This is a compilation of various Amazon Kindle facts, design considerations, and future blueprints that Jeff Bezos has revealed in interviews etc. Its the 2008 version. It gets much more interesting in 2008 – mostly a function of Kindle’s success, coupled with the absolute secrecy around the degree of success.
Bezos on Kindle, 2008 -
- Mr. Bezos answering a question on book availability on the Kindle [Staci D Kramer interview from PaidContent.org] -
- Walt Mossberg interview of Jeff Bezos at ‘All Things D’ Conference (this + next 5 snippets; also video version). This had a lot of good snippets. The first was that Amazon got into making the Kindle because it was a customer need, as opposed to an Amazon skillset.
- Mr. Bezos (and this is an important metric in terms of Kindle’s popularity at that time) – “On a title-by-title basis, Kindle unit sales now account for more than 6% of Amazon book sales for the 120,000 titles that are available on Kindle.”
- Interview date is May 28, 2008, and Mr. Bezos says – The next iteration of the device is a ways off.
- Also Mr. Bezos said that if an e-book competitor added decent Web browsing to its e-book, Amazon might too. “In some ways the Web is the most important book in the world.”
- When asked about DRM on the Kindle – Bezos says Kindle’s default setting is DRM-free. It’s DRM agnostic and publishers determine how the device will manage their copyrights. Mr. Bezos: “My own view is that DRM-free does not slow down sales.”
- When asked whether there will be a version 2 soon, Mr. Bezos instead said – “There will be a first version and a second version and a tenth version. It will probably take us 10 years to develop it but you have to get started.”
- [Smart Money interview on Nov 28th - this + next] When asked if he thinks the Kindle will lengthen attention spans shortened by the Internet, Mr. Bezos said ”Yes, I think people will read more, not less”.
- Mr. Bezos on adding color and animation to the Kindle screen -
“Color or animation isn’t likely. E Ink [the type of technology Kindle employs] display doesn’t support color in a commercial way. Plus, the rapid screen updates required for animation create eyestrain. The Kindle is more like a printed page — easier on your eyes.”
- [David LaGesse Interview Oct 29th, 2008 - this + next] When asked about Kindle sales -
We’re now up to over 190,000 titles on Kindle. That is double the number of titles we had at launch. More than 10 percent of book units we sell in that universe of titles is in Kindle format. We took 14 years building our physical books business. To have more than 10 percent of unit sales already being Kindle format where we have both Kindle version and a physical version is pretty astonishing to us.
- When asked if the Kindle could also sub as a media player, Mr. Bezos said “We’re very focused on making Kindle a purpose-built reading device. Reading is important enough that it deserves a purpose-built device.”
“The vision for Kindle is every book ever in print in any language—all available in less than 60 seconds. That’s the vision. To really literally get every book - that’s in print, out of print, every language – that’s going to takes us years of work. We want to make it possible for you to have instant reading access to any book that’s ever been created. Visions take a long time to achieve. It’s a bold vision but I think it’s a really cool vision and we’re excited about it.”
Really interesting to see that for versions of books available in Kindle and physical format, Kindle sales already are 10% (in number of units sold) of the total. Also, it’s cool that Amazon is committing to the Kindle on a long term basis – perhaps, they should buy out the eInk company and expand capacity so they don’t miss any more Christmas seasons.
Filed under: kindle Tagged: | jeff bezos, kindle interview
On point 8, I’d like to say that I think this is working a bit. At least for me.
I have found that since I’ve bought my Kindle, I’ve been reading a LOT more than I ever have.
I remember a while back when I was doing the research on whether or not I should buy a Kindle, I feared my attention span wouldn’t warrant the price of the Kindle. After all, I’ve been such a sporadic reader all of my life. I even had a Franklin eBookman once and didn’t use it that much.
Also, during my research, I saw plenty of people thinking that people wouldn’t read any more than they had before the Kindle.
However, I can say that the Kindle has greatly changed my reading. I am rarely anywhere without it. Can’t say the same for any book I’ve ever had previously.
I wonder, am I in the minority? Is the rise of sales due purely to impulse buy or are there a lot more people out there that are reading more now because of the Kindle?
On quote 9, it would definitely be a mistake if they never employ color AND animation. Animation doesn’t *need* to cause eye strain and can be a much-needed addition to a book. It may not be feasible for the moment, but they do need to at least work towards these kinds of displays.
The idea of the book in general needs to be rethinked. Especially if we’re going to have textbook-centric Kindles.
Many textbooks these days include CDs with video, images, etc. to accompany the text. How are we expected to get all of this content? Wouldn’t it be more efficient to just put this stuff in the text where it belongs? Books are no longer about text-only if you’re a student. They *need* the multimedia aspects.
And what about all the image-heavy photography and art books that we already see on the Kindle? There’s really very little reason to have any of those books on the current Kindle! But, if they would develop the screens that should be available on competing devices within 3 years, they would continue have THE hold on the digital book marketplace.
I just hope that he’s not serious about saying that color and animation isn’t likely…
(On a side note, color eInk has a great need in one major niche group: digital photo frames. LCDs are not always the way I want to go when it comes to displaying photos on the wall. Wouldn’t it be lovely if we could have full-color digital photo frames that mimicked glossy, matte, etc. papers? Yeah, probably just a pipe dream for a while. Hmmm… combining the Kindle store with an art gallery does have some intriguing possibilities…)
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