Tag Archives: amazon kindle

Classroom Kindle with Big Brother Control One-Ups iPad

Interesting post: Amazon Just Beat Apple to the Classroom, on Gizmodo. I’ve been following ebooks and textbooks for more than 10 years now, expecting disruption. Textbooks are obsolete. It should have happened years ago. And there’s a lot going on now, but classrooms are still the same. 

In this one, post author Brian Barrett starts by quoting himself from a few months back after Apple presented an iPad solution to classroom learning and textbooks. Brian said then:

Let’s be clear; this is indisputably the future. What we saw today is what our classrooms will look like once iPads are far cheaper, once digital textbooks can be handed down as easily as physical ones, once teachers of every subject have several educational material options to choose among. For now though, it’s important to remember that “new” and “different” always come at a premium. One that the vast majority of us can’t afford.

Brian says that’s as true today as it was then, but …

But look at how Amazon’s offerings have grown since then. A backpack-friendly 7-inch tablet for $160 (and E-ink technology has progressed enough that you could probably make due with a $70 entry-level model). A Kindle eTextbook service that’s ballooned to over 200,000 titles, with generous return policies and cash-saving rental options. And a platform ubiquity that ensures no kid gets left out, regardless of what device he or she owns

And then this, on Whispercast:

But today’s announcement of its Whispercast technology seems to solve problems Apple hadn’t even thought of.

 Whispercast is a free service that serves as an umbrella for many, many Kindle management features, but most of all it provides the kind of centralized control over devices that are a luxury for businesses and a necessity for schools. Content distribution, social media and purchase blockades, password protection, document sharing; there couldn’t be a more teacher-friendly checklist.

Sigh … I guess that’s good news. But it’s sad, at least in some ways, that control, blockades, and protection are barriers to better technology in schools. I can see why — lawsuits, fanatics, porn, bullying, and so forth — but still. Damn. 

(Complete aside: I like the lead from a writing point of view. Here’s Brian’s first sentence from today’s post:

On a freezing, cloudless day last January in New York, Apple presented to the world its vision for the future of education. 

The freezing cloudless day has nothing to do with the rest of the post, but it’s an interesting start.)

Does the Kindle Tell You Something About Your Pricing?

While I tend to think pricing too low is one of the most common mistakes in small business, there’s still something to be said for finding the pricing sweet spot.

Sometimes elasticity works. For example, in Amazon says it has sold millions of Kindles This Quarter, Business Insider notes:

Amazon [says it] has “already sold millions of our all-new Kindles.”

That suggests that Amazon has sold at least 2 million of the devices this quarter, and perhaps many more.

That’s “more Kindles than we sold during all of 2009,” Amazon’s supposed rep also writes.

Which proves once again, I suppose, that pricing is still magic. If you search for  Amazon Kindle is overpriced on Google you get a flurry of blog posts and business pundits saying just that … but almost all of them from 2007-2009 when it came out at $399 and then sold for a long time at $299. Now that it’s down to $139, nobody is saying that.

In standard economics, elasticity has to do with price and volume: the more elastic a product is, the greater the increase in sales volume for every unit of decrease in price. Pretty obvious, right? But no, actually, at least not always. Some things are more elastic than others. Think for a second about cheap sushi, for example. Would day-old sushi sell well? How about discount dentistry?

And then there’s this: theoretically, to break even on the price drop, amazon.com has to sell 2.15 kindles at $139 for every one kindle they would have sold at $299.  What do you think? I think they’ve hit a price sweet spot, low enough to attract a lot more buyers. Also, I think there’s another factor in the equation, because those higher-volume Kindles get manufactured for a lot lower unit price.

What do you think? Does this tell you anything about your business?

What Amazon and iPad Teach us About Strategy

I love it: now when I buy a Kindle book from Amazon.com, I can have it on my iPhone, my iPad, my Mac laptop, my Windows laptop, my Mac Desktop, or my Windows desktop.

Kindle on iPadThis makes me feel like I really own the book. If I have a spare 10 minutes, just about wherever I am, I can read the book. It’s great usability. Great convenience.

And I love the business strategy implications. By making Kindle books available on every possible hardware device, Amazon chooses not to reserve them for people who buy the Kindle hardware. Is this a sacrifice? Helping competitors? Does the iPad make the Kindle less desireable? Yes? Does having Kindle books available on the iPad mean Amazon.com will sell more Kindle books? Yes.

On the long term, Amazon wins because it focuses on what it does really well. Kindle books become the standard. It’s called focus. And strategy is focus.

Business Strategy in Action, or Reaction, Both, or Neither

Apple vs. Kindle vs. publishers, oh my. Do you know the background? It’s all over the web. And I posted here this week about how Apple and Amazon.com and Macmillan are wrapped up in an ebook battle. And it gets better. As I write this, Wednesday evening, the news is that Amazon gave in and put Macmillan back into the mix, but at higher prices. But I just checked the site and my favorite Macmillan book, Thomas Friedman’s Hot, Flat, and Crowded, is listed there as available through third parties only. So go figure.

I’m fascinated with all of this. Really, business strategy in action. Consider these questions, and ask yourself: if you were Steve Jobs, or Jeff Bezos, what would you do?

  1. Does Apple Computer block the Kindle app on its new iPad? The iPad runs iPhone apps, and the Kindle iPhone app works great. But does that mean iPad users can buy Kindle books for their iPad for $9.95, while Apple’s iPad iBooks cost $14.99?
  2. Apple can block the Kindle app, of course. But what will users say about that? Apple users tend to take Apple as some public resource. They’re incensed when Apple acts in its own business interest instead of the public good. Would cutting off the competition be worth the dark side mask?

  3. Is Amazon.com seriously going to cut off its nose to spite its face? They took all Macmillan books off of Amazon.com because of a pricing and revenue share argument related to the iPad. But doesn’t that hurt the Amazon.com business proposition? Don’t we all go there to find the world’s largest inventory? And now they say they’re giving in, putting Macmillan back, and at the higher prices it demanded. What does that do for the Kindle pricing ceiling at $9.99? What happens to the $5 differential on iPad between a Kindle book and an iPad book?
  4. Do publishers gain by fighting either format, or either channel? Now Macmillan books are playing second fiddle at Amazon.com. It’s hard to tell from here, but it’s been presented as Macmillan squaring off against Amazon.com for a larger share of the revenue. That’s a bold move. Would you do it? How would you feel if you were a Macmillan author?
  5. What about Sony, or Barnes and Noble? These other ebook readers that were seriously planning to compete… are they just blown away? What can they do?
  6. Does this mean ebooks are finally for real? I’ve liked ebooks for more than 10 years now, read them on an early Rocket ebook reader, on a PDA, on a Kindle, and on my iPhone, as well as on a number of laptops. Are they finally going to get to critical mass? That would be nice.
  7. Do smart buyers wait for all of this to sort out? Remember the Sony Betamax format vs. VHS? You don’t want to invest on the losing side here, right? I finally bought Blue-ray HD after HD DVD lost the battle.

I’m enjoying the spectacle. I’ve got the Kindle, I’ve got the iPhone with the Kindle app on it, and I’ll probably buy an Apple iPad for its entertainment value, form factor, and long batterly life. For ebooks the iPhone Kindle app is still my favorite, so I’ll probably use the Kindle app on the iPad too, when I get it — if Apple doesn’t block it, that is. I don’t see how the bells and whistles of the new iBook reader can be worth the extra $5. But, since it’s not shipping for a few months anyhow, I’m going to wait and watch.

And I’m especially watching the strategy play out. Several of these big players can make bold decisions that will cut off competition and annoy the hell out of buyers. Is that the way it’s going to go?

(Image credit: from Mashable’s recent post on the eBook War)