Kindle Review – Kindle Fire Review, Kindle 4 Review

After a few weeks of spending a bunch of time on kindle forums and social media sites it’s interesting to see how there’s a gulf between -

1. What the mainstream press think is happening. 
2. What the main stream blogs are covering and think is happening. 
3. What actual people are talking about and doing.

Kindle Trends according to main stream media

1. Nook is a color eReader that allows lending and is the next evolution of eReaders – Nook is going to kill Kindle.
2. Kindle is doing well – However, it surely couldn’t be doing too well.  
3. Gifting and Buying eReaders might be a big holiday trend.

There’s a decent amount of coverage. 

Kindle Trends according to main stream Blogs

1. Nook is better than everything else. Kindle might be dead already.  
2. Kindle is doing very well – Probably 50,000 to 100,000 are being sold a month. 
3. eReaders might be a big holiday trend.
4. Kindle DRM is evil, not selling books is evil.
5. When will the Apple JesusReader arrive so we can make sense of people buying eReaders.

To be fair it’s mostly – Apple JesusReader, Nook Kindle Killer, anti-DRM.

Kindle Trends that are actually going on

Here are the things that are actually happening -

People trying to get information on the Nook

Engadget showed their journalistic integrity by removing their article on Nook performance. Some people think it’s great. Some think it’s sluggish.

Since it’s all B&N staff we have to wait for The Early Show tomorrow to get a fair nook review.

The people who are supposedly going to buy so many Nooks are trying to find out about it.

People in love with Amazon Customer Service. 

You can’t go anywhere without running into people delighted with Amazon’s customer service.

• It’s even more remarkable because people are far more likely to complain than lavish praise.

Amazon is building up so much goodwill and it might be the biggest barrier for a rival eReader.

B&N on the verge of messing up their relationship with customers

Here’s what B&N have done -

1. Delayed Nook shipments by over a week. 
2. Not apologized for the delay. 
3. Been rather opaque about what’s going on.
4. Over-promised – People still don’t realize LendMe is limited and that Publishers can turn it off.

The Nook better be worth all the trouble people have gone through or that 14 day return period is going to be used very liberally.

Kindles being bought for Kids

Forums, Twitter, everywhere -

1. Can I buy one for my 12-year-old?
2. What is the youngest age?
3. What about a Kindle for my 8-year-old?

It’s just surprising that no one is picking up on this – and even more surprising that Amazon doesn’t address this.

Very few users care about DRM or Formats

It’s just strange to go from -

1. Blogs where DRM is public enemy number one and ePub is the great white hope.
2. To users in forums that hardly ever bring it up. Less than 10% of users care about formats or DRM.

There’s not even anything to write because people don’t really ask about it.

A recent concern is whether you can buy books for the Kindle from other stores and have already covered that (you can).

There’s a clear split between people who want an eReader for reading and those who want something they can also read on

It’s really, really clear -

1. There are people who want a dedicated eReader. 
2. There are people who want the new cool thing that you can also read on and think the Kindle or Nook is it.

Don’t even know what to say to the latter because their expectation of something that also lets you read is so different from what an eReader actually is.

It’s two separate markets and neither the Press nor the Blogs are making this clear.

People care a lot about reading in bed and reading on flights

The number of people who have reading in bed or reading on flights as their main concern is stunning -

1. Amazon (and Nook and Sony) ought to include a $5 clip-on light with the eReader. They also need to address the reading in bed concerns.  
2. There really needs to be better information on using Kindles on flights.

An inordinate amount of people seem upset that they can’t use the Kindle during take-off and landing.

People, instead of waiting for $100 readers, are buying multiple eReaders

The great myth that we need $100 eReaders before we get to 5 to 10 million eReaders is exposed when you consider -

1. The number of people who are buying multiple eReaders for themselves.
2. The number of Kindles being gifted.
3. That $259 is not a very high price.

There are a few people talking about their wish for a $100 price. However, most people are far more concerned about how good eReaders are for reading.  

Closing Thoughts

It really does seem that both the main stream media and the main stream blogs are -

1. Figuring out in their head what they think should happen. Or what they would like to happen.
2. Going out and finding data to support that.
3. Very consciously ignoring all the data points that indicate there are much bigger trends going on.

Here are the four biggest Kindle Trends based off of what people are saying (not my opinion – this is based on research) -

• People just can’t get good information on eReaders.
• Kindle for Kids is much bigger than Kindle for college students. 
• Amazon’s customer service is as big an advantage as any.  
• People looking to buy a device for reading don’t have reducing the price as a top 3 requirement.

Also, B&N’s retail store advantage might be very significant when B&N stores finally get demo units in January.  

Lack of awareness and Misinformation are the biggest things holding back eReaders.

It’s not DRM or ebook prices or eReader prices or lack of openness. The biggest actual Kindle trends have close to zero overlap with what the Press are writing about.

Filed under: kindle, Reality Tagged: | kindle trends