Kindle Review – Kindle Fire Review, Kindle 4 Review

Silicon Alley Investor points out that Google Editions will arrive in Japan in Fall 2010. The main details -

1. Book Publishers determine the price of books. 
2. Publishers keep 63% of the sales. 
3. Spring 2010 will be the debut of Google Editions in English speaking countries.
4. In Fall 2010 (6 months after English launch) Google Editions will launch in Japan.
5. Initially books will only be accessible through the web.

Books that can’t be downloaded - Should give people who get upset over DRM something to get worked up about.

MarketWatch chime in with more details -

1. It will be a fee-based service that lets you read complete books on your PCs at a price.
2. For Japan Google aims to stock up on 10,000 books by launch.
3. Google is already talking to smaller publishers.
4. Leading Publishers like Shueisha Inc. and Shogakukan INc. are wary due to Google Book Search.

It’s reasonable to assume eReaders with wireless capabilities and the iPhone will be targeted too.

Guess Google Editions has the same aim Amazon Has

Consider what Mr. Bezos has said is the aim of the Kindle -

Every book ever published in any language – available on the Kindle.

If Google is working on Google Editions Japan you can be sure they’re working on Google Editions in Spanish and French and a lot of other languages.

They have the exact same aim – every book in every language.

It’s going to be really interesting to see whether Amazon will have 10,000 Japanese books available by the time Google Editions Japan debuts.

iPhone is a channel of Good Intent

Had written about how the iPhone is a channel of good intent. Mostly because Gameloft sells 400 times more games for the iPhone than it does for Android.

Well, now there’s even more proof (Olswang Convergence Survey of UK consumers, via 9to5 mac). They think a combination of micropayment capability and richer Apple owners combines to make the iPhone a good platform.

The numbers are quite stunning -

1. 30% of Adult iPhone users would pay for newspaper articles. Only 19% of Adults would. 
2. 42% would pay for a book while only 30% of Adults would. 
3. 38% of Adult iPhone owners would pay for a digital magazine, while just 29% of Adults would.  
4. 57% would pay for an old TV show while only 37% of Adults would.

Across the board Adult iPhone owners are more willing to pay for various forms of content.  

This is certainly great news for authors, publishers and newspaper and magazine companies. They should hurry up their alliances and grand plans and start selling things to people who intend to pay for them.

The iPhone and the Kindle are two of the few remaining channels of good intent – time to focus on them.

Bonus: eReader Survey Results from Olswang Convergence Survey 2009.

Here are a few interesting snippets from the eBook Readers section -

1. 24% of Tech Vanguard (early adopters – 121 users) and 19% of 2nd wave (unearly adopters? 406 users) say they are likely to get an eReader.
2. It was just 9% for main-stream users (726).

What reasons deter people from an eReader? 

1. The top two reasons people are not currently thinking of getting an eReader - they like holding a real book (50% of kids and 55% of Adults) and cost (52% of kids and 42% of adults).
2. Don’t want yet another device – 29% of  kids and 35% of adults.
3. Want to build a library of books at home – 33% of Kids and 32% of Adults.
4. Bad or difficult to read on a screen – 33% of Kids and 32% of Adults. Wow – this should really go down once adoption spreads.
5. Beach or Bath reading is not possible – 32% of kids and 29% of adults.
6. Battery Life concerns – 22% of Kids and 19% of Adults.
7. Already have an application on my iPhone for reading – 3% of Kids and 2% of Adults.

Check the survey page for more.

It certainly seems that a lot of people intend to buy eReaders in the UK and if Amazon and Sony do a better job of removing misconceptions (hurts my eyes, battery life) it would be even higher.

Filed under: news Tagged: | channel of good intent, kindle news