Kindle Review – Kindle Fire Review, Kindle 4 Review

While the ability to access the Kindle Store (or soon, the Sony eBook Store) from anywhere and purchase any book wirelessly is great, you have to wonder about the other side of the Cloud i.e.

 Do readers really want to keep books they’ve bought in the Cloud?

Do readers really want a connection with the Cloud all the time, with automatic updates of books?

Before we jump deeper into that let’s look at what the Cloud is and what it’s competing with.

Cloud Services Vs Smart Personal Computers and Smartphones

There are three initiatives that are being pushed at the moment -

1. Microsoft and Apple are happy with things the way they are i.e. you have your data with you. Plus your personal computer (or phone) is smart.
2. Google, Amazon and web oriented companies want to transfer data and intelligence to the Cloud. In effect your device is a terminal that doesn’t do that much.
3. Cisco, since it makes network routers, wants to make the network itself smarter. So the network would know how best to get you information.  

The third is not very important as Cisco has little chance of succeeding.

It basically comes down to -

1. A model where intelligence and data is in the cloud.
2. A model where most of the intelligence and data is on your PC.

This is where things get very interesting – the Cloud is a lot more than what it seems.

Every Cloud has a silver lining … and downsides

All we hear about is the convenience of the Cloud i.e.

1. Store all your data in the cloud.
2. Access it from any device.
3. Access it anywhere.
4. It’s all backed up.

What about the downsides?

1. There’s some data you just don’t want to share with anyone.  
2. The Cloud changes the concept of buying.
3. We become very dependent on the Cloud.
4. Why would we want a company to have a constant channel to us and our devices?
5. We already have whatever we do on the Internet analyzed – Do we really want what we do on our PCs and Phones analyzed too?

The last point speaks to the hidden bonus for companies that run a cloud.

The Cloud helps companies by providing the sort of customer insights and intelligence they dream about.

There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with companies wanting more information. They would be crazy to pass on the opportunity to know everything about their customers.

The question is – Should customers let companies have all this information?

What do we readers lose when we go with the Cloud?

Perhaps the biggest things lost are control and privacy.

What really upset people about 1984 was the ability to come into people’s Kindles and just vaporize a book.

Mr. Bezos has said it’ll never happen again – which is good. However, the capability remains.

There has been a gradual shift in how much companies get away with.

There was a time when a company saving our searches or our purchases would be considered an invasion of privacy. Now, that’s considered OK.

1. With the old model of everything being on your PC, your data and behavior was yours – no one could analyze it to figure out what to sell you and no one could change it.
2. We are in an intermediate stage where various companies are pushing the boundaries and seeing what people are comfortable with.
3. The end stage is where everything about us is in the cloud and outside our control.

That really is the natural progression of the Cloud.

People are surprised when they find out the extent of information web companies have about us. Our searches, our Facebook accounts, our email – it’s a look into our souls.

However, they can’t predict or mold our behavior … at least not yet.

If the Cloud really took off companies would literally know everything -

1. They would know what you did, where you did it, and for how long. They would sometimes know this before you did,
2. They would be able to predict whether you are going to go golfing or watch sports. You would think you were going golfing this Sunday and then you’d see Pizza Advertisements and wonder why - and realize that it’s because your wife only lets you go golfing alternate weekends and the Cloud knew it based on your past patterns.
3. The Cloud would know that your friend told you about a cool girl he knows (via email) and that you talked to her (via Facebook) and they would show an advertisement for flowers because you set up a date with her for tomorrow.

From there, it’s a hop, skip and jump away to just telling us what to do (in exceedingly subtle ways).

Its not entirely outside the realm of possibility because we are being given all these things for free (conditionally) -

• Free email means we can scan your emails.
• Free Facebook means we can offer up your personal profile on a platter to advertisers.
• Free Cloud means the Cloud can analyze what you buy and what you read.

And so forth. All these free companies do intend to cash in their check sometime.

The debt of free just might turn into a catastrophe.

Back to the topic of eBooks and the Cloud.

The Kindle is designed as an extension of the cloud in many ways. Google Editions are also designed to be based around the Cloud. Apple is thankfully one company that hasn’t fully committed to the Cloud.

2 of the 3 companies most likely to win the war for publishing are Cloud based.

Where does that leave us readers?

With the Cloud as the repository for our ebooks – even the ones we have bought.

With the Cloud as an all-knowing, all-sensing entity that has the capability to mold and influence our behavior.

Is it good for us to have -

1. Our libraries and our purchases in the Cloud. 
2. Have eBooks that can be updated anytime. 
3. Have our eReaders always connected to the Cloud.
4. Be utterly dependent on the Cloud.

Who knows?

Perhaps the Cloud will forever remain benevolent and only serve us for good. Perhaps Asimov’s 3 rules will be fed into the Cloud’s artificial intelligence.

Perhaps Not.

An initial question is -

When the Cloud has to choose between recommending a book that is very profitable or a book that is good for us, what will it recommend?

There are lots of other questions - However, those are for you to ask.

Filed under: thoughts Tagged: | benevolence of the Cloud, lack thereof