Amazon, Kindle, Baby Boomers – Is Amazon aligning itself to serve Baby Boomers?

Posted on June 5, 2013 by switch11

This comment from John McSweeney, regarding Amazon’s Grocery service AmazonFresh, set off a spark -

It’s a GREAT idea.  Our growing elderly population no longer has the strength to shop at the supermarket. All would welcome a home delivery service that is not currently available at a reasonable cost. Easily buy $300 a month (sometimes in a week).

Thanks John!

The question we were focused on in our Amazon Grocery post was – What does Amazon see that no one else sees?

Well, the answer is obvious if you look at all of Amazon’s recent moves.

What’s common to Amazon’s most recent products and initiatives?

Let’s consider the big moves Amazon has been making -

  1. Kindle that allows instant access to books, large font sizes, Read to Me. Kindle that is much lighter and easier to hold than paperbacks and hardcovers.
  2. Kindle Fire HD that allows easy and instant access to email, Internet, movies, TV Shows, music. Kindle Fire HD that is much cheaper than a PC and easier to use. It’s cheaper than iPad too (although not as easy to use).
  3. Expansion of AmazonFresh Grocery delivery service.
  4. Expansion into selling clothes and shoes. Allows Amazon customers to avoid going to the stores more and more.
  5. Talk of a Kindle Phone and a Kindle TV. Which would also focus on ease of delivery and on bypassing trips to stores.

There are two themes that stand out -

  1. These are products focused on making things convenient and easy.
  2. These are products focused on replacing ‘trips to stores’ and ‘waiting forever for shipped items’ with ‘instant access’.

Yes, this does help everyone. However, what group does this benefit immensely?

Baby Boomers.

In fact, if we dig in deeper, there are lots and lots of moves that seem targeted specifically at Baby Boomers -

  1. Large Font Sizes in Kindle eBooks make large print books redundant. Not to mention large font sizes turn ANY book into a Large Print Book.
  2. Read to Me.
  3. Light weight of the Kindle is great for those with weak hands and/or arthritic hands.
  4. AmazonFresh Grocery delivery service - No hassle of driving to the store, carrying groceries around, and all the other headaches of a grocery trip. Why would Amazon include delivery from local merchants? John McSweeney is right – Amazon is building up a very cheap delivery service that suits Baby Boomers perfectly.
  5. Kindle Fire for Movies and TV Shows – No having to go to Blockbuster. No need to buy movie DVDs online and then wait 3-4 days. No having to go to the Theater and all the problems that entails.

Perhaps the Kindle was the first step. Perhaps the success of and market demand for Kindle among Baby Boomers set off a spark.

Whatever it was, it now seems that Amazon is 100% focused on Baby Boomers.

Baby Boomers are the Perfect Customers

Firstly, you can read my Baby Boomer, Kindle eReader post from 2009 to see why Baby Boomers are perfect customers for Kindle. It includes interesting details such as -

  1. Baby Boomers and ‘Matures’ born prior to 1965 constitute 54% of the population. They account for 67% of ALL book purchases.
  2. Kindle is the ONLY eReader that actually caters to this group. It can still be improved in many ways. However, other eReader makers are completely ignoring Baby Boomers. Well, it’s not like they buy 67% of all books.

It’s not just books and reading where Baby Boomers are great customers.

We can look at some Baby Boomer Statistics to see just how important they are as customers. Taken from another 2009 post on Baby Boomers & Kindle.

  1.  US News says the 50-plus demographic holds 75% of total financial assets.

    U.S. News talks about how only 10% advertising is targeted at the 50 plus demographic (Despite them having 75% of the financial assets) -

    As a group, they are the most affluent Americans, with three quarters of the nation’s financial assets and an estimated $1 trillion in disposable income annually. Yet while boomers are hurtling toward their retirement years–the oldest boomers will begin turning 60 next year–Madison Avenue continues to prize youth. Only about 10 percent of advertising is directed specifically at the 50-plus market. “The demographic sweet spot has always been 18 to 49,” says Brent Green, author of Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers . “Once you turn 50, you fall off the planet.”

  2. Marketing Sherpa says Baby Boomers hold 70% of US resources although they are just 25% of the population.

    78.2 million baby boomers; 50.2% are women (courtesy US census).

    They’re 25% of the American population. Marketing Sherpa says they hold 70% of US resources.

Baby Boomers aren’t just an important market segment. They are THE market segment. If a market segment holds 70% to 75% of the assets, then there’s no point going after the coolness factor of teenagers with no money to spend.

People are always talking about how Facebook has all the college kids and how Tumblr has the ‘coolness’ factor.

  1. Guess how much those ‘cool’ kids earn Facebook? $5 per year.
  2. Guess how much all the ‘coolness’ earned Tumbler? Less than $12 million last year.
  3. Guess how much the average Amazon customer earns Amazon? $200 per year. Note: It’s even higher for Apple.

Would you rather have the cool and penniless kids OR the ’not considered cool/impressionable/influencable by marketers’ rich, older customers?

Money Talks – Baby Boomers will dictate the Market

How could a $399 Kindle be a success when all the experts gave it no chance? When it had zero cool factor?

Simple answer – It got the job done for the REAL Customer Base. People who read books and people who were struggling with small fonts and availability issues and awkward book weights and sizes.

We might very well see the same thing play out with Kindle Phone and AmazonFresh and other Amazon initiatives that, for all practical purposes, are optimized for Baby Boomers -

  1. Experts don’t ‘get’ them.
  2. Teenagers don’t think they are cool like sparkly vampires and hybrid WerePandas with big baby eyes.
  3. The products and devices and services themselves are suited for Baby Boomers. Well, they aren’t perfect – just much better than what other companies are offering.
  4. Baby Boomers, the demographic that owns 70% to 75% of financial assets, pick Amazon products and devices and services because they are ideally suited for Baby Boomers.
  5. The devices and services succeed. Surprise! The group with 75% of the Financial Assets chooses them – So coolness doesn’t matter.

It doesn’t matter what the cool kids or the know-it-all tech bloggers think. The battle will be won by the company that best serves customers who have money. That just happens to be Baby Boomers.

Is Amazon aligning itself to serve Baby Boomers?

Firstly, let’s look at this:

Right Now – 78.2 million Baby Boomers.

2030 – In 2030, there are expected to be 57.8 million baby boomers (according to projections); 54.9 percent would be female

Baby Boomers aren’t just the most important customer segment right now. They are probably going to remain the most important customer segment for the next 18-25 years.

Secondly, let’s consider what Amazon is building, in effect:

  1. A delivery service that will allow it to deliver both groceries and other goods same-day in all the major cities.
  2. Devices that let it deliver digital content straight to users.
  3. Subscription services and services like Amazon Prime that gets users to buy everything from Amazon.
  4. Devices that are optimized for Baby Boomers in multiple ways.
  5. A network of warehouses around the country that will allow it to step in. Step in if lots of people can’t afford driving to stores. Step in if lots of people don’t want to drive to stores.
  6. A very high volume business that has low profit margins and is thus hard to compete with. What company wants to compete with Amazon’s $60 billion a year of revenues with a 1.1% profit margin. There are far more interesting targets like Apple’s 37% profit margins and Microsoft’s 70% profit margins.
  7. A level of scale that allows for numerous efficiencies. Which can then be passed on partially to customers - thus creating even more of a defence against competitors.

Amazon is building the perfect business for a world where large parts of the population give up on stores. This might happen. In fact, it’s likely to happen for a few reasons -

  1. Convenience of getting things delivered to your home. Same day delivery, if Amazon can pull that off, would totally cement this convenience.
  2. Baby Boomers not wanting to drive and/or not being able to drive. The amount of effort just isn’t worth it. Why spend 2 to 3 hours every few days just to pick up the exact same groceries?
  3. Rising price of oil and driving. Note: Oil from fracking is more expensive. So there isn’t really any ‘miracle source of cheap oil’ left.
  4. A shift away from a driving based economy to a local based economy.
  5. The gradual death of stores as they fail to compete with online businesses. What’s happening in books and movies might soon spread to other areas.
  6. People beginning to value their time more and factor in the opportunity cost of driving everywhere to shop. You can already see this happen with book buyers who talk about the 35 minutes trip to a bookstore being too time-consuming.
  7. Even a few stores closing accelerates the shift to online. If a mall sees a shoe shop and a bookstore close, then all the people who visited primarily for those two stores stop coming. That leads to lost sales for other stores too.

It seems that one or both of the following are true -

  1. Amazon is aligning itself to serve Baby Boomers.
  2. Amazon is aligning itself to serve a world where people want things delivered to their homes. Where people don’t want to drive to stores.

In either case, Amazon is building up a line of products and services that serve Baby Boomers very well. Baby Boomers are, based on financial measures, the most important market segment. Amazon is well on its way to locking up a large part of the Baby Boomer segment. Baby Boomers might very well be what drive Amazon to solid profitability.

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Kindle India – Amazon lays groundwork to sell Kindle Fire HD, Kindle Phone in India

Posted on June 4, 2013 by switch11

We’ve talked a lot about the importance of China and India for Amazon. Both Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Phone will live or die based on how well Amazon can tap into emerging markets like China and India.

Kindle Phone, Kindle Fire HD, and other Kindle devices must target emerging markets like China and India to have any real chance of competing with the Apples, Samsungs, and Microsofts of the world.

Amazon expanded its App Store to China just a few weeks ago. Just last week it started selling Kindle Fire HD International to 170 countries, including China and India. Now, we get news from Times of India that Amazon India has opened as an online marketplace.

What do we know about Amazon India?

Actually, quite a bit.

  1. It’s an online marketplace for the moment. Third party sellers can list their products and sell them to customers.
  2. Currently, it sells only Books and Movies & TV Shows. Amazon India offers 7 million local and imported books. Amazon India offers 12,000 movie titles and shows.
  3. It’s expanding to Phones and Cameras and Electronics soon.
  4. India’s online market is still very small – $800 million in revenue from 13 million online shoppers in 2012. Note: This is in a country of more than 1 billion people.
  5. Internet penetration is just 8% so lots of room to grow.
  6. India has a few players already in this space – FlipKart (India’s largest online retailer) and Infibeam have both set up similar marketplaces.
  7. Indian regulations don’t allow Amazon India to sell its own products. So Kindle Fire HD and Kindle can’t be sold via Amazon India. This is a bit strange -

    Amazon will not stock and sell its own products because India’s FDI regulations do not allow online multibrand retailers to sell their own products.

This is the most interesting part from the Times of India article -

The country’s internet penetration stands at about 8% with 137 million users, of which roughly 20 million are shoppers including the online travel agency market.

This reflects China’s online market back in 2005. China now has 538 million internet users and 227 million online shoppers.

It is quite possible that in the next 8 to 12 years India gets to where China is now. If that happens, Amazon would be glad it started building Amazon India now.

Kindle Fire HD India – How can Amazon sell Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Phone in India?

If what Times of India writes i.e.

Amazon will not stock and sell its own products because India’s FDI regulations do not allow online multibrand retailers to sell their own products.

is true, then Amazon is in a real quandary.

To sell Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Phone, Amazon would have to sell via other retailers. It couldn’t sell them via Amazon India.

Perhaps Amazon views Amazon India as a foundational step to build its brand and customer base. It can always figure out workarounds later. Who knows what legal changes India will see in the next 5 to 10 years. In Canada, Amazon worked out some complicated agreement in 2012 that allows it to set up further warehouses and expand. Eventually, Amazon should be able to set up shop properly in India and sell Kindles and Kindle Phones and Kindle TVs and Kindle Fire HDs.

For the moment, we just have a complicated situation where Amazon has set up Amazon India but can’t sell its own products like Kindle and Kindle Fire HD through it.

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Kindle & Kindle Paperwhite under pressure from Kobo & Kobo Aura

Posted on May 30, 2013 by switch11

The hard times B&N is facing with its Nook HD and Nook HD+ tablets seem like they will greatly strengthen Amazon’s position as the #1 eBook, eReader, and Reading Tablet seller. Good times for Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Paperwhite and the Kindle Store.

Well, not so fast.

It seems Kobo is growing rapidly. Additionally, Kobo’s new Kobo Aura HD eReader is doing well. This puts pressure on Amazon to really deliver with Kindle Paperwhite 2.

Kobo morphing into the type of Competitor B&N should have been

Nate at The Digital Reader shares some figures from Kobo’s Strong Growth Press Release -

  1. Kobo’s revenue was up 143% in 2012. In Q1, 2013 it’s up 98%.
  2. Kobo now has 14.5 million customers worldwide. That’s pretty impressive. Perhaps even more impressive is that Kobo added 2.5 million customers just in the last 3 months.
  3. Hardware sales increased 145%.
  4. Half of the new Kobo Aura HD sales were to new customers. No details on precise numbers, but Kobo Aura HD accounted for 27% of Kobo devices sold at retail.
  5. Rakuten is Kobo’s Parent Company and it’s very strong. Rakuten’s Internet Services Division generated $3 billion in revenue in 2012. Rakuten’s Internet Finances Division generated $1.5 billion.
  6. Rakuten has very strong international presence and solid partnerships. As opposed to B&N, which is US-centric, Kobo is World-centric.
  7. Indie Author titles now account for 10% of Kobo sales (by unit sales, not revenue).

It’s really interesting to see these figures. Keep in mind that B&N’s Nook division sales were actually down in Q4, 2012. While a lot of that is due to poor device sales, it still makes Kobo’s 143% growth last year, and its 98% growth in Q1, 2013, really, really impressive.

Adding 2.5 million new customers in the last 3 months is very impressive too. Of course, these are registrations, so we don’t know how many are paying customers.

Nevertheless, a 14.5 million customer market makes Kobo an important eReader and eBook seller.

Does this really put pressure on Amazon and Kindle?

Yes.

Normally, B&N would have been the one to raise the bar by releasing a HD screen eReader. This year, perhaps because of its disastrous holiday season, B&N wasn’t able to.

That would normally have meant big gains for Amazon. It can keep selling Kindle Paperwhite while preparing a solid Kindle Paperwhite 2 for the Holiday Season.

However, Kobo stepped up and shipped the Kobo Aura HD.

This does a few things -

  1. The ‘new shiny thing’ in eReaders is now a HD resolution eInk screen. Kindle Paperwhite is now seen as ‘last year’s model’.
  2. People start assuming a Kindle Paperwhite 2 is around the corner. Lots of them delay their purchases. Regardless of when Amazon planned on releasing Kindle Paperwhite 2, it’ll have to revisit those plans.
  3. New customers to eReaders hear about Kobo Aura HD. If Kindle Paperwhite 2 were available, new customers would just gravitate to it because ‘Kindle = eReader’. But they hear ‘HD’ and want to check out the Kobo Aura HD.
  4. Internationally, it puts a lot of pressure on Amazon because Kobo has strong presence internationally. Amazon is well aware of the HUGE advantage of becoming the ‘default’ eReader and ‘default’ eBook Store in a country.
  5. Amazon now has to anticipate moves by both B&N and Kobo. Amazon’s strategy so far has been to let B&N take a shot, and then counter. That’s what it’s done with the Nook Color, the Nook Simple Touch, and the Nook Glowlight. If it suddenly starts seeing 1 release a year from B&N, and 1 release a year from Kobo, Amazon will have to adjust its strategy. Things become especially difficult if Kobo does spring releases and B&N switches to Summer or Fall releases.
  6. It ensures there is at least one strong contender left standing. If B&N were to quit the eReader market in 2013 or 2014 or 2015, Amazon would be left with no competition if Kobo weren’t around. Amazon might see a strong #2 fall away, and be promptly replaced by a stronger and more dangerous #2.
  7. It helps Kobo capture more market share. This will become very important in the long run. A strong #2 with 20% market share and a strong #3 with 10% market share is much more dangerous than having just a strong #2 with 20% market share. Things like economies of scale and word of mouth and network effects really come into play once you get to tens of millions of customers.
  8. Kobo can push harder worldwide. Outside of the US and UK, people are neither in love with Amazon to an incredible extent, nor are they already invested in the Kindle ecosystem. For those people, it comes down to better device and better ebook store and better service. While Kobo’s service is supposedly atrocious, their device is now shiny and pretty and HD. Kobo also has a good ebook store in most countries.

Kindle Paperwhite is no longer the ‘newest and best and default’ eReader. Well, it might still be best. We don’t know how well Kobo Aura HD works.

However, Kindle Paperwhite definitely isn’t ‘newest’ and it definitely doesn’t have a HD screen which can be used as a marketing differentiator. If enough people start thinking ‘HD’ eInk screens are a big deal, then Kindle begins to slip from its status as ‘the first eReader you think of when someone says eReader’.

What could make Kobo even more dangerous?

Buying Nook Media. That’s what.

If Kobo can get Nook Media for $1 billion or so, it would instantly go from approximately 10% market share to 25% to 30% market share. It would also give it a brand that’s strong in the US.

Worldwide, Kobo could leverage the larger economies of scale to really push for market share.

Finally, you can be pretty sure that a LOT of Nook owners would choose Kobo over Kindle. Kobo can read their existing Nook Books. Kobo supports ePub. Kobo isn’t Amazon.

Could B&N remain a strong #2 based on just Reading Apps?

It’s very unlikely.

B&N might exit Reading Tablets and eReaders. The former seems likely, and the latter seems a possibility.

It’s quite conceivable that B&N stops making devices altogether. That it tries to fight the Book Wars using Reading Apps. There are a few problems with this approach -

  1. Users of a device tend to go with the ‘default’ Reading App. Kindle Fire owners use the in-built reading app. Apple users tend to use the iBooks App. And so forth.
  2. When users don’t go with the ‘default’ reading app, they go with the ‘Best’ or the ‘Most Well-Known’ Reading App. Best Reading App varies wildly by platform. B&N isn’t ‘best’ on any platform except Nook devices. ‘Most Well-Known’ tends to be Kindle.
  3. Outside the US, B&N has no mind share. Most people won’t even know B&N’s Nook Reading Apps exist, or for that matter B&N. On the other hand, if B&N were able to sell devices internationally, users would gravitate to the in-built default reading app (which would be B&N’s own).
  4. Serious Readers want a device focused on reading. The more focused a device is on reading, the less likely it is to have ‘lots of Reading Apps’ and/or the option to ‘choose a Reading App from another ebook seller’. Kindles don’t have reading apps from other stores. Kindle Fire allows sideloading, but Kindle doesn’t allow anything.
  5. On another company’s device, you get taxed and/or get treated like a third class citizen. Apple forced Reading Apps to remove their ebook stores from the app, and also to remove their ‘buy’ buttons. It wanted a 30% cut. Amazon would simply never allow B&N’s Reading App in its Kindle Fire Store. Google could simply hide the B&N Reading App by making it hard to find.

Unfortunately for B&N, there’s only one way to keep fighting the Book Wars – to have both reading apps for other devices and your own devices (both Reading Tablets and eReaders).

It seems inevitable that Kobo will become the Pepsi to Kindle’s Coca Cola

Kobo is making a lot of good aggressive moves. It is fighting in Reading Tablets and eReaders. Its first few efforts have been terrible – However, it has been improving gradually, and at some point of time it’ll catch up. With the Kobo Aura HD it has really put the pressure on Kindle and Nook. Now Kindle Paperwhite 2 and Nook Glowlight 2 have to deliver.

As it grows likelier and likelier that B&N is going to leave Reading Tablets and eReaders. As Kobo keeps improving and pushing and expanding worldwide aggressively. It becomes more and more likely that Kobo will become the #2 eBook seller and the #2 eReader seller worldwide.

Once that happens, Amazon will find that Kindle vs Kobo is a much more dangerous fight for it than Kindle vs Nook. Rakuten is an Internet giant conglomerate (much like Amazon), and knows how to fight the Digital Book Wars much better than B&N.

By 2015 we might have Amazon wishing B&N had done better with Nook, and stayed around as an annoying but contained #2. Kindle vs Kobo is going to make Kindle vs Nook seem like a walk in the park.

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Kindle Fire & Kindle Odds & Ends

Posted on May 22, 2013 by switch11

A mixed bag of Kindle Fire and Kindle items today.

Qualcomm showing off 2560 by 1440 Mirasol Display (reflects ambient light)

Qualcomm’s Mirasol Display was supposed to be used in a Color Kindle way back in 2011. Well, there was no Color Kindle so there was no Mirasol color eReader eInk. The last we heard was that Mirasol had gotten a $2 billion investment to set up a manufacturing facility. No news after that.

Now, it seems Qualcomm is trying other things. Engadget covers Qualcomm Mirasol 2,560 by 1,440 displays demoed at SID Display Week (They have a video).

  1. It’s a 5.1″ smartphone display.
  2. The resolution is 2560 by 1440. That gives an effective pixel density of 577 pixels per inch. For reference, 27″ displays with 2560 by 1440 resolution are considered QuadHD. I’m not sure what to think about a 5.1″ display that has 2560 by 1440 screen resolution.
  3. This is the same magical Mirasol Display which reflects nearby ambient light. It’s great for devices that want to use less power and/or for eReaders.
  4. The actual technology is still a few years away from being ready for market. Qualcomm, that does not surprise anyone. You seem masters of demoing technology that is ‘still a few years away from being ready for market’.
  5. Qualcomm also demo’ed a 1.5″ screen used in an always-on smartwatch. That actually sounds more interesting.

Eletronista also has some coverage and Qualcomm Mirasol photos.

Kindle Worlds – Amazon starts a Fan Fiction initiative

Amazon has stumbled upon what is either a brilliant idea or a disastrous one – let people make money from fan fiction, officially.

Geekwire has some details on Amazon’s Kindle Worlds initiative. You can write fan fiction about established books and series. You get a cut. The royalty owner gets a cut. Amazon gets a cut.

Some Warner Brothers properties like Pretty Little Liars are already available to fan fictionize.

Here’s what Amazon says -

You will own the copyright to the original, copyrightable elements (such as characters, scenes, and events) that you create and include in your work, and the World Licensor will retain the copyright to all the original elements of the World. When you submit your story in a World, you are granting Amazon Publishing an exclusive license to the story and all the original elements you include in that story. This means that your story and all the new elements must stay within the applicable World. We will allow Kindle Worlds authors to build on each other’s ideas and elements. We will also give the World Licensor a license to use your new elements and incorporate them into other works without further compensation to you.

If I’m reading this correctly, it would have meant that Stepahnie Meyer could start writing 50 Shades of Grey titles without having to pay the 50 Shades of Grey author anything.

Amazon says it will pay a royalty of 35 percent of revenue for accepted fan fiction of at least 10,000 words. Shorter pieces (5,000 to 10,000 words) will receive a 20 percent royalty. The company says it expects most of the “Kindle Worlds” fan fiction titles to sell for 99 cents to $3.99.

As it’s Amazon, an ‘exclusivity’ clause is also included.

Jealous, overprotective girlfriend/boyfriend on steroids.

Did we forget controlling?

Amazon Publishing will set the price.

Overall, it’s a very interesting move.

Amazon seems very focused on a few elements when it comes to books and content - creating new content sources that it owns, maintaining control over pricing, creating exclusive agreements.

It’s interesting. It’s almost as if Amazon thinks it can control a market into existence. A perfect market where customers behave perfectly and everything goes according to plan. You know what they say about plans – If you want God to laugh, show him your plans.

Penguin Pays Up $75 million for Agency Model Case, Only Apple left standing now

Penguin’s settlement with the DOJ means Penguin has to pay $75 million. This leaves Apple as the last company standing out of the Agency Model Cartel.

It’s quite interesting that -

  1. None of the Publishers are left.
  2. Apple still refuses to settle.
  3. DOJ is painting Apple as the instigator of the Agency Model.

Apple is also under fire for its elaborate tax avoidance schemes (avoidance = legal; evasion  = illegal). This includes gems like – paying less in taxes than it reports as ‘Taxes’ in its annual reports, a cash routing scheme so elaborate that economists are calling it ‘unbelievable chutzpah’, no one being sure of how Apple pays just 2% tax in Ireland when the official rate is an already low 13%.

At some level, it seems Apple has become so big and successful that everyone is going after it. Whether it’s Microsoft in the past or Apple now, you have to wonder – Are they being punished for their actual misdeeds, or just because they got too good and too successful.

The Tax Avoidance case is just avoidance and completely legal. The only cost will be some amount of PR. Until the law changes companies like Apple and Google and pretty much every big company will keep on ‘avoiding’ taxes.

The Agency Model case would perhaps be a few hundred million dollars. That’s less than Apple makes in profits in a day.

Amazon stops selling Kindle Keyboard

Thanks to a blog reader for pointing this out. I forget who (remind me if you’d like a mention).

Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle WiFi (just Kindle) are the only eInk Kindles available to buy now.

Kindle 3 was the favorite Kindle for a lot of people. Hopefully it’s only been removed to be replaced by something else.

Kindle 3 really was the best eReader ever made. It’s sad to see it gone.

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7″ Kindle eInk – Is it time for a 7″ Kindle eInk Reader?

Posted on May 21, 2013 by switch11

Kindle Paperwhite has a 6″ screen. Kindle Touch has a 6″ screen. Kindle 3 has a 6″ screen. Kindle WiFi has a 6″ screen. Kindle 2 had a 6″ screen. Kindle 1 had a 6″ screen.

Is it time for Kindle to go to 7″?

7″ Kindle eInk – Benefits & Reasons to make a 7″ eInk Kindle

  1. A 7″ Kindle screen gives more space. More words fit. More of webpages and PDFs fit. The 6″ screen of the current eInk Kindles is a bit on the small size. It is a bit unsuitable for browsing the web, reading PDFs (actually, for PDFs it’s way too small), reading newspapers, reading magazines, and so forth. A 7″ Kindle screen won’t really help much with things like reading PDFs and newspapers. However, it will allow better web browsing.
  2. With the larger screen you get more words per page, turn the page less often, and can get more into the flow of reading. It’s a subtle difference that translates into a slightly better reading experience on the 7″ screen (if you factor out things like weight and feel).
  3. 7″ screen on a Kindle might lead to more sales. Tablets have settled on a screen size of 7″ to 8″ as the sweet spot. Even Smartphones are growing bigger and bigger. Perhaps 7″ to 8″ is the ideal size for handheld mobile computing devices like eReaders and Tablets?
  4. It would be a change and something new. Gives users a reason to update their Kindle. Gives users something different.
  5. Kobo has gone to a 6.8″ screen size with the Kobo Aura. Firstly, the next Kindle has to compete against the Kobo Aura and matching screen size might be a good idea. Secondly, all production of the new ‘High Definion’ eInk screens would be in this 6.8″ screen size. If Amazon wants to benefit from economies of scale and improvements made in the screen technology, its only choice might be the same 6.8″ screen. Of course, Amazon would be unable to leverage some of its experience and expertise gained while working with 6″ screens.
  6. B&N is likely to move to a 6.8″ or 7″ screen size too. Mainly for the two reasons stated above (to match Kobo, to build on existing screen manufacturing). That would mean B&N and Kobo both have 7″ screen eInk Readers. Amazon, at that point, would have to match as a larger screen size would become a competitive factor.
  7. As resolutions of eInk screens go higher, the screen has to increase in physical size. High Definition on a 6.8″ is almost overkill. On a 6″ screen, HD would be a bit pointless. If PVI/eInk keeps increasing screen resolution instead of adding real innovation, then it’ll be forced to keep increasing screen sizes. There’d be no point to having a Kindle 7 with a 6″ screen and 12,200 by 9,200 screen resolution.
  8. Amazon has to start thinking about the ideal screen size to keep for future Kindles. Given that we’ll be adding technologies like flexible screens and color eInk screens (hopefully sometime this century), it makes sense to go to 7″ and perhaps even 8″ Kindles. Color eInk would mean a Kindle better suited to magazines, comics, movies. All of those are much better on a 7″ or 8″ screen.

7″ and 8″ are much better screen sizes for reading – more fits on the page, less page turns. If you have both a Kindle Fire and a Kindle, you can test this yourself.

A 7″ Kindle eInk, on the whole, makes a lot of sense. There are, unfortunately, some drawbacks too.

7″ Kindle eInk – The Pitfalls of switching from 6″ to 7″

  1. The new 6.8″ screen size (or a similarly new 7″ screen size) would be comparatively new and untested. The 6″ eInk screens have been in manufacturing since 2007. Lots and lots of issues have been sorted out. Moving to a larger screen size increases the chances of failures and errors.
  2. The larger screen size means higher screen costs. Firstly, the larger the screen, the higher the failure rate during screen manufacturing. This would drive up screen prices. Secondly, a larger screen with higher resolution would be a bit more expensive simply due to increased size and improved technology.
  3. Going from 6″ to 7″, if not done intelligently, would sacrifice some major eInk Kindle advantages – portability, compactness, low weight, ease of holding.
  4. Slightly lower battery life. A larger screen to run. A larger screen to ‘light up’.
  5. Slightly lower performance. A larger screen will take slightly more processing power. The higher resolution would definitely take more processing power. It won’t be anything like the crazy delays on the Kindle DX. However, a 6.8″ or 7″ Kindle might be 10% to 15% slower than a 6″ Kindle with identical processor and memory (RAM) and hard drive.
  6. Problems for people with weak hands and/or arthritis and/or small hands. A heavier Kindle would be harder to handle. It would be tougher to reach all parts of a 7″ screen. The grip would be larger.

This is an interesting list. The switch to a 7″ screen isn’t without its drawbacks. The one about weight and ease of holding is particularly important. An eReader is held for a long time – even more so if you read a lot. It’s also held in lots of very non-ergonomic positions. Weight plays a massive part in how much strain your hands and elbows and fingers will face. As does your grip. An increase from 6″ to 7″ or 8″ might seem minor – However, if the weight is 15% more and the grip becomes uncomfortable, then the cost on your wrists and hands is too high.

7″ Kindle seems likely

Kobo has moved to a 6.8″ screen with the Kobo Aura HD. Amazon usually lets another manufacturer enjoy the pains of implementing brand new screen technology. Usually it’s B&N. This time it seems to be Kobo that’s willing to be the guinea pig. It’s quite likely that Amazon will use the same 6.8″ screen Kobo uses in the successor of the Kindle Paperwhite. It’ll let Kobo handle all the birthing pains, and then it’ll step in and use the screen once it’s more stable and the kinks have been worked out.

We’ve seen that there are lots of advantages, and also several disadvantages, of such a move. If the only size in which PVI/eINK is making HD eInk screens is 6.8″, then Amazon might not have a choice. It’s also possible (in fact, very likely) that PVI actually discussed screen sizes with Amazon before settling on 6.8″. If that’s the case, let’s hope Amazon has figured out a way to add a larger screen without sacrificing the Kindle’s weight, grip, handling, portability, and battery life.

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