Kindle Review – Kindle 3 Review, iPad Review

Let’s say an eReader company got founded today - and all of us were putting it together.

What would be the right way to set it up and run it?

What would be the things that would make us most likely to succeed - How do we even define success?

What is success for an eReader company?

What would be the definition of ‘success’ for an eReader company?

1. Creating a great eReader.
2. Selling a lot of eReaders. 
3. Advancing reading. 
4. Rethinking books.
5. Being true to physical books and recreating the experience.
6. Setting up a system that sells lots of books.
7. Maximize earnings for authors.
8. Minimize costs for readers.
9. Maximize our earnings.
10. Provide a platform.

What sort of eReader would we build?

Let’s say we have a definition of success. Obviously our device would have to be built with that in mind.

1. The price point.
2. The quality of workmanship.
3. The design.
4. The focus.
5. Whether we make things easy or difficult.
6. Whether we make it exclusive or mass market.
7. Whether it just reads or does a bunch of things.

The device would sort of be an enabler for whatever our aim was and an enabler for our vision of the future of reading.

Would we make something that was true to our aim or would we make something that sort of managed to do what we wanted it to do.

Who would our customers be?

There are so many people to choose from.

1. Publishers – in which case we try to maximize profits for them and perhaps for ourselves.
2. Readers – in which case convenience and quality and features become important.
3. Device owners i.e. we focus on just creating an ereader and leave the rest up to someone with a Cloud.  
4. Authors – are we creating something that helps authors?
5. Hard core readers – at the cost of ignoring the mass market.
6. The Mass Market – at the cost of ignoring dedicated readers.
7. People who want a multi-purpose device.
8. People who want a status indicator.
9. People who want identity.

Would we have just one set of customers or multiple sets of customers? Who takes precedence and to what extent?

Perhaps, after we figure out who our customers are, our criteria for success changes. Perhaps the opposite happens and we define success and realize that who our customers are changes completely.

What would our beliefs and mindset be? 

There are so many beliefs circulating around Publishing and Books – How do we know which are good and which are bad? Which are beliefs that even though they are true are things that lead to failure?

1. No one reads any more. 
2. Reading makes us smarter. 
3. Reading is good for kids.
4. Reading is going to die out.
5. Books must evolve.
6. Books are perfect and shouldn’t be changed.
7. Publishers make too much.
8. Authors make too much. 
9. eBooks should be $15.
10. eBooks should be $3.
11. Books should be free.
12. DRM is necessary.
13. DRM is evil.
14. No one is going to pay for books.

What’s the set of beliefs that an eReader company would have to adopt and then propagate to succeed?

Is there a mindset that is powerful enough to save and even boost reading? Does reading need to be saved?

How do we measure success?

There are lots of metrics we can measure to gauge success. Which one do we use?

1. Number of books sold.
2. Number of books read.
3. Number of advertising impressions served up.
4. Level of intelligence amongst readers.
5. Level of literacy.
6. Amount of pleasure readers get from books and ereaders.
7. Profits.
8. Revenue.
9. Profits per customer.
10. How happy we are.

Do we define and measure success in terms that are important to us or do we adopt someone else’s priorities?

What is our timeline?

There must be some sort of outlook to a company. Some sort of schedule or timeline around which we can plot our path and goals.

1. Is the journey the destination?
2. Do we have a few hundred years as our timeline?
3. Perhaps 20 years.
4. Perhaps a 5 year exit.
5. Perhaps it’s just something to try out for a year.

Closely tied to timeline is our level of committment -

Is our eReader just something we are testing out? Is it one of 10 different products? Is it just a way to gather customers?

Are we committed to the point where there is no timeline – we live and die with books.

Why the thoughts on eReader mindset and clarity?

Just wondering about all the companies that are getting into ereaders and ebooks.

• What are they looking for – is it just money or is there a grand plan?
• Did they even think about it – or did they just jump in and decide they’ll figure things out?

We have 50 or so different companies making eReaders and we have perhaps 5 or 10 true innovations and perhaps 2 or 3 eReaders that seem like they’re part of a coherent vision for the future of books.

Are eReaders getting better or worse?