Kindle Review – Kindle Fire Review, Kindle 4 Review

There’s a very interesting exchange going on right now -

1. Paul Graham has written a long essay on how Apple’s app review process is broken and how it’s doing a lot of damage to Apple. With snippets like the following it’s rather alarming -
   

   How much of the goodwill Apple once had with programmers have they lost over the App Store? A third? Half?

   And that’s just so far. The App Store is an ongoing karma leak.

2. ynniv at the ‘a life of coding’ blog has written a reply and he feels that developers are over-valuing their apps. Here’s a snippet -
   

   I am a long time Mac user, and I will tell you that nobody cares about your app, least of all Apple. I didn’t buy the iPhone because of you, I bought it because of Apple

ynniv adds on some very wise words -

If Apple is pissing off developers, I personally think this is great. Instead of building yet another iPhone app that Apple has to test and only your friends will ever use, you’ll think about building your own hardware, or an app for another phone, or a web app that will be usable on any device for decades.

Anyways, let’s look at the situation differently i.e.

1. Apple thinks it can do a better job than anyone else of creating a great Phone for users and providing great apps on it.  
2. A few companies and a few developers think they can do a better job than Apple.

Basically the latter group want to dictate to Apple how it should run its App Store.

In this conflict we are seeing a great example of high maintenance, low reward customers and partners -

1. Customers/Partners who say – We want freedom. We want unmonitored access. We want openness. Apple is Evil and so forth. 70% Revenue and 50 million customers isn’t enough for us.

These are bad customers because they are enemies of the future you have envisioned for your product.

These high maintenance customers are very expensive.

• Sometimes they are infinite maintenance customers who will never be happy.
• At times they have an agenda that is what is driving them (as opposed to actual product complaints).
• They often are just a few percentage points but account for 80% of the bad publicity and customer service costs.

Is it worth keeping such customers happy?

No. Because they are fundamentally opposed to your vision for your product/service and they will fight it at every turn.

It’s better to cut them out as soon as possible – before they can get a foothold and cause real damage.

Let’s switch over to the Kindle and consider the high maintenance customers there.

High Maintenance, Low Reward Kindle Customers and Partners

While a lot of requests and complaints are justified (prices less than $10, folders, better contrast, unbreakable screens, etc.) there are some customers and partners who have unrealistic demands -

1. Customers who want color and don’t accept that eInk hasn’t fully evolved yet.  
2. People who think $259 for an eReader is highway robbery.
3. Anyone who thinks $10 ebooks are too expensive.
4. Anti-DRM people. Yes, it’s unrealistic to expect authors and publishers to sell books without any guarantee of payment.  
5. People who complain Kindle doesn’t do anything other than reading.

These are customers Amazon and the Kindle just can’t support if they want to stay true to their vision of replacing books (and paper).

Take something like demand for $3 ebook prices. That would kill Publishing and Authors would be left without a means of livelihood.

Yet to the customers who are stuck on wanting $3 ebooks that thought never crosses their mind.

These are not good customers and losing them is better than keeping them.

Another Example

Take someone who wants a cheaper, multi-purpose device. They won’t say it outright – however, in their mind they’re thinking an iPhone-like eReader for $100.

• The iPhone is $99 only after carrier subsidy. 
• Kindle is focused on reading – It’s an eReader.

How can it suddenly morph into a video playing multi-purpose device? Why would it?

A lot of these people don’t even read much and yet they want to dictate how a reading device should evolve.

Perfect example of a bad customer.

The Point – Companies should consciously lose bad customers and bad partners.

Not only lose them – Also tune them out and ignore their requests.

• 20-40% people asking for Folders. It fits in with reading. That means do it.
• 1-2% people asking for an eReader they can play video games on. Let some other company serve them.

How do you know a customer is a bad customer?

It’s simple -

Good Customers

1. If they want to be able to spend their money more easily they’re good customers. 
2. If they want to be able to give you their money they’re good customers.

If they’re thinking win-win or are open to it, then they are great customers.

Any customer that is taking you in a win-win direction or increasing profits is a great customer.

Every other customer is either a mediocre customer or a bad customer. 

Bad Customers 

1. If their intent is simply to get something changed for the sake of the change they’re likely to be bad customers.
2. If their argument for a feature is non-tangible or something you are ‘supposed to do’ they might be bad customers.
3. If they are moving you in the direction of lower profits or no profits they’re bad customers.
4. If they de-value your work they are terrible customers.

Listening to Bad Customers is Poison

User behavior is a better indicator than what occasional feedback tells you.

The only dependable feedback is -

1. Things customers vote for with their money. 
2. Customer issues more than 5% of the customer base have.
3. Things that people are saying they’d pay more for, or keep paying for.

Why are there so many eReader bad customers?

The scope of the opportunity (transition in publishing, lots of opportunities for middle-men, etc.) means that there are lots of hidden agendas and confused people -

1. Some customers who want a free ride.  
2. Customers and Authors who want to fight for a philosophical victory.
3. Partners who want to maximize their profits.
4. People who are confusing cost of physical book printing with cost of book creation.
5. Companies that want to weaken Publishing and step in. 
6. Customers that want the best of both worlds i.e. cheaper prices and convenience of ebooks while keeping the benefits of physical books like sharing and re-selling.

There are a ton of bad customers and bad partners in Publishing.

Any sustainable vision for the Future of Publishing has to exclude these customers.

That means cutting them out as soon as possible by totally ignoring them - /ignore.

Figuring out what customers/partners are worthwhile comes down to a simple question -

Is their vision of the Future of Publishing a win-win situation or is it heavily skewed in their favor?

Filed under: publishing Tagged: | future of publishing