Since there’s hardly any interesting Kindle news here are some thoughts -
- Kindle Store now has 480,000 titles.
- At the Kindle vs Nook comparison page at B&N there are only 2 crosses (indicating missing features) under the Nook column and 17 crosses under the Kindle column. Don’t they want to pretend even a little bit that it’s a fair comparison?
- On Fox News the B&N CEO mentioned that Games would be launching for the Nook soon (via B&N Nook forum).
- The B&N CEO also said that eReader for iPad will launch within two weeks. He indicated that B&N are pretty much replicating Kindle’s ‘app for every device’ strategy.
It’s nice to see B&N lining up Nook Lite, Nook 2, a full-blown browser, and games on the Nook. Probably means Amazon make some improvements soon.
Kindle Dev Kit leaked and used to emulate Super Mario Brothers
Geek.com has a video from someone who used the Kindle Development Kit to run a NES emulator and ended up with a rather sluggish and wonky version of Super Mario Brothers.
It was quite surprising to see a bunch of really negative articles about how Kindle should not try to be a gaming device. Let’s get this straight – someone illegally procured a copy of the private KDK beta and then distributed a video of an app that hadn’t been approved. The video isn’t even of a real Kindle. It’s in no way an attempt by Amazon to turn the Kindle into a gaming device.
Kindle Store getting buried under free books
- There are 12 books priced under $10 and 4 above $10 in the Top 100 in the Kindle Store. The Agency Model is starting off with a whimper.
- 83 of the top 100 are free books.
- 24 of the top 25 books in Movers and Shakers are public domain free books. Amazon seems to periodically add a bunch of public domain titles and they always find their way to the top of Movers and Shakers.
It’s sad to see just 17 paid books get a chance to get featured. It means 83 deserving authors get hidden from readers looking for good authors. It’s time for a separate list Amazon.
Random thoughts on reading on the iPad
- After actually reading on the iPad my initial feeling that 50% or more of Kindle DX sales would be lost to the iPad has changed. It might still happen – However, there’s little doubt which device is better for reading.
- There aren’t really that many killer apps on the iPad and there definitely aren’t very many new apps being added. Perhaps it’s too soon.
- Did read an entire book in iBooks and the experience was OK – In a very ‘This restaurant is OK if you happen to be in the neighbourhood but wouldn’t recommend going out of the way to eat here’ sort of way.
- A thread at the official kindle forum was savaging the Alice iPad app and couldn’t agree more. Don’t see how being able to shake Alice and other characters adds to the book. Another blog had noted that it was more of a game than a book and that’s perhaps the correct description.
Yet another case of people who don’t read envisioning a new future for books. We aren’t redesigning Farmville or YouTube so please leave our books alone.
If you have both the iPhone and the iPad the recurring thought is to get rid of one. If my iPhone weren’t a phone it would go. The large form factor of the iPad makes it tough to play games for long so it’s much less of a time waster.
Chitika (an advertising company) is claiming that a million iPads have been sold. It also claims that 117,150 new iPads were seen today. The numbers seem a bit sketchy since on April 8th Steve Jobs had said 450K iPads had been sold. In the first 6 days Apple sold 450K iPads and in the next 9 days it sold 667K? Seems a bit unlikely as the first 6 days included all preorders and reservations.
Are the Big 3 (Sony, Kindle, Nook) just waiting for the tablet madness to subside?
The lack of any significant news from the big 3 eReader makers in the last month seems to be a conscious decision to avoid the Press induced frenzy around Tablets in general and the JesusTablet in particular.
The Big 3 are probably going to -
- Let people figure out that this isn’t the end of the world.
- Give readers a chance to see that Tablets aren’t optimized for reading (the screen, the weight, needing two hands to operate, reduced portability, etc.).
- Let the Press get over their flavor of the month obligation to write non-stop about tablets and the death of eReaders.
After that we’re probably going to see a flurry of announcements – Nook Lite, games for the Nook, Kindle App Store, and more.
Do People wish the iPad was also a Phone?
From Google search queries it certainly seems like people would like the iPad to double up as a phone -
- The #2 Google Auto-Complete Suggestion for ‘Is iPad’ happens to be - Is iPad also a phone?
- The #1 suggestion for ‘Is Apple iPad’ happens to be – Is Apple iPad a phone? and the #4 suggestion is – Is Apple iPad also a phone?
- Amongst the other choices - Is iPad a Kindle Killer? Is iPad selling? Is iPad worth it?
Could it be that the magical and revolutionary iPad is failing to sell millions of units because it isn’t a giant iPhone?
Apple put the wrong iWhatever into the giant photocopy machine.
Filed under: thoughts Tagged: | kindle strategy
I bought an ipad last night, have been setting it up today to give to my mom (she is afraid of the computer) so the ipad is the perfect moms day gift….
Things i found
1. It can so read books, inthe accessability features
2. I prefer reading on the kindle dx, the glare was bothering me.
3. Wont replace the iphone but it works cool with skype (phone would be cool though)
4. Netflix rocks on ipad, so does the tv.
5. Nowi want one….ugh
I definitely agree that it’s past time for Amazon to split off the “Most Downloaded Free Books” list from the “BestSELLER” list. First of all, free downloads are not “sales” by any definition I know of. Second, as you pointed out, it makes it that much harder for authors (who happen to still be alive and not in the public domain) to see their books on the bestseller lists. Splitting out the freebies would be a win-win for Amazon because you’d think they’d like to promote paid books, considering that 65% of free is still $0.
Comparing free downloads of Book A with paid sales of Book B becomes fairly meaningless, and when 83 out of the Top 100 are free, you have a list that is, to use a technical term, “wonky.” While the iBook store interface is well behind Amazon’s in many ways, even Apple figured out to separate the lists.
No such thing as free books for Kindle users outside the US. A list of the Top Free Books would rub this in our faces.
I agree with separating free/paid lists as well. How many people pick up those free books without ever reading them? After all, no cost involved.
Just checked Calibre, and out of 59 free books I have obtained since I received my Kindle, I have read only 16.
What the kindle REALLY needs, is a way for users to completely block certain publishers.
There’s a lot of garbage in the store, most of which comes through “Amazon Digital Services” self-publishing. I just don’t want to see that stuff, especially when I’m using the store on the kindle itself. Try browsing history, for instance, and you’ll get pages and pages of public-domain texts posted for sale, including many that are duplicated many times over.
Then there’s the person who took the diary of Samuel Pepys, that covers 10 years, and divided it into 120 e-books covering one month each. For no apparent reason. That’s about six or seven screens in the store.
I agree with Julie about the iPad vs. kindle. My dad has an iPad and a DX, and the DX is much better for reading outside.