I think one thing that brings this sort of anecdotal evidence into some context is the difference in demographics that Amazon and Sony are playing to.
This pretty much
doesn't apply to any Kindle owners
here, they're pretty demographically similar to the Sony owners here.
Please read that sentence
twice before you get on my case.
I think Amazon's customers are mainly folks who didn't know e-reader devices existed until the Kindle appeared on Amazon's home-page one day. I think they're folks who mainly read best-sellers, read them once, and then go on to the next one, never caring if they can ever read them again. These two things combine to mean that they're mostly unaware that they can get content anywhere but Amazon, so they get
all their content there.
Whereas Sony's main demographic is probably more like folks in this community: they're more likely to have known about e-reading for years, know all sorts of places
besides Sony's store to get content, and how to convert it to work on their Reader. They're also more likely to avoid DRM when they can (because they know about the long-term hazards of it, and want to be able to access their books again later), which further reduces the likelihood, or at least the frequency, of them buying from Sony.
Amazon has clearly (in my view) made and marketed the Kindle for the purpose of selling content, the way they're marketing it demonstrates that. Unsurprisingly, it's working. Folks argue that Sony has the same thing in mind, but I don't really think that's the case. I think the more viral marketing approach they have taken is much more likely to reach folks like those who hang out here. Especially since several of their efforts have been pretty well
targeted at MobileRead, specifically, and several more at us along with others like Engadget and Gizmodo.
As an anecdotal evidence to support what I'm suggesting: in December of 2006 I showed my shiny new PRS500 to my family at Christmastime. My mom, a Library Science PhD, was completely disinterested at the time. One year later she's all het up about the Kindle, and even more excited because her department is getting her one to play with. The only difference
I can see is that the Kindle is on Amazon's front page -- nearly as I can tell, most of the books she works with (Juvenile Literature) are
not available in Kindle Editions.
She wants it for reading bestsellers and doesn't care if she never reads them again -- just like most Kindle users I've talked to
outside this community.
There you go, that's my theory, salt to taste.
