Kindle Review – Kindle Fire Review, Kindle 4 Review

Tomorrow we see the beginning of preorders for the iPad and since it has been anointed ‘the device that shall kill eReaders and take over ebooks’ it’s worth wondering which ereading app on the iPad will come out on top.

iBooks - the power of the default and Apple’s aesthetic brilliance

The automatic front-runner is Apple’s iBooks App. Let’s count its advantages -

iBooks is the default ebooks app

Apple is going out of its way to avoid Microsoft’s browser bundling issue but that doesn’t change the fact that iBooks is the default reading app. It’s going to be in all the advertising and on the webpage and it’s going to get excellent Apple approved design. 

Add on that it’ll probably be a featured app in the iPad App Store and that iPad owners will gravitate towards an official Apple App and you have iBooks all set to take over the mantle of the #1 iPad ebooks App.

Purchases are really easy with the built-in iBookstore

In addition to all the advantages above we have the advantage that iBooks will feature in-app purchases.

Every other ebooks app will have to use Safari for purchases which makes things less convenient (as compared to buying ebooks from within the app itself). They have to do this because they don’t want to pay 30% to Apple. It’s quite a conundrum – Choose the less elegant way for users to buy books and lose out on sales and user experience or pay Apple 30%.

iBooks will match or come close to Kindle on prices

Thanks to the agency model that Publishers have manged to impose on Amazon (by using the iPad as leverage), and the fact that Apple’s own agreements allow it to discount bestsellers, we might have a competitor to the Kindle that actually matches Amazon’s ebook prices.

Even if Amazon manages to reduce prices Apple won’t be far off.

No matter how you dissect them iBooks’ chances of being the #1 iPad eBooks App are very high.

Kindle for iPad – Amazon, a large user base, and Simplicity

It’s amazing that with all its advantages Kindle for iPad is still the underdog. Here are reasons why Amazon’s Kindle for iPad might spring a surprise -

1. Kindle for iPhone is the #1 eBooks App for the iPhone. A significant number of those users might become iPad owners.
2. 3 million or so Kindle owners.
3. There are lots of people who are part of the Kindle eco-system thanks to the various Kindle Apps. 
4. Amazon still has the best prices.
5. Amazon, at least for the moment, has the best range of new books.
6. Amazon is the most trusted company in America (this is from a survey so it might be inaccurate).
7. There are a ton of loyal Amazon customers.

A focus on reading might give Kindle for iPad a boost

Apple’s iBooks focuses on really pretty bookshelves and animated page turns. You have to wonder whether that will really trump Kindle for iPhone’s simplicity.

Let’s say there’s a contingent of serious readers who buy the iPad to read books on it and read a book a month or more.

What type of reading app would they prefer?

At some point having pretty bookshelves and fancy page turns stops being much of an advantage.

How good will Kindle for iPad be?

The other factor is the range of feature of Kindle for iPad or lack thereof. There’s probably not going to be ePub support, we might not see Blogs and Periodicals, there’s not going to be Text to Speech, and there aren’t going to be many bells and whistles. It’s almost as if Amazon want to make their apps for other platforms good and also ensure they’re not so good that the Kindle becomes an afterthought. They’ll probably do the same with Kindle for iPad.

If the Kindle for iPad goes the route of Kindle for iPhone and is a minimum set of features for reading and simplistic design it’s going to make things interesting.

Stanza – The Best Features

Stanza is in the unique position of having the best features and yet being in the shadow of giants. There’s also the wildcard of it being owned by Amazon. Basically, Stanza became the #1 eReader App on the iPhone and then Amazon bought it. It’s still functioning as an independent eReader app (a very good decision by Amazon).

Stanza’s unique position brings up questions -

Will Stanza be able to replicate their early success on the iPhone and come in first? Will another small company create the #1 ebook reading app for the iPad? Will Amazon buy that company too?

Perhaps. Perhaps. Yes.

Stanza could really go overboard on the iPad

On the iPhone Stanza basically took the bar and blasted it into a million tiny bits – 20 themes, 24 fonts, custom backgrounds, 20 different layout settings, custom gestures, and Folders. It also let you download from a dozen or so ebook sites.

With the iPad the Stanza developers get a much bigger, much more capable canvas. What are they going to dream up?

Stanza is the anti-Kindle – It’s great for tech savvy people and people who want lots of options.It actually complements Kindle for iPhone really well. We’ll probably see Stanza continue to drown us with options and coolness.

iPad Nook - Building on Top of eReader

There’s more to Nook for iPad than the rather unfortunate juxtaposition of two carelessly chosen names. B&N did a lot of things right with Nook and if it weren’t for the fact that it was released a few months too early it might have done a lot of damage.

Will B&N create a fresh Nook for iPad or repurpose B&N eReader?

Update: B&N have confirmed on their blog that they are going to release B&N eReader for iPad.

The really intelligent strategy would be to copy Amazon and release two eReader Apps with different philosophies. The danger is that B&N have a tough time fixing bugs with one product – they may never recover from the experience of releasing two eReader apps at the same time.

The most probable release is going to be a rehashed version of eReader. Which isn’t a bad thing at all -

1. We get a lot of options but not too many.
2. We get AutoScroll which would go perfectly with the iPad’s huge screen.
3. We get categories (folders) and good annotations capabilities.
4. eReader is arguably the prettiest reading App (unless you’re a minimalist in which case Kindle for iPhone probably wins) and the iPad would probably bring that out even more.
5. You can create your own themes and lots of other options.

eReader for iPad is a scary competitor – the dark horse as the iPad’s screen and design might go best with B&N eReader and B&N have begun to do a good job of gradually matching more and more Kindle prices.

Kobo for iPad - It’s hard getting noticed

Kobo have made a lot of noise with their united nations of retailing and their powerful backers. They even have a Kobo eReader lined up for release this summer. However, they might not have much of a chance in an overcrowded ebook app market.

When we reviewed reading apps on the iPhone the negatives that really killed KoboBooks’ Shortcovers App were -

1. Bad prices. 
2. The requirement to be logged in to bookmark pages.
3. The fact that books are downloaded in sections which tends to be rather annoying when you’re immersed in a novel.
4. Some sketchy design decisions.

In fact Shortcovers had the lowest score of the 7 reading apps reviewed and it’d be a bit of a miracle if the Kobo for iPad app manages to hit a top 3 spot.

Is it going to matter what App wins the #1 Spot?

That’s an extremely difficult and twisted question.

1. If the iPad doesn’t do well it doesn’t matter.
2. If no one reads on the iPad then it doesn’t matter – regardless of how many iPads are sold.
3. If the iPad gets a decent number of readers and becomes a somewhat important channel for reading and ebooks then there’s some value to being a top 2 reading app.
4. If the iPad does extremely well among people who read then that would spell the end of dedicated eReaders and Amazon and B&N would be reduced to fighting for ebook revenue. In that scenario it’s crucial to be a top 2 app and Amazon has a good chance with both Kindle for iPad and Stanza.

We need for the iPad to do well (or at least decently) and for a lot (or at least a decent number) of people to actually read books on it. If both of these occur then the iPad will be important for reading and the top 2-3 reading apps for the iPad will have a lot of power and possibly be very profitable.

Are we going to see Stanza Part 2?

Let’s say the iPad does become an important channel for reading.

We would have tens of thousands of developers developing apps and somewhere between a dozen and a hundred would be focused on a reading app. If one or two of them can get a top 5 spot they can choose between making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on ebook sales or selling their company for millions. That ought to be enough motivation to see some exceptional reading apps.

No matter who wins Apple shares in the rewards – at the minimum they sell more iPads to people who love/like to read. That’s the big benefit of owning a platform – You always win.

Filed under: iSlate Apple Slate Tagged: | apple ereader, ereader apps