If convenience predicts success, the Kindle could be so much more

[Forrester Research] says convenience is key. It defines the concept in this way: A “comprehensive measure that considers the total product experience.” That includes researching the product, obtaining the device, using it, and eventually getting rid of it. The study also says that in successful products, convenience is not a benefit, but “a measure of how easy your product makes it for people to get the benefits your product promises.”

They also cite the easy downloading of books without needing a computer as the reason that the Amazon Kindle was an unexpected success.  They call ebooks on Amazon “cheap”, which is funny, but the point remains.

So, if the convenience of the total product experience of the Kindle was what made it so successful, how much more successful could it have been if Amazon had removed the intentional inconveniences?

What if you could install additional software on it?  Software to read other formats, perhaps?  An open web browser?  What if you could plug in an SD card, like every other reader on the market?

Amazon couldn’t do these things without giving up a lot of their control.  If you could use an SD card, then maybe you could use an Eye-Fi card and not depend on Sprint’s network to provide the Whispernet.  If you could use a web browser, you wouldn’t need to pay 99 cents to access a blog.

And that’s not to say that both generations of the Kindle aren’t convenient.  Being able to get a new book wherever you are is tremendously convenient.  And Amazon’s marketing (not to mention Oprah’s) means that, while few have heard of many of the ebook readers on the market, most people are familiar with the Kindle.  For the non-technical user, perhaps this is enough.  Amazon’s sales support that theory.

Article:  How to predict gadget success | Business Tech – CNET News.

Ebooks on the iPhone

For someone who spends a lot of time thinking and writing about ebooks and ebook readers, I’ve spent a shamefully small amount of time actually reading ebooks and using ebook readers.  But today I got to take a look at an ebook on an iPhone for the first time.

It’s not terrible.  I should have asked if it was using Stanza or something else.  It was a plain white screen with some controls on the side that disappeared after a few moments, leaving me alone with the text.  I had a little trouble with the scrolling, but I suspect an experienced iPhone user wouldn’t.

The screen is a bit small.  This whole experience started while waiting for a meeting to begin.  My coworker was reading something on the phone that required both horizontal and vertical scrolling.  It looked pretty awkward.  But it started the conversation, and then he showed me an ebook he had on the phone.  He doesn’t read much on it, and unfortunately the meeting started before I could really grill him.

But I can see that some people would be perfectly happy to read books on an iPhone (or an iPod Touch, for which Stanza is also available).  It’s not paper, or even eInk, but it is something you’re likely to have with you all the time, so the extra convenience will make up for many of the shortcomings.

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The eSlick at CeBIT

Foxit will be showing off their new eSlick at the CeBIT Global Conference and Expo in Germany at the beginning of March.  They’ve already sold out of their first batch of them, and expect the next shipment around April.  At $259, the price is very competitive.

They are also using their experience working with PDF software to add value – they include software to convert “any printable document” to PDF for display on the device.  That means it’s probably safe to buy one for your mom and not worry that she’ll have to learn the difference between mobi and epub and all the other competing formats out there.

If you’re going to be attending the conference, I’d love to hear about their exhibit.  My travel budget is currently insuffiecient for a trip to Europe. 

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Bookworm – A platform for open ebooks

A friend pointed me to a new service to store all the ebooks you have in epub format so you can read them wherever you are – at your computer, on your web-enabled mobile phone, or on an ebook reader that supports the format.

I just signed up.  I downloaded Ayn Rand’s Anthem and Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations from Feedbooks and added them to my new Bookworm account.  Before you ask:  Yes, I would love to sit in a room with Rand, Smith, and Jeff Bezos and discuss the state of the electronic publishing market.

It is unfortunate that I have no mobile device capable of trying this out, but it’s not entirely unpleasant to read on my laptop.  Bookworm remembers my place, as promised.

More exciting than the service is the attitude.  From their about page:

Will other book formats be supported, such as PDF or mobi? What about DRM ebooks?

Bookworm is meant to push adoption of the open ePub format and there are no plans to support closed formats like mobi or those with limited flexibility like PDF.

DRM (digital rights management) has been shown to be detrimental to technology adoption, does not significantly prevent piracy, and provides a terrible user experience. Bookworm will never support DRM’ed ebooks that require special software to unlock. Instead we encourage publishers to explore forms of “soft” DRM (such as watermarking digital books with the name of the purchaser).

“Soft” DRM is silly – the idea is that if you stick the person’s name on the digital file, they won’t share it with others.  It is an improvement over typical DRM, but still decreases the value of the book while offering nothing to the customer in return.

However, open source publishing software, using only open formats, can only be good for consumers.  Openness leads to innovation because one group can build on the work of another.  And sooner or later, some of those groups will figure things out, and you’ll never again have to pay $9.99 for an infinitely copyable ebook.

Check them out – they’re getting a lot of things right, and the backing of a big company like O’Reilly will help show other publishers what’s possible.

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Nothing surprising from the Kindle 2

How did Amazon do on fulfilling my wishes for the Kindle 2?  Failure on four of five counts, and no compelling reason for current Kindle owners to upgrade.  SD card support?  WiFi?  Free things staying free and a reasonable pricing structure for books?  All ignored by Amazon.  Clearly they aren’t reading this blog.  They did improve the user interface, to the surprise of no one.

And they haven’t given any current Kindle owners a reason to upgrade.  The battery life is better, and it’s thinner.  It’s easier to use.  It works in the two states that couldn’t get the Whispernet connection before.  All of these things are nice, but not game-changing.

Amazon had (And still has, with future generations of the Kindle) a chance to change everything about reading.  Instead, they chose to release another device with bells and whistles and a pretty package, but locked down tightly to protect their ability to continue overcharging for digital content.

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Gutenberg.com launches today

Chris Andrews, the Executive Producer of Gutenberg.com, is particularly excited about bringing together people who read ebooks into a new network, where they can learn, discuss, and have some fun. “I think it’s important that we remember that reading is fun. It’s fun whether it’s in a printed book or an ebook. And people love to discuss books. Let’s not let the “computer syndrome” hit us, where we make everything complicated. Keep it simple, this is a book, everyone knows what a book is. It’s been around for over 500 years.”

A lovely sentiment, and it really gets to the heart of the problem with ebook readers.  It is not that people are sitting around wishing for a new device to allow them to buy their beloved books all over again.  People are thinking, “I live in a world where information is increasingly digital, and my books remain mostly unchanged in 500 years.”

If we focus on what is great about books, and what we can add to them now that internet connections are everywhere new things are possible,  the ebook readers will come.

The new Gutenberg.com is hoping to do that.  They have a social network built on Ning that they’d like you to be a part of.  They have a blog.  And if they’re lucky, they’ll ride the coattails of the Amazon announcement rather than get buried by it.

Press release:  Gutenberg.com Officially Opens – Invites Ebook Lovers and Neophytes Worldwide to Become Part of Growing Ebook Community.

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I feel like it’s the Super Bowl Pregame Show

And I hate the Super Bowl Pregame Show.  Also, I think I just violated the NFL’s concept of its rights to the words “Super Bowl”.  Please, NFL, send a bogus lawsuit my way, I could use the publicity.

Amazon is starting their press conference at 10AM.  So the next hour and a half will be filled with posts, just like this one, from all the tech blogs and the publishing blogs and all the other interested people.  They will all say the same nothing that we’ve been hearing for a while.  Yes, shots of the new Kindle leaked.  Are they real?  Probably.  Who cares? 

As you can see, I have nothing to say on the Kindle that hasn’t been said too many times already.  And neither does anyone else.  So we will all spend the time between now and when something interesting happens by rehashing the same things, over and over, trying to make them sound new and fresh.

10AM can’t come soon enough. 

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A Stephen King story just for the Kindle 2?

It’s unclear whether this will be a permanent exclusivity arrangement or for a limited period. According to the WSJ, the new story features a Kindle-style ebook reader playing an unspecified role

Oh, if only Stephen King would write a story about a DRM server that became self-aware, killing millions before a plucky little hero saved the day and showed us all a new business model for infinite goods.

I’m actually a big fan of Stephen King, and this is a cool promotion.  What would be even cooler is if Amazon had just paid him to write the story, then released it to the world for free.  After a few months, less maybe, they could still sell paper copies of the book.  Everyone wins.

Article: Kindle 2 to debut with exclusive Stephen King story? – SlashGear.

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The new Kindle will disappoint

By managing both the content and the device on which to consume it, Amazon is in a fantastic position to do great things in the electronic publishing market.  Later today, they’re expected to announce the new version of their ebook reader, the Kindle.  The speculation is that it will be thinner, lighter, and easier to use.  “The “Previous Page” and “Next Page” buttons are smaller and less intrusive, to prevent accidents.”, Forbes says.  Most other articles about it are even less interesting.

The new Kindle will probably be the best ereader on the market.  The current model is already arguably the best available, so improvements should cement that position.  But until Amazon stops thinking about how to sell books in a new format and starts thinking about what fundamental changes to the way people read are now possible, whatever they might announce will be a disappointment.

It may be great for their bottom line – Amazon’s stock is doing quite well – but for everyone who isn’t a stockholder, incremental improvements to an expensive device that displays expensive words isn’t nearly as exciting as Amazon would like you to think.  It’s still just a slightly more convenient way for people to purchase and read books.

What about enabling things that just weren’t possible with books made of paper?  Interactive book clubs, automatic updates to serialized novels, communication with the author, or any number of things that become possible when you have an always-on internet connection.  But Amazon, like everyone else in the market, is too focused on protecting the old way of doing things instead of embracing everything new.

Today, and in the days to come, you will hear a lot about how wonderful the new device is, how this one is really “the iPod for books”, and how great Amazon is.  And then you’ll go back to reading books in more or less the same way you did before.

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Amazon is surely wetting its pants now!

Google is constantly updating its library of public domain books, currently 1.5 million strong, so you should expect an ever-increasing number of books available to read both on both PCs and on your phone.

While it’s great that Google is making more and more books available in electronic format, I hardly think Amazon is worried about error-filled scans of public domain books.

Article:  Google Makes iPhone the New eBook Reader: Watch Out Kindle – PC World.

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