It doesn’t work on IE and it doesn’t work on Firefox. It doesn’t work from the iPhone either and it doesn’t work from the Nook Color’s browser. So you’re leaving out nearly everyone who would be interested most.
Kindle Cloud Reader – a link in case you want to try it out.
It doesn’t work on my version of Safari on the PC. So this post will mostly talk about the role of Cloud Reader and what direction it might be taking Amazon in.
Firstly, it’s rather strange to introduce a product whose main sales pitch is ‘works from anywhere and from any device and works magically from your browser’ when it doesn’t work on IE (#1 browser worldwide unless you are skilled in statistics) or Firefox (#2 browser worldwide) or the iPhone.
Please Note: Kindle for Web did have this sales pitch and Cloud Reader is the first manifestation of Kindle for Web.
There are 500 sites and blogs covering the news about the Kindle Cloud Reader. What’s the point if 80% of the people won’t be able to even try Cloud Reader? What’s the point of mobilizing all this attention when the only browsers it works on are Chrome and Safari (and it doesn’t even work on iPhone’s Safari Browser)?
Most of the articles are either painfully positive or focused on ‘Does it look like an app? Does it meet my aesthetic bar for an app that makes me feel artistic and talented?’. A complete waste of imaginary print space.
The only one that actually had thought put in before being written is this one by Tim Carmody – Amazon’s Cloud Reader Still Doesn’t Take the Web Seriously. He writes -
In Cloud Reader, you currently cannot:
- Use an unsupported browser (that would be most of them).
- Highlight text or write notes (you can read older notes).
- Copy-and-paste text.
- Share text or notes over social media like Twitter and Facebook (you can do this in the iOS Kindle app now).
- Read or buy magazines or other periodicals (you can do this in the iOS Kindle app now, too).
- …
There’s also a bigger point which Tim Carmody talks about (and this is the sort of stuff that hopefully more main stream blogs and newspapers start pondering) -
You can’t respond. All you can do is consume. You can read, but your reading generally cannot create value.
Basically, Cloud Reader is an Apple/Facebook type of dumbing-down approach i.e. it inadvertently puts readers into a ’consumer/consumption focused’ role. Amazon probably didn’t mean it as such and this is just V1. However, that’s what Cloud Reader is (in its current form) – not so much ‘reading’ software as ‘book consumption’ software.
Perhaps that’s the future, perhaps that’s what the human race is going towards – a race that doesn’t want to share things with each other unless it’s an advertising link and doesn’t want to think or create. Just consume. Consume shiny, pretty things on shiny, pretty devices and let the triggers of consumption take over their/our lives.
At some point people will stop pretending that the latest device they bought is for some ‘reason’ and just admit they bought it for the buying of it. It was so shiny and it lets you buy other things. Perhaps that’s what it’s really all about – to buy things and to buy more things and fulfill the ultimate, most profitable role we could fulfill.
Is it inevitable that Kindle and/or the Kindle ecosystem goes in the direction of becoming a Consumer Device?
Kindle is, for the moment, a pretty honest reproduction of a book.
That’s what’s made it the darling of book lovers (or at least enough book lovers to scare Publishers into a rebound relationship with Apple).
However, the real money isn’t in catering to intelligent book readers. The real money is in catering to consumers – people who consume blindly. A reader who reads a book for the love of it is a dead-end. She’s going to read Stephen King and be happy and content from the book itself.
Wouldn’t a company prefer a consumer? One who buys the book and then buys other things and then buys books and kitchen sinks and vinyl records just for the thrill of buying. That’s the whole point of things like magazines and advertising driven content isn’t it?
To use content as an excuse to show people desire-creating ads and create a sadness, a gap that gnaws at your heart – one that can only be filled by consuming.
The real money is in people who will consume. So the smartest company will try to position itself to these people. And, sadly, the new Kindle Tablet might show that Amazon is indeed positioning itself to such people. The Cloud Reader already shows that – Why focus so much effort on making software for people who can’t even put down $139 for a dedicated reading device?
You know what would make me happy? If a company said – If you can’t even put down $139 for an eReader then you just aren’t worth our time. We only want the aficionados. We only want people who treasure books and reading.
There are already tons of companies catering to the people who don’t really have any great affinity to books. Perhaps readers want a company that’s focused on their needs and wishes and will stay focused on their needs and wishes. Perhaps they want a company that thinks – We can’t be the absolute best company for people who love books if we are also trying to optimize our reading software and devices for people who don’t love books.
How many existing Kindle owners want a Cloud Reader? Whatever happened to library book lending? Why not focus on that instead of some Cloud Reader that only works on Safari and Chrome?
Cloud Reader, as Tim Carmody points out, is a consumption oriented device.
This might simply be a function of it being a V1 release. However, it’s something that comes up again and again – Amazon’s ‘social’ features are all ‘book consumption’ features. They aren’t really social as they aren’t really person to person – they are person to book buying recommendation. Whether it’s popular highlights or tweeting passages from books – everything revolves around increasing awareness of the book and creating sales. Perhaps Cloud Reader is also a step in that direction.
There are a dozen things that would benefit Kindle owners more than a Cloud Reader. It’s understandable that Amazon wants to reach out to non-serious readers – but it shouldn’t be at the cost of serious readers.
Amazon is morphing into some hybrid of Google and Apple and Amazon when it comes to books. A Cloud Reader. A Tablet. No technological updates to the Kindle since last year. Few software updates.
It’s understandable – any company has to go where the profit is. It’s just unfortunate that at some point readers are going to get de-prioritized and ‘consumers’ are going to become the focus. At least, it seems that way.
Kindle Cloud Reader is just a sign that Amazon is forgetting where 80% of book sales come from. Perhaps it knows better than us and the long tail of book sales is more important than dedicated readers who buys lots and lots of books. Perhaps it feels it has already tied up the dedicated readers.
Whatever the motivator, it seems that Amazon cares more and more about people who value books less and less.
The Kindle Tablet and the new Kindle will be the surest signs of whether Amazon has lost its focus on reading and people who love books. If Kindle Tablet is very compelling and Kindle 4 is just a follow-the-leader type of device, then it’s time for Kindle owners to start worrying that something (Apple’s success with the iPad? The lure of getting the 60% who don’t read books?) has managed to corrupt Amazon’s focus on reading.
Filed under: thoughts Tagged: | crazy thoughts, future of reading
As a serious reader, I am delighted that there is finally a Chrome application that syncs with my Kindle.
Yes, it’s great for Chrome users.
I’m really disappointed in Amazon for releasing this app before it was ready. It barely works on my iPad 2. Very, very slow. I was successful in pulling up a book to read finally, but there is no search function to find a book I was reading. It just lists by recent, author, or title, so you’d have to scroll through the thousands of books you have in your archive and hope it’s at the beginning. When I tried to go to the Kindle store, it said there was an error and to try later. What were they thinking??
I love the cloud reader which I am using on a Chromebook.
Are you missing the point intentionally? This is about Apple, 100%, plain and simple. This is a way for the iPad to read and sell books without using Apple’s store and paying apple money. No other reason. If someone can use it anyway fine. But all the other computers have their own native apps that will run faster and better.
So call it what it is, a shot at Apple on the iPad.
A shot at Apple on the iPad with a gun that explodes in your own hand.
It doesn’t work on iPhone. It’s buggy. It’s half-baked.
Also, rather than missing the point I’m pointing to something more important i.e.
where is the focus on people who are spending $139 on a Kindle or a $379 on a Kindle DX. They should get 80% of the effort and work.
Instead Amazon is like someone who can’t get over their Ex and keeps chasing.
What it is, is v1. Or if you like, 0.5beta.
If you want to see what it is, go to your iPad. It’s a fairly faithful repro of the iPad app, minus all the “works well” features.
And because the iPad is the target device, they developed for WebKit. If HTML5 were decently standardized yet, you wouldn’t have to have that focus on one platform, but unfortunately reality dictates that a cross patform app takes more development. Whether nat development will be done or not is the real question.
Google started this terrible trend of ‘it’s OK to release a poor quality product as long as hide behind the ‘beta’ tag’.
It’s sad to see almost everyone jump on it.
You shouldn’t be releasing an app if it only reaches 10% of your audience and does a poor job of it.
Also, why name it ‘Cloud Reader’ if it’s meant just for iPad.
You’re making excuses for Amazon. Truth is that it really is the V1 for Cloud Player and it has the quality of an alpha release and it fails to target most of the audience.
Apple hinted a very long time ago that the changes would be made. Perhaps Amazon shouldn’t have done last minute work.
Also, the core fundamental problem is the same – Amazon is depending on other companies and other technologies instead of releasing a better Kindle for dedicated readers and a Reading Tablet or Tablet for casual readers.
They can put a thousand band-aids but the core problem isn’t going to go away until its addressed straight-on.
HTML 5 is a good standard, it just hasn’t been implemented well (or completely) by the major browser vendors
It’s also an application for the new Google Chromebooks and works fantastically on them. I have the beta Cr-48 protype, and I’ve waiting for the ability to read Kindle books on it. It syncs perfectly with my K3 reader. I love it.
Thanks for the information. That’s good to know and hadn’t thought of that. If ChromeBooks takes off then Amazon would have a reader app ready for it.
I think that Jasper is right about this being a beta version.. By definition, a beta app is a test version where users help the software company find any problems. The company can then fix them before they release the finished version.
In the case of Kindle, I have the device itself, so I’m not having the kind of frustrations that you are experiencing, Pam. I hope, for your sake, that Amazon releases the final iPad version soon.
Yes, the big bright BETA sign was a dead giveaway.
And of course, the fact that they named it ‘Kindle Cloud Reader for iPad and Chrome’ made me realize that it won’t work on the iPhone or in IE or Firefox.
Wait a minute …
Even a Beta tag wouldn’t have justified releasing something this half-baked. And this doesn’t even have a beta tag.
Even granting all the defects you point out, this is clearly an investment for the future.
For a while now Amazon’s mantra has been “buy once read anywhere”. Up to now this has meant developing apps for each of the devices in which Amazon has a “read anywhere” interest. Following this approach: as devices proliferate/evolve. Amazon’s development efforts would increase as more apps and app versions would need to be developed.
Put this against the backdrop of competitors such as Apple not allowing Amazon iPhone/iPad apps direct access to the kindle store, and demanding a 30% cut on every book sold, this browser-based approach has much to commend it.
Basing the cloud reader on HTML5, and factoring in the ever improving state of mobile browsers (achieving parity at some point with laptop/desktop browsers), the browser based approach makes sense as the going forward direction.
It also offers the potential to open up the kindle/Amazon space to competitive readers such as the Nook.
From a business perspective this is a quite sound (clever even) strategic move. It leverages all the new functionality for interaction in HTML5, reduces their ongoing app development requirements, and gives them a potential leg up on competitors (Apple, Barnes and Noble, Google, etc).
Agreed – it’s a good move from a business perspective.
Amazon was created for one reason only – to take advantage of the consumer impulse – that’s first and foremost.
If they do well with this, we do well too – the books and their features remain available to us, and since the Kindle has been driving sales in general there, they’ll keep working on it, because rival companies are.
I love the Cloud Reader. I use Firefox, secondarily IE for videos that are stubborn on Firefox, and I quickly downloaded Chrome sometime ago — it’s lean and mean and a joy (in my case) with Cloud Reader.
What we’re seeing WAS an instant response to Apple’s removal of the Buy-button-to-Sfari. It was most important to get out something for Safari for the iPad and, since Chrome is also based on Webkit, it all makes sense.
I like the Kindle for PC app and it has tons of features, most of them not on the Cloud Reader.
But I remember what KforPC was like when it was first released. It had almost nothing. Slowly, as many months went by we finally got the dictionary and then the search features but it took a long time. iDevices got thedr first – there are more prospective customers there and the spectre of lost book sales with the removal of the buy-button and the reality of lazy buyers. It’s a lazy world (the ‘developed’ one).
Amazon has said they’ll add the other browsers and add features. But it’s like watching the beginnings of Kindle for PC. Only recently could we CREATE notes on the latter.
It’s easier/faster to program passive things than interactive ones, and they did have to get this out, fast enough it took most of the e-world by surprise.
The timing was spectacular and that’s one reason they’ve received such positive reviews. The focus was getting out this reader that does not depend on the good will of the host. There’s no waiting, on tenterhooks, for approval, no buckling under to the bizarre demands.
For reading (which is a consumer and sometimes all-consuming activity), it is very smooth and slick, despite slightly longer load times for this or that.
I do consider it a positive, strategically, and with the fact that I can use it on friends’ computers to show them something from my library. Chrome is available for almost everyone with a PD and it’s a quick, slick install.
Also, unlike Kindle for PC/Mac, Cloud Reader counts as only one device no matter how many computers you have it on.