A survey by Appcelerator, a company that provides hosting and services for app developers, shows that only 12% of the developers surveyed showed high interest in developing apps for the Kindle.
At some level this should not be a surprise – there aren’t that many people interested in reading, only 3 to 5 million of them have eReaders, and there are lots of other platforms that are competing. It is, however, worth investigating the reasons the Kindle app platform appeals or does not appeal to developers.
Factors that combine to make the Kindle App Store less appealing
The low interest in the Kindle is perhaps due to its focus on reading, the strength of competing platforms, and limitations of the Kindle and of the Kindle App Store.
Strong Competing Platforms
Appcelerator talk about three tiers of App Platforms -
Leaders (iPhone, Android, and iPad).
Up & comers (Blackberry and Windows Phone).
Laggards (Symbian, Palm, Meego, and Kindle).
If you look at these tiers you can clearly see that the iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, and Blackberry platforms have the advantage of each having tens of millions of units in circulation. The iPad has all the buzz and the expectation that sales might reach tens of millions of units. It’s also very easy for developers to shift from iPhone to iPad development.
At some level it’s impressive to have the Kindle on the list (given that eReaders are just starting off).
Kindle isn’t designed for Apps + Restrictions of the Technology
It’s pretty clear that the Kindle is designed for reading – the eInk, the simple design, and the long battery life. That means it’s not a blank canvas ideally suited to apps like the iPhone is. In fact the only apps it seems suited to are those related to reading.
There are also several restrictions, including some important ones -
- eInk takes a lot of time to refresh.
- Animation and Video are ruled out.
- It’s in black and white.
- There’s no touchscreen.
The lack of support for animation rules out most games – That’s pretty significant considering the biggest selling category of apps in the iPhone App Store are games.
Restrictions of the App Store
The App Store comes with its own set of restrictions that add on to the physical limitations -
- No advertising. A good thing in my opinion – However, it rules out all the developers who build advertising fuelled apps.
- No generic readers.
- Bandwidth limit of 100 KB a month for users. It rules out apps like weather apps.
- Apps using more than 100 KB a month have to be subscription apps.
When you combine the limitations due to eInk and the limitations the App Store imposes you rule out a lot of apps (and some ways of monetizing apps).
The decision to keep out advertising is probably a very good one – However, there are lots of developers obsessed with advertising and they’ll definitely stay away.
Developers have to pay for bandwidth
This is a pretty important restriction.
The first thing the 15 cents per MB download cost does is rule out (or make rather difficult) certain bandwidth intensive apps -
- Browsers.
- Email Apps.
- Photo and Document sharing.
- Social Networking Apps.
- Instant Messaging Apps.
The second thing it does is reduce the profit that could be made from other apps i.e.
- Twitter Apps.
- Weather Apps.
- Stock Quote Apps.
The bandwidth restriction will rule out a lot of good apps, especially email and communication apps.
There’s lots of uncertainty
Here are some of the things that are unknown -
- When the Kindle App Store will open.
- How many people will buy apps.
- What types of apps they will buy.
- What priced apps will work.
- How many people will be offering free apps and which apps.
- How much competition there will be.
It’s hard to plan when there are so many unknowns.
Not enough of a User Base
If we assume the number of Kindles in circulation is between 2 million and 5 million there might not be enough potential buyers for certain apps.
If you have 40 million smartphones using a platform then even an app that appeals to just 5% of users has 2 million potential buyers.
With the Kindle an app that appeals to just 5% of Kindle owners might have just 200,000 potential buyers. Throw in a few competitors and things get pretty sketchy.
With time this disadvantage ought to reduce – provided Kindles keep selling. At this point of time it’s a big concern.
The fact that it’s an eReader - Not knowing how interested people would be in Apps and Games
People are buying the Kindle to read books. No one knows if people will be interested in games and apps that are not related to reading.
What if only 20% of Kindle Owners actually buy apps that are not related to reading?
Then we’re talking about a potential audience size of hundreds of thousands of users – probably not enough to sustain many apps.
Books aren’t allowed
The apps that would make the most sense are books and reading apps – However, generic readers aren’t allowed which rules out books. It’s worth noting that one of the biggest categories in the iPhone App Store are Book Apps – all of those are automatically ruled out.
If Book Apps aren’t allowed on an eReader then the most natural fit is excluded.
Factors that make the Kindle an interesting platform
The list of factors in the previous section is pretty overwhelming – However, it has some big advantages which explains why 12% of developers are ‘very interested’ in developing Kindle Apps.
Kindles (and eReaders) are exploding
The number of Kindles and eReaders being sold is increasing rapidly (at least it has so far) and it’s not inconceivable that in a few years we have tens of millions of Kindles in circulation.
It’s a new market
There are lots of positives here -
- Users don’t have any apps at the moment.
- There will be much less competition than in established app markets.
- There is no precedent in terms of what users expect.
- If you do well and get a foothold then as the market grows your profits grow too.
- It’s easier to get visibility – You can experiment and try out a lot of different ideas without getting drowned out by 150,000 other apps.
There’s lots of opportunity and lots of freedom.
Users of Good Intent
We’re talking about people who pay $259 or more for their devices and $10 for books.
These are people who are likely to gladly pay money for apps that provide value. They won’t expect free apps supported by advertising (since there is no advertising). They won’t be expecting all apps to be $1. They also won’t be trying to steal apps and perhaps best of all there is no precedent of free.
Reading related Apps ought to do well
While there might not be tens of millions of owners there are a few million users and they share a few important qualities -
- They love to read.
- They are willing to pay for books.
- They have a lot of reading and books related needs.
Apps that could potentially be bestsellers are -
- Apps that provide Reading Shelves.
- Review Apps.
- Recommendation Apps.
- Translation Apps.
- Thesaurus and Dictionary Apps.
Any app related to reading will likely appeal to most Kindle owners.
It’s a challenge
Let’s be quite frank – It’s quite an exciting challenge to work against strong hardware and software limitations and still create a work of beauty.
It takes a lot of optimization – making the code work around eInk refreshes, making it work around the bandwidth limitations. It encourages simplicity and optimization and it’s going to result in developers creating some beautifully crafted apps.
Developers get paid
By excluding advertising, making the system closed, and excluding user information gathering the Kindle App Store keeps out some apps -
- Apps from people who believe in free and open (most of them).
- Apps that use advertising to monetize and spoil the market for paid apps.
- Apps that sell user information.
A lot of the people who were using free apps as a lure to get other things out of users are kept out as are the free/open believers. That means developers who create good apps can earn money for their apps and not get undercut.
Development is easy (relatively)
The development is in Java. There’s a Kindle Simulator for PC, Mac, and Linux. There’s no charge for signing up.
The Beta is pretty straightforward and there’s good documentation and it’s relatively straightforward to develop apps.
There are just two devices to test on
Since there are just two product lines the Kindle App Store targets i.e. Kindle DX and Kindle, it’s relatively straightforward to test out apps.
Of course, it gets a little complicated if you think of it as US and International versions. Perhaps it’s safe to assume that the only changes are related to what wireless service is used and testing for the International Kindle version takes care of the US version.
Another related benefit is that Amazon updates Kindle OS builds automatically which means nearly all devices are on the same build and there are just two configurations to test against at any given time.
12% developers being ‘very interested’ is a good sign
The Appcelerator article paints 12% as a very low number and lists the iPad’s 53% in comparison. However, we’re talking about a dedicated eReader with an eInk screen and an app store that isn’t even open yet.
With the iPad you have the success of the iPhone motivating developers and with Android you have all the openness and other things developers love (things that actually make it harder for them to make money). iPhone’s app platform and the other mobile phone app platforms have tens of millions of users and a lot going for them.
The Kindle App Store being just a little behind Palm and Symbian (16%, 14%) is really impressive given the Kindle is just starting off and that users will probably be focused on reading.
Within a few months we should see the Kindle App Store debut and we’ll gather a lot more about users’ intentions and what sorts of Apps they prefer. It’s certainly going to be interesting to find out what developers come up with, which apps users choose, and how much they pay for them.
Filed under: kindle app review Tagged: | amazon kindle apps, ereader apps
