For the first time there was a real Kindle Rival – the Nook. When even Kindle focused blogs think it’s a tie you know the eReader is good (and a big threat).
The amazing thing is Barnes & Noble managed to make the release of the Nook GREAT for Amazon and TERRIBLE for itself.
Two simple reasons -
- Nook doesn’t ship for 5-6 weeks. It gives Amazon a ton of time to retaliate.
- All the Nook buzz and publicity will lead to more Kindle Sales – because there is no Nook to buy.
Let’s look at why Barnes & Noble just gave Amazon an early Christmas Gift.
Nook makes Amazon Kindle amp up its features
The feature list of the Nook is crafted with surgical precision -
- PDF Support.
- Memory Card Slot.
- Replaceable Battery.
- Custom Screensavers.
- Lending Books
- Reading ebooks on PC.
- Reading ebooks on Blackberry
Any list of Top 10 Kindle owner complaints would have most of those – with PDF, Lending and Memory Card support in the Top 5.
Now, Amazon has 5 weeks or more to (and they really, really need to get all of these done) -
- Add PDF Support. A simple fix.
- Add Kindle for PC.
- Add Kindle for BlackBerry.
- Let people add custom screensavers.
Amazon also has 5 weeks to play around with the price of the Kindle, figure out new killer features, and perhaps even add Folders and make Kindle Owners very, very happy.
You have to release a product like the Nook quickly and without giving Amazon time to recover or even answer. That means announce it right before Holiday Season (which B&N did) and have it available NOW (which B&N didn’t).
All the Nook Buzz leads to excited readers who have only the Kindle to buy
It’s obvious that the Kindle and the Nook are close. There’s no match for the Kindle’s Free Internet and Read To Me features and the Nook has lending and PDF support and more.
However, you can’t get the Nook until end of November.
You know that feeling when you can’t wait to get that new thing you bought – to try it out, to own it, to use it.
It’s an exquisite pain to wait even a few days – Who’s going to wait 5 weeks?
A free copy of Tipping Point with preorders? You have got to be kidding.
Would you exchange 5 weeks of owning an eReader for a free copy of Tipping Point?
If Barnes & Noble had read the book instead of giving it away they would know that they have all the momentum and no product to sell.
Congratulations B&N! Your Tipping Point has arrived without a product. Which means you might not get another chance.
Thoughts on B&N’s Strategy, or lack thereof
Are all of Amazon’s rivals getting strategy recommendations from a roadside fortune teller?
- Plastic Logic have been announcing a product for 1.5 years. They actually did a Press Release just to tell us they have a name for it – details to follow in 3 months.
- Sony release their products 3 months before Holiday Season so that Amazon can use Sony’s own strategy (i.e. low price and multiple price points) against them. The $199, $299, $399 Sonys are now swamped by new and refurbished Kindles at $149, $219, $259, $279, $399, and $489.
- Barnes & Noble finally release a legitimate Kindle killer – except they don’t have it available, and won’t for 5 weeks.
- Think about the beauty of running a full page NY Times newspaper advertisement 5 weeks BEFORE the Nook ships.
Mr. Bezos and the Kindle Team at Amazon are probably laughing their heads off – So BN, You mean your great new product is as good as the Kindle and full of sugar and spice and all things nice and is going to blow us away. Except – It doesn’t arrive for a month and a half.
B&N gets all these people excited about eReaders and all they have to buy are Kindles and Sony Readers.
The Nook is Great for the Kindle and for Readers
Amazon have to ramp up the Kindle’s features and value. Which ought to make the Kindle better than the Nook by the time the Nook arrives.
- Existing Kindle owners probably see new features added to retain them.
- Readers looking for eReaders will see a much better value proposition from Kindles.
- Blackberry owners and the mythological people who read ebooks on their PCs get to see Kindle for Blackberry and PC.
- It forces all eReader makers to compete and makes things better for almost everyone who reads.
The Nook does explain why Amazon has been hurrying up things so much and cutting prices. It explains the October 19th release of the International Kindle, why its a US centric release, and the price cut of the US Kindle 2 to $259.
With the Nook Barnes & Noble have manged to help the eReader ecosystem, readers, and the Kindle while simultaneously hurting themselves – perhaps we should give them the eReader Peace Prize.
Filed under: eBook Reader Devices, thoughts | Tagged: kindle vs nook, lack thereof, nook strategy
Excellent commentary! I felt the same way too when they announced, then retracted, the colour reader rumour. ‘A gift that keeps on giving’…
While we expect Amazon to respond, is there any chance that they might not? That would be terrible!
I have a Kindle 1 and the memory slot is empty. Not everybody needs thousands of documents on their device.
I looked at the Sony 500 for months before the Kindle came out. Yes, it had PDF support, no it was not usable. Unless the Nook has reflowable PDF support it will also not be usable.
Sony had its reader out many months before the Kindle, not just this latest generation. It was not sold in large numbers because Sony in inept in the marketing field. Amazon overcame every objection I had to the sony and I bought on at first glance.
I don’t think the battery is an issue. I would rather have the fixed larger longer life battery than a replaceable one. I have the K1 and the K2 and I use the K2.
I don’t think there are enough Blackberry users that read books on their device to even ripple the market. It looks like a good selling point, but it has very little value.
The only reason I would want to read my book on my computer is to see maps, charts, graphs and pictures in a size and resolution that is useable. They are not on the Kindle. I do this with books that I get in PDF and convert to put on my Kindle. (Perhaps you didn’t know that PDFs are generally readable on the Kindle, e-Pub also plus ODT, DOC, TXT, PRC, Mobi, Lit, etc as long as they are not “crippled” with DRM, and even then if you want to strip that off which some people do regularly, not to give it away but to own it instead of rent it).
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Well written post, as always, but I think you’re wrong on a key point: the 5 weeks lead time.
People who love gadgets and don’t have a Kindle are salivating. Heck, I have a Kindle and I’m salivating!
Remember the iPhone? Announced months before its release and there were fanboy and fangirl lines around the block at every Apple store.
The nook™ is set for a release timed for holiday shopping and business bonuses. I seriously doubt that Amazon will release another addition to their line right now. The international Kindle will spur sales in other markets, but that probably won’t affect Amazon US sales. I bet most people buy the cheaper Kindle 2.
I see that Amazon has already announced Kindle for Mac & PC. I bet that a few of your predictions will come true on the software end, but I’m a little doubtful of PDF. As others have pointed out, the nook™’s PDF reading may not be all that great.
I’m betting B&N made sure that Project Guttenburg and Google free PDF books look fine on the nook, but somehow I doubt that your random business document or medical text with charts and footnotes will be all that intelligible on a six inch screen without major zooming abilities. If B&N had that, they probably would already have included it in their videos and promo materials.
For me, I’m telling friends that the two features the nook doesn’t have that the Kindle does are features I don’t use that much: free internet and text to speech. Granted, I’ve loved them when I needed a fix, but I don’t use them constantly. Except Wikipedia.
I’m a little confounded by B&N’s not allowing the nook to connect to non B&N WiFi networks — I think a great selling point would be connecting and synchronizing your nook to your home network wirelessly and automatically.
Because it’s Android, I bet you that there will some smart person who will devise an app for accessing the WiFi for other, very interesting things on the nook.
Actually the nook will be able to connect to non B&N WiFi networks. If you want extra store promotions you need to connect to the B&N hotspot.
I purchased a sony reader and was surprised to find that sonys bookstore is a lot more expensive than amazon and B/N two out of the three latest books that I wanted to read was at least 6 dollars more,,,this adds up I like the sony reader but can i afford the books for it,,I have contacted the sony support for price match ,,they dont seem to care
buy your books from other stores in formats that work with Sony Reader. Sony supports ePub and PDF as far as my understanding goes.
What books were you looking to buy?
Also check mobileread.com for book deals for Sony.
Yea tried that they all three of the big sellers amazon,,B/N ,,and sony all have locked formats of course they want you to buy their books ,,unfortunatly I purchased the reader that had the highest price for their books…live and learn
try fictionwise.com and ereader.com for books in formats usable on the sony reader. also baen.com and suvudu.com .