Kindle Review – Kindle 2 Review, Books

We reviewed the state of epaper a few days back – However, there’s a lot more to the Kindle 2 (or any eReader) than just the screen technology.

Let’s review -

1. The current state of the eReader.
2. What the eReader ought to have evolved into by now – the ideal eReader benchmark.

We’ll also review the Kindle 2 (arguably, the best current eReader) against our ideal eReader benchmark.

State of the eReader – Price

Importance: Price is currently the single biggest barrier to wide-scale adoption of the eReader.
2009 Ideal Benchmark: The ideal would be to have three models -

The Kindle 1 equivalent economy model for $100.  Perhaps with no free Whispernet except for buying books.

The Kindle 2 equivalent main stream model (plus more features) for $150-$200.

The Kindle DX equivalent luxury model (again with additional benefits such as folding design) for $250.

Current Best eReader for Price: The Kindle 1 (refurbished) at $199 and the discounted JetBook at Newegg at $199.
Review Grade: B-. We’re still far off from where we ought to be.
Kindle 2: $299 is a decent price. However, it’s still $100 to $150 above what it ought to be for mass adoption.

State of the eReader – Price of Books

Importance: Arguably, the second most important factor after price of the eReader.
2009 Ideal Benchmark: $9 – $10 for new releases. $5-$7 for paperbacks. $1-$3 for indie authors.  
Current Best eReader Store: Kindle Store.   
Review Grade: A. We’ve already hit the ideal in this factor.
What’s Still Missing: It’d be good to have -

1. Same Day Release of eBooks maintained. Some publishers are threatening to go to a movies and DVDs model. 
2. $1 option to add ebooks to hardcovers and paperbacks.  
3. $5 option to add the author-narrated audio-book to ebook.  
4. Free TTS enabled on all books.

State of the eReader – Screen Technology

Importance: Many of the drawbacks of eReaders stem from the fact that eInk technology is still evolving. This means a lack of color, slow refresh speed, no video, and the touchscreen v readability conundrum.  
2009 Ideal Benchmark: Great Readability. Color. Touch. Flexible. Better Contrast. Faster Page Turns.
Current Best eReader: Please see my State of ePaper post to see what’s already been done and what’s on the way. The Fujitsu Flepia is the best eReader for Screen Technology –
Review Grade: A- on readability. F on everything else. This is the Achilles Heel of the eReader.
Kindle 2 Screen: A- readability, B- grade overall. Having a dependency on external technology makes Amazon very vulnerable.

State of the eReader - Usability

Importance: Makes things very, very simple and accelerates adoption.
2009 Ideal Benchmark: These are the features we ought to have had by now -

1. Folders.  
2. Touchscreen keyboard AND slide-out keyboard. The On-Screen keyboard should have something like Swype (40 wpm typing speed after a few days of use) -  
   By the way, Swype has a killer background and is based in Seattle (hint, hint Amazon). Founder’s backgrounds -

   Cliff is the co-inventor of T9, the standard predictive text-entry solution used on over 2.4 billion mobile phones worldwide.

   Randy is the developer of the onscreen keyboard included in Windows, with an installed base of over a half a billion units.

3. Handwriting Recognition.
4. Tags and Libraries (libraries like Windows 7 has).
5. Blackberry style jogwheel for better scrolling.

Current Best eReader: None.
Review Grade: B-. No eReader comes close to great usability.
Kindle 2: B-. Kindle 2 simplifies things a lot - However, lack of folders and the terrible keyboard and slow navigation negate that.  

State of the eReader – Social Reading and Community Aspects

Importance: Reading has very strong aspects of sharing, recommendations and word of mouth. Technology gives us the chance to bring people even closer and make recommendations and sharing easier.
2009 Ideal Benchmark: eReaders connected to each other, and to the Internet. Ideally, books are shareable once – else, first few chapters of books are shareable. A Reading Web.
Current Best eReader: None. Kindle 2 is the only one that’s connected and it does nothing to encourage sharing.
Review Grade: F. Nothing good exists.
Kindle 2: F.
What’s Missing?  

1.  eReader to eReader recommendations, book sharing (or first few chapters sharing), chat, and email.
2. Email snippets from a book (size restrictions that are reasonable). 
3. Support for Indie Authors.  
4. Book Clubs.
5. Collaborative Notes. Sharing Notes.
6. Update Facebook, LibraryThing etc. with books read, ratings, etc. Do it once on your eReader and all chosen sites get updated.

State of the eReader – Openness Part 1: Apps and Formats

Importance: Lets look at two important aspects of Openness that are less controversial first -

1. 3rd Party Applications – This is crucial as it turns an eReader into a platform and adds value for users. Features like a Journal, detailed Calculators, Folders and much more would get added.
2. Formats – Focus on one preferred format ought to be combined with backwards compatibility with other formats (including PDF, Mobi, Word).  

2009 Ideal Benchmark: An eReader that allows for a thriving 3rd party app store and also supports nearly all formats.
Current Best eReader: PlasticLogic isn’t out – However it’s promising more openness than any other eEreader so far.
Review Grade: F. Both Kindle and Sony Reader are too closed.
Kindle 2: F. The reluctance to add PDF support to Kindle 2 and reluctance to open a Kindle App Store are both strange.

State of the eReader – Openness Part 2: DRM and 3rd Party Bookstores

I really don’t know what to write here. If we remove DRM and let anyone sell books via Kindle, Sony and PlasticLogic networks (whenever they’re up and working) -

1. Idealistic Scenario -
   

   DRM-Free means: Everyone pays for books they buy. There’s no pirating.

   Open Stores means: Some sort of equilibrium develops and various stores dominate various niches. Companies continue to develop technology and the eco-system.

2. Most Likely Scenario –  
   

   DRM-Free means: Most people don’t pay for books they buy. Studies have shown that in groups larger than 150 reputation gets hard to track and people are no longer ‘well behaved’.

   In plain english, you no longer need to be good because no one knows who you are.

   Open Stores Means: People compete on price and drive prices to zero. Indie authors will be willing to give away their content, devaluing content in general. Companies will keep cutting prices until Free becomes the norm.

   It’s happening in music and in newspapers. When you let people compete on price with no floor, price tends to zero. Also, there’s no incentive or money to develop infrastructure and better technology if you can’t charge for it.

If we really get a completely DRM free model or an eco-system that has no floor on book prices, we will end up with the destruction of the author occupation. 

If you’re an author –

1. There’s nothing as important as realizing that free is just a competitive strategy.
2. Using the strategy of free devalues the value of your work to zero.  
3. Initially you might get an advantage – However, it forces more and more people to choose free.
4. Once you’ve trained people that your work is worth nothing -> look up ’state of newspapers’.

State of the eReader – Size and Portability

Importance: The book is a pretty tough model to meet in terms of portability, battery life (infinite) and size. The 3 big things priorities for eReaders are -

1. Fold-ability and/or Roll-ability – To combine large size and portability.  Ideally we can create three different sizes (6, 9″, 11.6″) and have all of them foldable/rollable into pocket sized devices.
2. eInk technology and Solar Power to create very high battery life. Neolux is doing it for Point of Purchase displays that last for months –
3. That solar power could also be used to fuel a sidelight for dark times.  

2009 Ideal Benchmark: Foldable 9″ or 11.6″ eReader that folds into a pocket Size.
Current Best eReader for Size and Portability: Readius from Polymer Vision. Except they went bankrupt.
Review Grade: B.
Kindle 2: B. Good for portability and battery life.

State of the eReader – Modes i.e. Allowing Focus on Reading and also Expanding Functionality

Importance: To allow for a lot of add-ons to reading while also keeping the purity of the reading experience intact.
2009 Ideal Benchmark: The concept of Modes -

1. Reading Mode which actually shuts off Internet and all distractions like games.
2. Reference/Research Mode that turns on Internet reference sites and other resources.  
3. Edit/Review Mode – A mode where you can take a document and review it and edit it – literally edit the text in the book.
4. Child Mode – Focus on vocabulary skills, learning exercises. Includes Parental Controls and Internet and purchase limitations.  
5. 3rd Party Custom Modes – Let 3rd party developers create their own modes.

Current Best eReader: Kindle 2, as it forces a focus on reading. It doesn’t have Modes though.
Review Grade: B. It is great for long-form reading.
Kindle 2: B.

State of the eReader – Creating an Author-Reader Centric Model

Importance: We have a chance to create a model that eliminates most middlemen. It would mean lower prices for readers and a larger share of the pie for authors.
2009 Ideal Benchmark: Perhaps something like this -

1. 10-20% to Platform provider. 
2. 10% or so to bandwidth provider. 
3. Rest to Author.  

Current Best eReader Model: Kindle Store.
Review Grade: A.
Kindle Store: A. The jump from $20+ to $9.99 for new books is a huge step forward.

State of the eReader – Personalization and Customization

Importance: Giving your eReader more character and making it yours. Giving individual books more character. In particular, for the Kindle 2 -

2009 Ideal Benchmark: There are two areas that should have been tackled by now -  

1. Personalizing an eReader to the Owner. This includes -
   

   Custom Screensavers.
   Etching and Customized Skins, from Amazon itself.
   Printable designs and Colors, from Amazon itself.
   More choices in Skins and Covers in the Kindle Store.
   Kindle Clings and Stickers, including Book Covers.
   More choices in Fonts.
   Lost Kindle Reward Screen.
   More functionality in the MP3 player.

2. Allowing for Books to have more identity. This includes -
   

   Perhaps a small screen on the back that changes to display cover of the currently reading book (you can turn it off).
   Borders for books.
   Various Font and Typesetting options.
   Author Specific Themes.
   Author Interviews and Notes included.

Current Best eReader: Cool-er. Hyphens might not be cool – However, colors definitely are.
Review Grade: B-. Very few eReaders provide personalization.
Kindle 2: C. There’s little you can do other than add skins and covers.

State of the eReader – Durability

Importance: The excessive care needed is annoying – can’t drop it, can’t take it near water. A solution would use unbreakable screens, a water-proof design (resistant to rain, spills), and a design that incorporates shock-proof and damage proof elements.
2009 Ideal Benchmark: Nothing yet – However Plastic Logic will debut its unbreakable screens in early 2010.
Current Best eReader: None.
Review Grade: B.
Kindle 2: B-. Screen breaks too easily.

Factors that didn’t make the Top 12

1. International Availability (since every eReader except the Kindle seems to have this).  
2. Wireless Connectivity – As its already done excellently with WhisperNet. 
3. Accessibility – The Kindle DX lawsuit should ensure this.  
4. Syncing with Devices – because WhisperSync already does it very well.
5. Storage – Because a ‘reading focused’ device doesn’t need 30 GB capacity. Although an SD card would be a great addition.
6. Enough Stock – This is a Kindle only issue. It is pretty serious though as its slowing down adoption.
7. Text to Speech – Kindle already has this.
8. Free RSS Feeds and Links to Free Books – Because the last thing we want to do is bring the spirit of content has zero value to eReaders.
9. Print to Kindle function.
10. Print from Kindle function.
11. More powerful processor.
12. USB Host Slots that let you plug in a full keyboard or a mouse and use those. Lots of other possibilities.

Another big factor left out is the Kindle Electronic Pen with its Camera and Optical Character Recognition. That’s for the future though.

A quick note on Amazon

This post at times is highly critical of Amazon. The numerous low grades for the Kindle 2 are a result of this post’s focus on improvement, and the fact that hindsight is always 20/20.

Factors like $9.99 Kindle Edition Prices, Whispernet, Text to Speech, WhisperSync are A+ Kindle 2 features that don’t have to be tackled because they’re already so well done.

For all the talk of ‘Amazon is evil’ and the media’s current obsession with attacking the Kindle, it’s worth nothing that –  

1. There would be no thriving ereader business without the Kindle’s success. 
2. There would be no $9.99 price for ebooks.
3. There would not be major players like Apple (perhaps) and Google entering.

Amazon has validated that a market exists.

State of the eReader – Closing Thoughts

It’s been a real struggle to compile this list - Everything we’ve discussed (except for color) should have already been done.

It really is doable in the next 6-12 months and if the Kindle 3 (or another eReader) hits even half of our Top 12 factors it’ll be a HUGE success.

There were dozens of sites that had interesting ideas – one worth checking out is Chamber Four.

Developments that would ensure a bright future for the eReader are -  

1. Apple releases an eReader.
2. Google puts its full weight behind Plastic Logic or Sony.
3. Amazon unleashes the social potential of the Kindle.
4. Authors and creators break free of the old publishing mindset.
5. Readers stick to their guns on $9.99 price limit and their rights.

Amazon with the Kindle, WhisperNet, and the $9.99 price model has basically upended traditional publishing. It’ll be interesting to see whether anyone can wrest the future of publishing from Amazon.