Kindle Review – Kindle 3 Review, iPad Review

The Big 3 is just a new term that’s easier to write than Kindle, Nook, and Sony Reader. Anyways, this post is all about contrast and looking at things differently.

We have a lot of competitors for Kindle, Nook, and Sony Reader arriving in 2010 and it’s easy to get caught up in the negatives - multi-purpose devices that are ‘good enough’ for reading and do more than just reading, dozens of new eReaders each with their own feature-set, a plethora of choice that will confuse users.

The glass is, however, half-full for the Big 3. 

1. Competition forces the big 3 eReaders to improve and to improve faster.
2. New entrants generate a lot of publicity for reading and eReaders.
3. It helps pump more money into ePaper technology. 
4. It gives the Big 3 a pool of smaller companies they can buy up for their technology or customer base. 
5. It creates contrast.

Let’s start with contrast because it’s arguably the most powerful benefit.

New eReaders and Multi-purpose Devices show readers how good Kindle, Nook, and Sony are

So far we haven’t had much contrast. The Kindle, Nook, and Sony Reader are very close in feature set and price and it’s easy for people to make generalizations – eReaders are too expensive, eReaders don’t do other things, the screen isn’t that good for reading – without realizing how difficult it was to get in all the features at this price point.

With new entrants we will see the power of contrast -

1. The LCD screens and short battery lives of multi-purpose devices will help readers realize that eInk really is a good reading technology and that the 2 week battery life is nothing to sneeze at. 
2. The price of some of the new entrants highlights how good a value proposition a $259 eReader is.
3. Heavier and larger eReaders will illustrate why thin and light, paperback size eReaders should be appreciated.
4. $30 a month data plans will show people that they shouldn’t take the Kindle’s free Internet access for granted. 
5. eReaders and devices trying to pass off $20 eBooks will help people value $9.99 more.

A related consequence is higher satisfaction level – A user that has had to choose between some good options and finally settles on a big 3 eReader is likelier to be much happier than someone who doesn’t know that they could have done much worse.

Competition forces the Kindle, the Nook, and the Sony Reader to improve themselves

The Big 3 eReaders are forced to evolve and improve to survive. A new competitor forces a company to reassess itself, become more efficient, add good features, and do a better job for customers.

We’ve already seen it with price cuts and feature additions to the Kindle when the Nook was announced – both products learned from each other’s mistakes and tried to match each other’s strengths. Competition has meant that all 3 eReaders now have wireless delivery, they all have hundreds of thousands of books, and they serve customers better – more free books, the library finder feature, and more.

New competitors are also important because the big 3 are too similar.

New eReaders are a test to find the best features

Entourage Edge will show how larger dual screen eReaders do. Plastic Logic’s Que tests the business sector’s appetite for eReaders. Samsung’s eReader+eWriter pushes the bar for text input and it’s success or failure will provide useful data on the value users place on electronic writing.

It’d be impossible for the big 3 to try out so many different features in one year. With the new wave of eReaders they can at least get a good idea of what works, what might work, and what will definitely not work.

Multi-purpose devices show just how much users value reading

Should Amazon devote $100 million to the Kindle over the new few years or half a billion? Should B&N make the Nook a pillar going forward?

These are hard questions – how users react to the iPad will provide some hints. If lots of users start leaving dedicated eReaders for the iPad then we know eReaders are a small niche. If readers remain unswayed then we know it’s a big niche.

Contrary to rumors, the death of eReaders at the hands of Tablets is an exaggeration. Other people feel the same way i.e. Tablets are not going to kill eReaders. Here’s a snippet from a Wired article -

“If reading is your primary entertainment activity, you are more likely to buy an e-reader,” says Glen Burchers, director of marketing for Freescale.

Recent research commissioned by Freescale showed an e-reader buyer, on average, is 43 years old, earns $72,000 and buys two e-books a month.

Those who say they’re interested in buying a tablet tend to be much younger, Freescale’s research showed.

All tablets will do is hint at how big the market for eReaders is.

Competition increases the rate of progress of eReader and ePaper technology

We have Notion Ink testing Pixel Qi screens and Samsung testing Wacom tablets and numerous other examples of ePaper and eReader technologies being pushed forward. Every eReader is using some new technology or some new angle to gain an advantage. Every eReader is using ePaper screens. It’s very, very good for eReader and ePaper technology.

Consider eInk - Sony tested touch eInk, Polymer Vision (before it went bankrupt) was testing flexible eInk, and all the sales helped eInk/PVI leverage economies of scale.

Freescale has 90% of eReaders using its chips and that gives it the incentive to focus on (and promise) a cheaper, more efficient chip (dedicated to eReaders) that will bring the price of eReaders down to $150/$200.

ePaper and eReader companies can be bought out by the Big 3

Amazon buying TouchCo is a good example. Perhaps none of the new entrants makes a big impact. Their technology can still be bought by one of the big 3 and incorporated into their product.

Perhaps a new entrant captures an important niche or gets enough customers to be valuable – One of the big 3 can buy it to expand their market share.

All the new products create a lot of awareness and interest

Every new product gets press coverage, does advertising at some level, gets discussed in blogs and forums, and adds to people’s awareness about eReaders.

Different products appeal to different people and that pulls them into the ‘Which eReader to buy?’ debate. One of the big 3 is going to win that argument most of the time – so it’s really good for them when a new product creates awareness and/or interest in people.

Most of the eReader war is being fought on awareness and perception. There is all sorts of misinformation circulating – which means that when people actually find out about a new eReader or get to play it with it clears a lot of the confusion and shows people what eReaders can really do. Every eReader article and every eReader experience helps paint a more accurate picture of eReaders and electronic reading.

All Publicity is definitely Good Publicity for eReaders – it’s especially good for the Kindle, Nook, and Sony Reader. the iPad, Tablets and the dozens of new eReaders are not going to kill the big 3 – they are going to drive readers into their arms.