ZDNet Government has an article with this title by David Gewirtz.
Amazon’s strategy has been the complete opposite of Apple’s. Amazon realized that their product was really the books, not the book reader. That old saw about selling the blades, not just the razor, holds true for the ebook market. While still protecting their books through DRM, Amazon opened up the Kindle format, not by letting others write Kindle readers, but by porting the Kindle reader to other platforms. A Kindle book purchase is a safe purchase, because you know that even if you don’t read the book on a Kindle — or even if Amazon discontinues the hardware — you’ll still be able to read your book on other platforms. The Kindle is one of the first cases where a centrally-controlled DRM-based product actually has some level of future-proofing.
Gewirtz has a lot more to say and you should really check it out. He brings a new perspective to the debate.
A good analysis. All things being equal (and they seldom are) Amazon is about selling you what you want at the best price they can. They let the customer make the choice of what to buy, and then collect their profit. A penny here, a nickel there, good inventory control, fast, inexpensive, service and a willingness to be up front makes Amazon a tough competitor.
Oddly enough, I buy most of my paper books from Amazon for just that reason. I don’t buy ebooks from them because, other than a PC, I don’t have any devices I can read Kindle books on. I also don’t generally buy DRM encrpyted books. There are still a few unfilled ecological niches.
Regards,
Jack Tingle
What I like about Amazon’s ebook store, given Canadian availability restrictions, is the selection. Plain and simple. It’s the only place I can buy books I want: Greek and Latin. No one else
has them. Plus, I can read them on my iPhone and iPod Touch. After trying all the ereaders available to me in Canada I find the Kindle wins, hands down. I especially like the 3G connectivity and being able to send ebooks to any device from their website. The system works perfectly. None of the others work as well as Amazon. And, their samples are large enough to actually know what you’re about to buy before you decide. I’m quite content.
Sorry, but it’s obvious from Gewirtz’s quote that he’s obviously clueless, or an Amazon shill.
“While still protecting their books through DRM, Amazon opened up the Kindle format, not by letting others write Kindle readers, but by porting the Kindle reader to other platforms.”
This is not opening up the format. Opening up the format means that non-Amazon companies can create readers without permission from Amazon. Until that happens, the Swindle… er… Kindle format is not “open”.
“A Kindle book purchase is a safe purchase, because you know that even if you don’t read the book on a Kindle — or even if Amazon discontinues the hardware — you’ll still be able to read your book on other platforms.”
*Laugh* Yes, until those other platforms go away and you can’t get a Kindle reader for your new platform. A Kindle ebook “purchase” is a rental – subject to Amazon control. If they stop support of the format, the “purchaser” is left out in the cold.
“The Kindle is one of the first cases where a centrally-controlled DRM-based product actually has some level of future-proofing.”
“future-proofing”? What a laugh.
Gewirtz clearly knows absolutely nothing about Apple.
Apple has always claimed and been a hardware company, not a software company. They only use software to sell hardware. Because they clearly make software that is better than most of their competition, they sell more hardware at a premium cost.
The iPad is the same. They aren’t selling the iPad for ebook readers. The iPad doesn’t even come with ebook reading software on the device – you have to download it from their app store. The iPad is geared towards the media masses. Ebook readers simply add more hardware customers as it is just one more (of many) reasons to purchase it.
Forgot to mention that the razor blade analogy doesn’t really work here. Normally, when the razor company makes the razor and blades, they give away the razor and sell the blades, but they are the only ones making blades compatible with their razor.
In Apple’s case, their razor (iPad) is compatible with so many blades (apps) that the blades (apps) sell the razor (iPad) and Apple doesn’t have the only blades that work with their razor.
So, in other words, other booksellers are dishonest? Is that what he is saying? If he wants Greek and Latin books, he should buy them from Greek and UK booksellers, who have them in their original bindings. The “convenience” of buying from Amazon is that you get to read the Kindle books, not own them, and we independent booksellers guarantee you will get the books you order. If you want an opposite view from the usual “hype” about Amazon, just go to complaintsboard.com and type in “amazon.com”.