Kindle Review – Kindle Fire Review, Kindle 4 Review

We stand at the cusp of what might be the golden age of eReaders – 2010 and beyond.

It’s worth looking at the challenges that the Kindle, the Nook, and eReaders face.

10 biggest challenges eReaders face

1. Positioning – Interpretation of reading as reading books and not reading in general.
2. Lack of awareness of the eReader experience – There’s not enough presence in retail stores and even the Television ads don’t show what eReaders can do (read in sunlight and so forth).
3. Physical Books and people’s attachment to them.
4. Perception – That there is a decline in reading books and that eReaders aren’t cool because there isn’t color.
5. Publishers – Who seem to spend half their time trying to kill eReaders.
6. Competition from other forms of entertainment.
7. Pricing – In addition to a medium end eReader ($250) and a high-end eReader ($400) we also need a low-end eReader around $100 to $150.
8. Lack of Innovation in eInk - There isn’t enough innovation plus improvements trickle in slowly. 
9. Lack of Killer features. The best features are scattered amongst eReaders.
10. Lure of multi-functionality – A lot of forces trying to push eReaders in non-reading directions.

These are significant challenges and it’ll be interesting to see how eReader companies address them.

Additional Challenges to eReaders

1. Lack of top-level competition – With all due respect to Sony and B&N we haven’t really seen anyone put together an eReader that is clearly better than the Kindle (or even equal).
2. Lack of writing functionality – You can’t take notes easily and it removes writing and note-taking which are so complementary to reading.
3. Lack of easy input i.e. terrible keyboards.
4. Lack of International Availability - It’s just in the last 2 months that eReaders have started becoming available around the world.

Possible solutions to challenges eReaders face

These are just quick stabs and please do add your own thoughts -

Positioning

Positioning eReaders as book readers was important to establish a foothold. Now it’s time to expand the market and here are things that will help -  

1. eReaders dedicated to certain markets such as Kindle DX (textbooks and newspapers) and Que (business). We definitely need an eReader aimed at school children.
2. Positioning eReaders as ‘all sorts of reading’ devices and not just ‘book readers’.

This is perhaps the most important challenge to address.

Lack of Awareness

There are still lots of people who haven’t seen the Kindle or the Sony Reader and they are mistaken about fundamental issues i.e. some people think the screen will hurt their eyes like LCDs, they aren’t aware you can read in sunlight, etc.

Things that could potentially be done -

1. Start selling eReaders in more physical stores.
2. Have television and print ads that actually show what the eReader and the screen are like. Please – no more shiny, happy people.
3. Figure out other ways to increase awareness of key eReader advantages. 

Physical Books and people’s attachment to them

There are two paths to choose from here -

1. Show advantages eReaders have over physical books i.e. storage, portability, the Internet connection, changeable font sizes, etc. 
2. Position eReaders as an add-on to books i.e. improve your reading experience by getting an eReader to go with your books.

There is a segment of people who are wedded to the notion of physical books and the only way to get them on board is to paint something other than eReader as the enemy. Take TV watching and make it evil and the enemy - eReaders simply help books fight TV and other evils (which is what they are doing).

Perception that reading is on the decline and eReaders are not cool

The positioning point will cover a lot of this i.e. eReaders are for reading everything.

People who don’t like reading books won’t ever think eReaders are cool unless they see you can do all sorts of reading with eReaders – recipes, sheet music, newspapers, school books, work documents, blogs, and so forth.

Publishers

Unfortunately there’s no easy solution here. Publishers stand to lose their power as gatekeepers, their way of life, their profits, and their jobs.

Perhaps just leave them to the companies that are using their greed to set them up for slaughter.

At this point eReader companies have enough momentum to withstand push-back from Publishers.

Competition from other forms of Entertainment

This is huge. There are a few key things here -

1. Leverage technology to make things really, really easy. As easy as turning on the TV. eReaders already do things like Kindle 60 second downloads. 
2. Do a really good job for your profitable customers. Booklovers, travellers, commuters, school-children, professionals, authors, etc. all need to be treated really well and with loyalty.  
3. Keep cutting the costs and increasing the value. Publishers have been doing the opposite and that’s the real reason reading was declining a bit – It’s not any more.

Reading is becoming cool again – eReaders just have to finish the job.

Pricing

Contrary to the analysts who think the $100 eReader is the holy grail, my feeling is that there will be 3 markets -

1. High End eReaders. Around $400 and higher. 
2. Medium End eReaders. Around $250. 
3. Low End eReaders. Around $100 to $150.

There is enough profit in the first two to not have to worry about the third.

It’s quite simple – people who are reluctant to pay $250 for an eReader just aren’t likely to buy a lot of books or be a lucrative customer base.

eReader companies should focus on providing enough value to make the $250 price a no-brainer.

Lack of Innovation in eInk

This problem might get solved by one or more of -

1. Mirasol from Qualcomm.
2. Pixel Qi technology. 
3. SiPix - the main competitor to eInk/PVI. 
4. eInk itself.

Lack of color has been turned into some sort of night stalker that will kill people who buy an eReader and we need color eReaders desperately. Preferably by mid 2010.

Lack of Killer Features

Why is it that the killer features are split up between eReaders?

1. The Kindle has Free Internet and the best ebook prices and Read To Me. 
2. Nook has the color LCD screen for navigation and LendMe and Library Books.
3. Sony Reader has the eInk touch screen and drawing and Library Books.

We really, really need an eReader that includes at least 75% of the killer features.

Lure of Multi-Functionality

Simplest solution ever – Disregard this.

While eReaders should continue to evolve to support all forms of reading, they should stay away from losing their focus on reading.

All sorts of reading means -

1. Internet connectivity to get online content. 
2. A Web Grabs feature like Alex has to read online content on your eInk screen. 
3. Support for newspapers, magazines, work documents, blogs, websites, and of course books.

Lack of Top Level Competition

This is going to fix itself when the 3rd generation Sony Readers and the Nook 2 show up.

Plus we’ll have the Que, the Alex (which is a surprisingly strong entry), and lots of other devices aimed at reading debut in 2010.

Lack of Writing Capability

Writing is a hugely crucial feature.

1. It complements reading via note-taking and marking text.
2. It involves the sense of touch much more.
3. It adds a lot of value via a Notepad feature and a Journal feature.
4. It makes eReaders much better suited for school children and college students.
5. It’s fast.

Closing Thoughts on Challenges eReaders are Facing

The Kindle with wireless delivery of books and a solid range of books (relatively) started off the mass adoption of eReaders.

In 2010 and 2011 we really need Amazon and other eReader companies to step up their game.

The most important fronts are -

1. Positioning eReaders as ‘readers’ for reading anything.  
2. Managing Perception.
3. Increasing Awareness and getting a lot of people to see what eReaders actually are. 
4. Making it about eReaders+Books Vs Other Forms of Entertainment. 
5. Making things easier for customers and treating customers well. 
6. Getting 75% off the killer features into one eReader.
7. Adding in color and flexibility and some cool features so eReaders have cool technology.

There will be attacks on eReaders from Publishers, multi-purpose device manufacturers, people who don’t like books and people who like them too much.

It’s not going to be easy.

However, if eReader companies address half or more of the 10 biggest challenges eReaders face we will see sales exceed everyone’s expectations – in 2010 and beyond.

Filed under: evolution Tagged: | future of ereader, ideal ereader