
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.

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

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Hexstream
"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!

------
zach
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.

~~~
lacker
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.

~~~
zach
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-...](http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1050138/lg-to-show-dual-
mode-lcd-screen-at-ces)

------
rfreytag
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.

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

Good luck with that.

~~~
zimbabwe
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.

~~~
smanek
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.

~~~
netsp
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.

