What is Amazon waiting for? Some deals

Posted on April 8, 2011 by switch11

First, for your Kindle, some deals -

  1. The Horse Boy: A Father’s Quest to Heal His Son by Rupert Isaacson. Price: $2.99. Genre: Parenting & Families, Special Needs, Autism, Spirit Healing. Rated 4.5 stars on 55 reviews. 
  2. The Power of Half by Hannah Salwen and Kevin Salwen. Price: $4.77. Genre: Getting More out of Less, Giving Back, Sharing is Caring. Rated 4 stars on 71 reviews. 
  3. In Her Name (Omnibus Edition) by Michael R. Hicks. Price: $1. Genre: Epic Fantasy, Adventure, Science Fiction, Military Space Opera. Rated 4.5 stars on 58 reviews.

It’s quite interesting to see a book with so much promise (the third one) stuck outside the Top 1,000. How do you manage to get 4.5 stars on 58 reviews, be at $1, and still not be in the Top 1,000?

Anyways, this brings me to something even more perplexing.

What is Amazon waiting for? Why doesn’t it release a Kindle Tablet?

Nook Color is rumored to have sold 3 million units. It’s also rumored that B&N is taking delivery of 600,000 to 700,000 Nook Colors a month.

There are three big markets here -

  1. People looking for a dedicated reading device. Some portion of them are buying the argument that Nook Color is a Reading Tablet.
  2. People looking for a Tablet-eReader hybrid. Nook Color is almost perfect for this group of people.
  3. People looking for a cheap Tablet. Nook Color is almost perfect for this group too.

Amazon is losing out on some Kindle sales because of 1, i.e. Nook Color as reading tablet is competing with Kindle as dedicated reading device.

However, far more worrying are the two niches where Amazon isn’t even competing -

  1. Amazon doesn’t have a Tablet-eInk hybrid. Now that Apple has set up its patent defence with an eInk-LCD hybrid tablet patent, Amazon might never be able to create such a hybrid.
  2. Amazon doesn’t have a tablet. There is a huge market for a non-Apple tablet - No one is stepping up to the plate. The situation is so bad that Nook Color is selling millions of units just because it has ended up being the best non-iPad tablet-like device. Think about that for a second – the market demand for a cheap Android Tablet (or a cheap tablet, period) is so high that people are buying a reading tablet and trying to use it as a full tablet.

Amazon is literally spurning these two markets – Go, get a Nook Color. We have nothing for you.

Where is Amazon’s Kindle Tablet?

It’s been nearly 5 months since Nook Color was introduced. It’s been nearly 5 months since people began talking about the danger of Nook Color. It’s been 4 months since the main stream media realized that Nook Color is a huge threat.

Yet, nothing from Amazon.

  • Perhaps Amazon doesn’t realize that if Nook Color sales get to the 10 million mark, and the Nook App Store isn’t a total disaster, then B&N will be set for the next 10 years.
  • Perhaps Amazon feels that because it has set up its Android App Store it can delay the actual hardware. That Angry Birds Rio will make up for a 5-6 month delay in the hardware.
  • Perhaps B&N took Amazon by surprise. It certainly took everyone else by surprise.

Here’s the question – Would you rather have an Android App Store with 10,000 apps or would you rather have 3 million Reading Tablets in circulation?

I’d take the latter every single time. 3 million Nook Colors makes for a huge customer base. It means that B&N is getting data points it can use to build a stellar Nook Color 2. It means that Amazon’s Kindle Tablet will have the odds against it.

3 million is a huge number – especially in the first 5 months. If this were Apple we would be getting presentations about a revolutionary new category having been created and about Nook Color outselling the first version of Wrigley’s chewing gum.

How much more time does Amazon have before the game is lost?

Amazon probably thinks it can release a Kindle Tablet in Fall 2011 and still put up a fight.

Reality is that if Amazon doesn’t release a Kindle Tablet within the next 2 to 3 months it will have B&N as a rival in the Reading Tablet and Tablet markets for a very long time. If it delays beyond 5 to 6 months, it might never be able to catch up.

The iPad is eating up most of the high-end Tablet Market. Nook Color is eating up a lot of the low-end Tablet market. Despite its huge strengths, Amazon can’t afford to let Apple and B&N lock-up huge pieces of the Tablet market. There’s a huge difference between fighting for an undecided customer versus stealing away another company’s customers. Just ask all the people trying to compete with Windows and Google Search.

An Inflection Point of the strangest sort

What’s happened since Nook Color launched? Nothing.

What has Amazon done since Kindle 3 launched? Not much.

So, we have had a stretch of 5 to 8 months with very little happening. And that very nothingness might have been an inflection point. B&N has probably created the post-eReader reading device and Amazon has let it grow and prosper sans competition.

There is still time. Amazon should announce something within the next few weeks and it should get something out within the next few months. If it doesn’t, it might be left wondering how it was too blind to realize that the post-eReader reading device, the Reading Tablet, is a far bigger threat to the Kindle than Publishers and Apple and physical books.

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iPad 2 and implications for Kindle

Posted on March 2, 2011 by switch11

First, let’s take a look at the iPad 2 announcement call.

Interesting Things from the iPad 2 announcement

  1. Steve Jobs presented it.
  2. iBooks has hit over 100 million books downloaded. Random House coming to iBooks.
  3. 200 million Credit Card accounts across iTunes, App Store, and iBooks.
  4. 100 million iPhones sold.
  5. 15 million iPads sold. $9.5 billion in 2010. Greater than 90% market share. Samsung not doing well.
  6. iPod, iPhone, and iPad as the three pillars of Apple post-PC. Are Apple conceding they lost the PC wars? Why focus on post-PC?
  7. 65,000 apps for the iPad. 100 apps for Honeycomb Tablets.
  8. $2 billion paid out to developers selling apps in the App Store.

All very impressive. Just show iPad 2 already.

The iPad 2

  1. All new design. Completely new.
  2. New, faster chip. The A5. Same power usage as A4.
  3. Dual core processor. 9 times faster graphic performance. Apple does know how to explain things simply – surprising that very few other tech companies use language like this.
  4. Front and rear facing cameras.
  5. Built-in gyroscope.
  6. A third thinner than iPad 1. iPad 2 is 8.8 mm thin.
  7. Lighter at 1.3 pounds.
  8. Same 10 hour battery life.
  9. Available in black and white and for Verizon and AT&T.
  10. The same exact prices – starting at $499. That’s really, really disappointing. You have got to be joking – After selling 15 million iPads you still couldn’t cut prices. This pretty much means little to no threat to Kindle or Nook Color. The lighter weight makes things a bit difficult but the price is a huge barrier.
  11. Ships on March 11th. Wow, that’s quick. On March 25th it ships in 26 more countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and UK.

It’s not really all that much of an improvement. It’s better than the iPad, and it will definitely be hard for rival companies to catch up with the iPad 2. However, the price is the same. The dual-core processor and the dual cameras are the only things that scream out at you as big additions.

iPad 2 Software and more 

  1. Accessories – HDMI video out with up to 1080p for $39.
  2. Smart covers that bend and fold around iPad 2 and use magnets and can be used as a stand. They cover just the front. The cover is $39 for polyurethane and $69 for leather. For covers that only cover the front. Strange.
  3. iOS 4.3 comes with faster Safari performance. Some things I have no idea about – iTunes home sharing, AirPlay improvements, mute switch can now be used for orientation.
  4. PhotoBooth for iPad 2. It’s like one of those apps that lets you make funny faces. Don’t really know what to say.
  5. FaceTime. I guess we’ll be seeing millions of ads for this soon enough.
  6. iMovie. Share your videos in HD and it has multitrack audio recording. The rear facing camera has HD video recording at 30 fps.

Implications for Kindle

At $499 for the cheapest iPad 2, there aren’t very many implications.

Size is now lighter at 1.3 pounds, but the Kindle is still much lighter at 8.7 ounces. iPad 2 is thinner at 8.8 mm but it’s the largeness of it that was the issue, not the thickness. iBooks getting Random House is a bit of a threat but Random House is moving to the Agency Model and committing mini-suicide - So, again it’s not as big an issue as it might have been.

Note: The 30% tax is a big deal – However, that affects Kindle for iPhone, and not Kindle.

There really aren’t any big threats for the Kindle here. Rival Tablet makers and the Kindle Tablet now have a higher bar to meet. For the Kindle there’s no tangible threat here.

Implications for Nook Color

Again, the $499 price makes iPad 2 not much of a threat to Nook Color. At $249 (till tomorrow morning $200 at B&N’s eBay shop with a coupon code) the Nook Color is still much better value for money.

It’s a bit of a disappointment. If Apple had priced iPad 2 at $399 it would have forced Amazon and B&N to cut the prices of Kindle and Nook Color. Now we’ll have to wait for some other catalyst.

Apart from the dual core processor and the dual cameras, don’t really see anything worth calling a conference for. Here’s the screen (from the iPad 2 specs page) -

  • 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology
  • 1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi)
  • Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating

An improvement on the iPad, and not much of a threat to Kindle and Nook Color.

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Comparing how Kindle, Nook Color are promoted

Posted on February 15, 2011 by switch11

The Kindle and the Nook Color are both promoted heavily on Amazon and B&N’s websites. Let’s compare how the two are promoted and see if anything interesting pops up.

Comparing how Kindle, Nook color are promoted – the main pages

B&N’s main site has an image of the Nook Color right at the top taking up around a quarter of the page -

  1. Nook Color has Elle Magazine showing on the screen. An obvious focus on its color capabilities and strength with magazines.
  2. Nook Color is described as an ’Award Winning and Best-selling Reader’s Tablet’. The use of the term ‘Reader’s Tablet’ is interesting.
  3. Nook Color gets a ‘Buy Now’ button which takes you to the Nook Color product page.
  4. There’s a ‘Best Dedicated eReader’ quote from The Associated Press shown. This is something that comes up repeatedly – a focus on showing what the Press thinks of Nook Color.
  5. There’s an option to start a ’360 degree view’ of the Nook Color. This is surprisingly helpful.

Amazon’s main site has Kindle right in the center and taking up around 30% or so of the page. It just seems to be getting a bit more focus than the Nook Color gets on B&N’s website.

  1. There’s a book shown on the Kindle’s screen. The angle makes it hard to tell which book.
  2. It’s described as ‘The #1 Bestselling Product on Amazon’. We see a lot of this in Amazon’s marketing – a focus on how well Kindle does amongst Amazon customers.
  3. There’s text saying ’order now’ but no button. Instead there are links for the $139 Kindle WiFi and the $189 Kindle 3.
  4. No Press quotes or references. Amazon focuses primarily on customers for social proof.
  5. No option for a 360 degree view.

At this point the Nook Color has a bit of an advantage because it’s got the 360-degree view. However, Amazon.com gets a ton more traffic.

The Product Pages for Kindle, Nook Color

Amazon is all about details and logic and social proof

Let’s start with the Kindle 3 product page.

  1. In the name itself we get a lot of phrases highlighting Kindle strengths - wireless, reading device, free 3G, works globally, new eInk pearl technology. The name is far too long but the idea is good.
  2. Social Proof from customers – #1 bestseller, most 5 star reviews. It’s clearly shown that Kindle 3 has a 4.5 stars rating based on 16,179 reviews. Amazon is completely focused on showing how much other customers like the Kindle.
  3. There’s the added social proof that 3,343 people ‘Like’ the Kindle (there’s a little Like button on the top right).
  4. The choice of graphite or white.
  5. An indicator that it’s In Stock.
  6. A section on reviews from major publications. Example: ‘New Kindle leaves rivals farther back’ from The New York Times. This is the first and only place where Press Reviews are shown.

Those are the things visible before you scroll down. So Amazon’s focus seems to be – To show customers love the Kindle, and throw in the fact that the Press loves the Kindle too.

As you scroll down you run into all the data you could possibly want to help make a decision (including user reviews) -

  1. A section on main features/selling points. It’s interesting how it’s a very data-oriented layout. It’s just a bunch of bullet points with photos to the side. The features Amazon highlights are – eInk screen, sunlight reading, new fonts, sleek design, 15% lighter, battery life of one month, double storage, books in 60 seconds, free 3G wireless, WiFi, faster page turns, enhanced PDF reader, new WebKit browser.
  2. Then there’s a section where each of these is explained, along with some other benefits like lending and ease of use.
  3. A section comparing eInk to LCD screens.
  4. A section comparing the various Kindles.
  5. A section on choosing between Kindle 3G and Kindle WiFi.
  6. A size comparison of the new Kindle 3 and the older Kindle 2.
  7. Charlie Rose interview with Jeff Bezos.
  8. A video on features. All Amazon videos focus on people reading on the Kindle. B&N focuses on the Nook Color.
  9. A detailed list of features and benefits. There are images on the right side throughout. The left side has a ton of detail – everything you would want to know about each feature.
  10. After a few pages the right side shows a list of bestsellers and new releases and highlights the $9.99 price of Kindle books and the savings over hardcovers.
  11. After quite a few pages detailing the various features there’s a section talking about Kindle reading apps.
  12. A section on technical details.
  13. A few sections on Accessories and then a video on what customers are saying.
  14. Finally, customer reviews. The focus is on ‘most helpful’ customer reviews, with ‘most recent’ customer reviews listed on the right side.

Those are the main sections. It’s 20 pages of details and writing and around 4 pages of accessories and forum links and such.

20 entire pages detailing Kindle’s features and benefits. Amazon is putting all the information customers could want right on the product page. The more you read, the more invested you get. The further down the page you go, the more reasons you get to buy the Kindle. It all culminates in the solid customer reviews.

It’s also interesting that apart from product details and social proof there isn’t very much else. It’s a very logical, data rich approach.

Here are 25 reasons to buy the Kindle. Every other Amazon customer is buying it. Just Buy It!

That brings us to the Nook Color Page.

B&N is all about visuals and promoting features Kindle doesn’t have

B&N seems to want to focus on showing how pretty and bright and colorful the Nook Color is. 

  1. The first thing that’s interesting is that B&N changes what’s shown on the screen of the Nook Color – the screen rotates through images of magazines, the bookshelf, Nook Store, the home page, and Elle magazine.
  2. It touts Nook Color as ‘The Ultimate Reading Experience’.
  3. The features it focuses on are – 7″ color touchscreen, magazines & newspapers in color, kids’ books coming alive, 2 million plus titles. It’s clearly focusing on things the Kindle can’t do that well.
  4. After that, there’s a section titled ‘Touch the Future of Reading’ which focuses on the color touchscreen, the WiFi, sharing, personalization, personalized recommendations, and Nook Extras (Nook Apps).
  5. There’s a small section that covers NookBooks, Nook NewsStand, and NookKids. Then accessories and a bunch of links.

The main Nook Color product page only lists the main selling points of the Nook Color. There are other pages that cover – Features, Specifications, Book Choice, Magazine Choice, Nook Kids, Extras, Reviews, Support, and Protection Plan. The features page has a sub page for each and every feature. Lots of images.

For reviews B&N only features reviews from the press. No user reviews at all.

B&N even has photos of famous people, such as George W. Bush, seen with the Nook Color. Have no idea what to make of B&N’s focus on what the Press thinks of Nook Color as opposed to what actual owners think.

B&N has a pretty different approach from Amazon.

Look how shiny and pretty Nook Color is. Look how the Press thinks you should get it. Look at all the things you can do on this you can’t do with the Kindle.

As opposed to Amazon, which focuses mostly on what customers think of the Kindle and on providing copious amount of information, B&N focuses most on showing lots of bright color images of the Nook Color, promoting the features heavily (especially the features Kindle doesn’t have, like the color screen), and showing that the Press loves Nook Color.

It’s almost as if B&N is aiming Nook Color at people in love with pictures and colors and shiny gadgets while Amazon is aiming Kindle at people in love with words and logic.

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Nook Color vs Kindle vs iPad – comparison of the reading experience

Posted on December 13, 2010 by switch11

This Nook Color vs Kindle vs iPad comparison will only look at the reading experience – what it’s like to read books on each.

The Kindle has an eInk Pearl screen and is built solely for reading – So it has a natural advantage, and is expected to have the best reading experience. 

We simply want to see what the trade-offs in the reading experience are, when you pick a multi-purpose device – whether it’s a ‘Reading Tablet’ like Nook Color or an ‘Everything Tablet’ like the iPad.

The Reading Experience on Kindle, Nook Color, and iPad

What’s it like to read a book on each of these three?

Reading on the Kindle is like reading a book

Kindle provides the best reading experience. A solid 9 stars out of 10. It’s a lot of fun and it’s ideally suited for reading books.

Reading on the Kindle offers a few solid advantages – eInk looks like print on paper, there’s no backlight shining into your eyes, you can read in bright light and direct sunlight, it doesn’t hurt or bother your eyes, amazing battery life, compactness, low weight.

Since the Kindle is built for reading from the ground-up, it also offers other advantages – a lack of distractions, free Internet reference via free 3G, in-built dictionary, a text to speech feature that works quite well, a great Kindle Book Store, reading across all your devices.

The two things Kindle specializes in are – reading books, buying books. Those are the only two things it specializes in.

Main advantages of choosing the Kindle will be that you will get the absolute best reading experience, you’ll read more than you used to, and you’ll have to spend less on the Kindle itself.

There are also several disadvantages – there’s no touch-screen so it’s a bit awkward to move around and enter notes and highlights, there’s no color so illustrations don’t stand out, the 6″ screen isn’t ideal as it’s a bit smaller than a paperback page, the support for PDFs is spotty.

Reading on Nook Color is like reading a book-sized LCD

Nook Color offers a decent reading experience – 7.5 stars out of 10. It’s quite fun and is adequate for reading books, surfing websites, and for some PDFs. It can be a bit tiring on your eyes.

By creating a ‘Reading Tablet’ B&N does a few great things - keeps the focus on reading, keeps the weight reasonable, delivers a decent sized device with a good 7″ screen, delivers color and touch, delivers a screen with a back-light, delivers a $249 Reading Tablet that is great value for money.

It also creates a few problems – it’s a LCD screen and despite the anti-glare layer it can’t be used in bright light or direct sunlight, battery life is low at 8 hours with wireless off, it’s not easy on the eyes, it’s not suited for long-form reading, at night the bright glow will keep you awake longer.

At the moment Nook Color specializes in – reading (to quite an extent), buying books, web surfing (to an extent),  being a tablet (to a limited extent). Nook Color doesn’t specialize in doing movies and games. The Nook App Store might cause Nook Color to evolve into a full-fledged Tablet - However, it’s far likelier that the focus will remain on reading.

Main advantage of choosing Nook Color will be that you’ll get a device with a focus on reading, which provides a decent reading experience, and still lets you do things other than reading. It’s more of a Tablet than an eReader – Yet, it provides a decent reading experience.

Reading on iPad is like reading from a rather large, hardcover-sized LCD

iPad delivers a reading experience that is somewhere between 6 and 7.5 stars out of 10. It’s well suited for PDFs, magazines, newspapers, and websites. It’s decentish for reading books. It’s a bit tiring on your hands and eyes.

There are two main drawbacks – the awkward size and the LCD. Depending on what you think of the size you’ll either hate it (6 stars) or find it quite enjoyable (7.5 stars).

iPad does some things very well – it provides color and touch, it provides a large 10″ screen, it provides lots of apps so you’ll find an app no matter what type of reading you’re looking for, it provides both Kindle for iPad and Nook for iPad, it handles things well (great usability), it provides a backlight.

iPad also has some disadvantages – LCDs tend to tire the eyes, there are tens of thousands of distractions, there isn’t really anything in the iPad to encourage reading, the size and weight are huge problems, it’s unreadable in bright light and sunlight, it’s expensive.

iPad specializes in – doing everything, letting you read from any store, letting you get a decentish reading experience, letting you read PDFs and other documents that benefit from the large 10″ screen.

Main advantages of choosing iPad will be that you’ll be able to read without losing the ability to do 10,000 other things, the screen size will be big enough for most types of reading, and you’ll get a decent reading experience.

Nook Color vs Kindle vs iPad – Which would you choose if they were side by side?

Usually, the Kindle. If you had all three side-by-side, and had to choose one to read on, you’d always choose the Kindle for books and long form reading.

The Nook Color would be your choice if you wanted to read at night, and didn’t have the Kindle’s neat ‘cover with built-in reading light’. It would also be your choice for books in color, illustrated books, and perhaps even magazines. Nook Color is also quite good for browsing websites.

iPad would be your choice for anything that requires a larger screen – PDFs, newspapers, magazines. iPad might be a slightly better choice than Nook Color for websites.

It’s quite an easy decision. Kindle for books. Nook Color if you’d like color, or can’t handle the large size of the iPad. iPad if you end up reading a lot of PDFs and magazines, and don’t mind the awkward size.

Areas Nook Color, Kindle, and iPad win – The long, complicated list

Let’s go through all the areas of comparison we can think of beyond reading experience -

  1. Screen Size – iPad is better than Nook Color, which is slightly better than Kindle.
  2. Color – iPad and Nook Color tie. Kindle doesn’t have color. 
  3. Pixel Density – Kindle and Nook Color are close at around 167 pixel per inch. iPad is quite a bit behind.
  4. Battery Life – Kindle wins by a mile. iPad beats Nook Color.
  5. Weight and Size - Kindle wins. Nook is within striking distance. iPad fails as it’s heavy and awkward.
  6. Memory and Memory Expansion – Nook is best with a memory card slot. iPad is next as it has a lot of memory. Kindle is last as it only has 4 GB memory.
  7. Store – Kindle Store is best but iPad wins because it has both Kindle Store and Nook Store.
  8. Reading Software – Kindle is best. Nook Color’s reading software is very well done. iPad has both Kindle and Nook reading apps – However, they aren’t as good as the real thing.
  9. ePub – Kindle fails.
  10. Library Books – Kindle fails.
  11. PDF support – iPad has the best PDF support. iPad’s screen size also helps. Kindle and Nook are quite a bit behind.
  12. Lack of distractions – Kindle wins. The other two aren’t suited for focusing on reading though Nook Color is much better.
  13. Surfing – iPad is best, Nook Color is close, and Kindle is last.
  14. Value for Money – Kindle WiFi and Nook Color are probably tied. Kindle and iPad are next. Also depends on what you value – If you don’t value reading, you might not value the Kindle at all.
  15. Price – Kindle WiFi is just $139, Kindle 3 is $189, Nook Color is $249, and iPad is $499.
  16. Customer Service – Amazon, without a doubt. Apple and B&N are decent too.
  17. Infrastructure and Support – All three do a decent job.
  18. Apps – iPad easily wins. Kindle has a fledgling App Store. Nook App Store isn’t even open yet.
  19. Physical Keyboard – Kindle wins. The other two only have virtual keyboards.
  20. Ease of Use – Kindle wins.
  21. Openness – Neither of the three is open. Nook Color probably wins as it’s based on Android and you can easily root it.

As you can clearly see – Each of Kindle, Nook Color, and iPad has its strengths and weaknesses.

Nook Color vs Kindle vs iPad – Who this Nook Color vs Kindle vs iPad comparison is not for

There are three groups this review is not for.

People who think reading isn’t worth a separate device

If you feel that reading isn’t worth a dedicated device, or that reading doesn’t add value, then you should definitely get a Tablet. If a device has to be usable for more than just reading, then an Android Tablet or the iPad would be a good choice.

The LCD compatibles

There are some people who are naturally suited to LCD screens. If your eyes don’t get tired reading a book from a LCD screen, if bright light at night doesn’t affect you, or if you can’t ever imagine any screen being better for reading than a LCD screen - pick a Reading Tablet or a Tablet. An eReader would be a waste for you.

Apple people

If you feel Apple products match your aesthetic sensibilities, and are the best products ever made - get the iPad. The iPad is a decent enough reading device.

Kindle vs Nook Color vs iPad – Regret Minimization

Will you regret buying a $139 Kindle WiFi or a $189 Kindle 3?

If you love to read, or like to read, or want to read more – Never.

In every other case – probably.

If you’re buying a Kindle for PDFs or magazines – Probably.

Will you regret buying a $249 Nook Color?

If you want the absolute best reading experience – Yes. The minute you see eInk Pearl on a Kindle 3, or Sony Reader 350, you’ll wish you’d chosen a device with an eInk Pearl screen.

If you are LCD incompatible i.e. you can’t read for long stretches on LCD screens – Yes.

If you want a device focused on reading that can also do other things – Never.

If you want a cheap Android Tablet, and are comfortable rooting your Nook Color – Never.

Will you regret buying a $499 iPad?

It’s very hard to say. The iPad is very hit or miss - my recommendation would be to try it out first. If you’re planning on reading books on it – actually read a book on it before buying it.

If you want the best reading experience, or if you’re LCD incompatible – Yes, you’ll regret buying the iPad.

If you’re more of a creator than a consumer – Yes.

If you want a device that does more than just read – No, you’ll love the iPad.

In almost every other case – No. You may or may not get your money’s worth, as iPad is a very hit or miss device – However, it’s unlikely you’ll regret it.

Kindle has the absolute best reading experience, Nook Color has the most potential

The Kindle and Nook Color are both focused on reading, and will help you read more. Kindle sacrifices everything else to bring you a 9/10 reading experience. Nook Color accommodates your other interests/pursuits while bringing you a 7.5/10 reading experience.

Kindle and Nook Color are probably the best devices to go with if reading is your first priority, or even if it’s a top 3 priority. If reading isn’t a top 3 priority, or isn’t a priority at all, then it’s best to go with the iPad.

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Kindle vs Nook vs Sony (December 2010)

Posted on December 12, 2010 by switch11

The Kindle, the Nook, and the Sony Reader are the Big 3 eReaders. If you want a dedicated reading device with an eInk screen you’ll probably end up having to make a Kindle vs Nook vs Sony decision.

This Kindle vs Nook vs Sony post will cover the strengths and weaknesses of each and help you decide which eReader suits you best.

Kindle vs Nook vs Sony – What Sony brings to the table

There are two new Sony Readers - the ultra-compact Sony Reader Pocket Edition (Sony 350) and the Sony Reader Touch Edition (Sony 650). Sony killed sales by introducing them at $180 and $230. However, these are now sporadically available for $150 and $200, sometimes even lower, and this makes them a lot more competitive with Kindle and Nook.

Sony Reader Strengths

Sony 350 and Sony 650 pack in some solid features -

  1. They both have touch. It’s touch enabled by using IR rays and in no way impedes readability.
  2. They have the new eInk Pearl screen.
  3. They support library books. 
  4. They support DRM’ed ePub which means ebooks from any store that sells books in DRM’ed ePub format can be read on the Sony Readers (except B&N as it adds its own proprietary DRM on top of Adobe’s DRM). In addition, Sony Store sells ebooks which can be read on any eReader that supports DRM’ed ePub – so you can switch to another eReader later without losing your books.
  5. Decent battery life of 2 weeks.
  6. The smaller Sony Reader (Pocket Edition) is incredibly light at 5.47 ounces and very compact at 5.71″ by 4.11″ by 0.33″. The Pocket Edition is also quite light at 7.58 ounces.
  7. They come with 10 built-in language translation dictionaries in addition to the standard English dictionary.
  8. They come with the ability to do freehand drawing in addition to scribbling notes.
  9. They have slightly better PDF support than Kindle and Nook.
  10. They are available in a variety of colors and are the best looking eReaders by far. Sony Reader Pocket Edition is available in silver and pink and Sony Reader Touch Edition is available in black and red.
  11. The Pocket Edition has a SD Card slot and a Memory Stick slot.
  12. The Pocket Edition lets you play MP3 and AAC files (Apple iTunes format).

The new Sony Reader Touch Edition is, arguably, the best eReader if you consider just the eReader itself. It’s let down by a poor ebook store and by poor infrastructure.

Sony Reader Weaknesses

The Sony Readers share a few weaknesses -

  1. The eBook store is painfully bad.
  2. There is very little in terms of infrastructure. For example: Sony reading apps for iPhone and Android are slated to arrive in December 2010 - That’s a long, long time after Kindle for iPhone and Nook for iPhone arrived.
  3. They don’t have wireless support – neither WiFi nor 3G.
  4. The user interface for taking notes and making highlights is awkward and wastes the touch capability.
  5. There’s no text to speech feature like the one Kindle has.
  6. There’s no ebook lending like Nook.
  7. No in-built browser.
  8. There’s no App Store on the horizon and no games.

Sony has, rather strangely, decided to forsake wireless support for the 350 and 650.

The Pocket Edition has some additional limitations -

  1. The Sony Reader Pocket Edition has a slightly smaller screen (5″).
  2. It’s also pretty fragile – more so than the other eReaders, which are quite fragile themselves.
  3. There is no SD card slot on the Pocket Edition.
  4. It doesn’t have audio support.

It’s a bit sad to see Sony limit the Sony Reader Pocket Edition so much. There really was no need to remove audio support and to get rid of the SD Card Slot.

Kindle vs Nook vs Sony – What Nook brings to the table

Nook is the only second generation eReader in the Kindle vs Nook vs Sony discussion. That means it doesn’t have the benefit of the eInk Pearl screen and is missing some of the newer technologies (such as Sony Reader’s touch screen and Kindle’s Voice Guide feature). It still manages to put up quite a fight.

We’ll consider only the Nook for our comparison since Nook and Nook WiFi are almost identical. The only difference is that Nook WiFi doesn’t have the 3G support the Nook has.

Nook Strengths

B&N has done a good job of supporting Nook with software updates, a good ebook store, and good wireless features.

  1. Nook is supported by a very good eBook store.
  2. Nook is also supported by good infrastructure - free Nook store browsing and free ebook downloads via AT&T wireless, lots of Nook reading apps for other platforms, and features like syncing your place in a book, and your notes and highlights, across devices.
  3. Nook has a LendMe feature that lets you lend a book once, to one person, for up to 14 days. Kindle is supposed to add this feature in 2010 but hasn’t yet.
  4. Nook gets some bonuses when you go into B&N stores – you can read any book for up to an hour per day, there are sometimes offers, and there’s B&N support staff to answer questions in person. 
  5. Nook supports library books.
  6. Nook supports DRM’ed ePub. We’ve already discussed how this means ePub books from any store can be read on Nook. Note that Nook’s own books aren’t readable on other eReaders – more on that in the Nook weaknesses section below.
  7. Nook comes with a microSD card slot.
  8. Nook has a pretty decent audio player. Kindle only lets you skip to the next track and pause.
  9. The Nook comes with a small 3.5″ color touchscreen that is used for navigation and flipping through book covers.
  10. Nook looks quite good. Not very pretty like the Sony Readers but passable.
  11. You can password protect your purchases.
  12. Nook is built on Android and there are hacks available for it.

Overall, the Nook has a lot of strengths and, despite being a second generation eReader, it stays within striking distance of the Kindle and the new Sony Readers.

Nook Weaknesses

Nook has quite a few weaknesses -

  1. It doesn’t have the new eInk Pearl screen. If you were to place Kindle, Nook, and Sony Reader side by side you would always pick one of the other two for reading. 
  2. It’s quite unwieldy as it weighs 12.1 ounces and measures 7.7″ by 4.9″ by 0.5″. 
  3. The color touchscreen for navigation doesn’t gel with the much slower eInk screen for reading. This problem is compounded by a user interface that is rather complicated.
  4. Nook has the slowest page turns out of the Big 3 eReaders (Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader).
  5. There’s no text to speech feature. 
  6. The Nook App Store is only going to be for Nook Color in the beginning. Given that only a million or so Nooks have been sold, Apps for the eInk Nook might never really take off.
  7. It doesn’t have touch for the main reading screen.
  8. Battery life is relatively low when wireless is on. Total battery life is also a bit low at 10 days.
  9. It doesn’t support Audible audiobooks and only supports MP3s for music.
  10. It’s only available in one color.
  11. It doesn’t support text files.

Nook suffers, in comparison to Kindle and Sony, and my recommendation would be to pick one of those if you’re looking for a dedicated eReader. Buying a second generation eInk based eReader makes little sense when multiple third generation eInk based eReaders are available.

Kindle vs Nook vs Sony – What Kindle brings to the table

The Kindle is a third generation eReader and also has a good ebook store and good infrastructure to support it. Amazon’s desire to preserve its eBook revenue stream means the Kindle imposes some limitations which end up being its major disadvantages.

Kindle Strengths

The Kindle is solid across the board -

  1. It has the new eInk Pearl screen which is great for reading. It’s the exact same screen as the new Sony Readers. It’s also a much better eInk screen than the one the Nook has.
  2. Kindle has the best eBook Store, with the best range and the best ebook prices. Nook Store is close, while Sony Store is a distant third.
  3. Kindle is the simplest eReader to use. You don’t need a computer. You don’t have to figure out complicated menus. It just works.
  4. Kindle has amazing infrastructure to back it up. Not only does it have 3G for free store browsing and free downloads - It also offers free internet browsing to US Kindle owners.
  5. Kindle has the best international support – It’s available to be shipped to over 150 countries, WhisperNet is available in 100+ countries, and it’s begun to add books in non-English languages to the Kindle Store.
  6. Kindle is great for travel for US Kindle owners as they get free Internet Browsing and free store browsing in over 100 countries.
  7. Kindle has the best battery life – It’s up to a month with wireless off, 3 weeks when using WiFi for wireless, and 10 days when using 3G wireless.
  8. Kindle’s text to speech feature is great – It lets Kindle owners listen to books, and also makes the Kindle more “accessible” to blind and low vision readers.
  9. To enable full “accessibility” the Kindle has a Voice Guide feature that reads out menus and book listings.
  10. Kindle has a physical keyboard – While Amazon has tried its best to nullify this advantage by removing the number keys and making the keys tiny, it’s still good to have a physical keyboard.
  11. Kindle has an App Store that’s begun to churn out games. There haven’t really been any life-changing apps released but there’s a chance killer apps start appearing eventually.
  12. Excellent customer service from Amazon.

If you factor in the entire ‘eReader + eBook Store + Infrastructure’ ecosystem the Kindle comfortably edges Nook and Sony Reader.

The Kindle is clearly the best dedicated eReader available.

It does, however, have a few significant weaknesses because Amazon wants to make sure that it keeps the eBook revenue stream intact. This leads to strange decisions, such as not adding PDF support until a competitor adds it, and staying away from ePub.

Kindle Weaknesses

Here are some Kindle weaknesses -

  1. No support for library books.
  2. No support for ePub.
  3. No support for DRM’ed books other than ones from the Kindle Store. This means that the only stores from which you can get eBooks for the Kindle are the Kindle Store and stores that sell DRM-free ebooks.
  4. It doesn’t have a touch screen. 
  5. It doesn’t support Apple iTunes format music. Also, the music player is hilariously rudimentary – the only options are Next Track and Pause.
  6. It doesn’t allow custom screensavers – Nook does.
  7. Kindle isn’t the prettiest eReader around.
  8. There’s no SD card slot.
  9. The battery isn’t replaceable.
  10. There is no ebook lending yet – though it’s supposed to arrive by the end of 2010.
  11. It isn’t as compact and light as the Sony Reader Pocket Edition.

The significant disadvantages are the first 4, with the first 3 being a direct result of Amazon’s attempts to keep its ebook revenue stream intact.

The Kindle vs Nook vs Sony Decision

At the moment it’s a pretty clear-cut decision -

  1. Kindle wins Kindle vs Nook vs Sony unless you really need one or more of – library book support, ePub support, a touch screen, lending, a SD Card Slot. If you don’t need these then get the Kindle.
  2. If you need one or more of these features then the new Sony Reader Touch Edition is the best option. It’s a latest generation eReader with the new eInk Pearl screen, a touch screen, support for ePub, and library book support. It’s a better choice than Nook.
  3. Nook is the third choice. It’s still a decent option due to the Nook Store being quite good, and because B&N provides good infrastructure and frequent software updates.

Kindle is clearly the best eReader available, and Sony Reader Touch Edition is a very clear second. Nook loses out in the Kindle vs Nook vs Sony comparison. Depending on which features are most important to you, my recommendation would be to pick either Kindle or Sony.

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