Coming Soon for Kindle - lending & more

[TomF]

Posted today in the Amazon Kindle Community:

"We wanted to let you know about two new features coming soon.

First, we are making Kindle newspapers and magazines readable on our free Kindle apps, so you can always read Kindle periodicals even if you don't have your Kindle with you or don't yet own a Kindle. In the coming weeks, many newspapers and magazines will be available on our Kindle apps for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, and then we'll be adding this functionality to Kindle for Android and our other apps down the road. Our vision is Buy Once, Read Everywhere, and we're excited to make this possible for Kindle periodicals in the same way that it works now for Kindle books. More details when we launch this in the coming weeks.

Second, later this year, we will be introducing lending for Kindle, a new feature that lets you loan your Kindle books to other Kindle device or Kindle app users. Each book can be lent once for a loan period of 14-days and the lender cannot read the book during the loan period. Additionally, not all e-books will be lendable - this is solely up to the publisher or rights holder, who determines which titles are enabled for lending.

We will post to the forum later this year when these features are available."

Direct link here.

Still no mention of supporting EPUB.

[JaneD]

Interesting. Seems like they're at least trying to address the lending issues so many of us have been complaining about.

I wonder how many of the publishers will agree to participate in the lending program?

[twobits]

Seems they want to make sure they can match all competitors bullet points. For some reason the 14 day limitations seems to make it not really too interesting to me in practice. (and yes, I know that is the same as the bn one)

[Tiersten]

Ehh. The lending is extremely limited just like how it works for the Nook. You can only lend once ever for each book! This just brings it into feature parity with the Nook on at least the lending. Its still a horrible implementation and doesn't add anything useful.

If they really must have limits then have the counter reset after some specified amount of time. Maybe say you can only lend a book out once for 2 weeks every 6-12 months or something like that. It'd stop any exploitation and you won't have to worry whether the person you're lending it to is worthy of your one and only lend.

[curstpriest]

Kind of niche isn't it? Lending only to other kindle users o:
I suppose they COULD make a free acct and use their computer/iPhone but that kind of defeats the purpose of a ereader.

[Tiersten]

Also I can see publishers just blanket disabling the lending option. We already get publishers disabling the TTS feature in the Kindle because they're scared it will affect their audiobook sales.

[Tiersten]

Originally Posted by curstpriest

Kind of niche isn't it? Lending only to other kindle users o:
I suppose they COULD make a free acct and use their computer/iPhone but that kind of defeats the purpose of a ereader.

It just follows how B&N implemented the lending on the Nook. 2 weeks limit. 1 lend ever per book. Can be disabled by the publisher. You can't read it whilst its been lent. Only works with other Nook owners.

This is just a case of Amazon going Oh no! B&N have an advantage over us! Lets implement the exact minimum needed to get even.

The new ability to get subscriptions to the non Kindle device apps is nice though.

[abookreader]

Yeah, very likely to have the same limitation as the nook lending and Amazon is just matching a nook bullet point. It isn't even the lend one time only part that irritates me, it is the 14 day stranglehold. So if my Mom doesn't finish the book in two weeks its like

"Sorry Ma! I guess now you'll NEVER know how that sucker ends!"

bwaaaahaaaaahaaaaaaahaaaa

Frankly, I'd rather just temporarily register her to my account and let her utilize one of my licenses.

But it is better than nothing I guess. Gee thanks Publishers.

[OakIris]

It's a start, but, as previously stated by Tierstan, it does seem that Amazon is just keeping up with the Joneses (the Nook.) And, the implementation is pretty horrible, just like the Nook's, really. Only lend an eBook once, and then only to other Kindle owners? What use is that?

I was hoping that the post was going to be about Amazon deciding to support book lending from libraries. Not that my local library has much in the way of eBooks, but it would be nice to have the option!

Holly

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by Tiersten

It just follows how B&N implemented the lending on the Nook. 2 weeks limit. 1 lend ever per book. Can be disabled by the publisher. You can't read it whilst its been lent. Only works with other Nook owners.

This is just a case of Amazon going Oh no! B&N have an advantage over us! Lets implement the exact minimum needed to get even.

The new ability to get subscriptions to the non Kindle device apps is nice though.

I"m not impressed. I don't like the 2 week pressure to get it read, the 'one time only', and the fact I can read the book while its out.......not to mention its a crap shoot on which books can be lent.

Not real smart, Amazon! If you REALLY wanted to do something impressive, enable epub so that we can go to a real library!

[desertblues]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

I"m not impressed. I don't like the 2 week pressure to get it read, the 'one time only', and the fact I can read the book while its out.......not to mention its a crap shoot on which books can be lent.

Not real smart, Amazon! If you REALLY wanted to do something impressive, enable epub so that we can go to a real library!

Too right!

[flandroid]

The lending restrictions make sense completely from Amazon's point of view, and if it was my company I'd do the same thing. Their Kindle bread and butter is the books, and if people could lend them without restrictions they would lose a huge amount of revenue. Ebook piracy is already rampant, there's no need to exacerbate it by making it easy for anyone to start 'lending clubs.'

Personally I'm pretty excited about being able to lend books to my Kindle-owning friends, even if it's just once, for two weeks. I'm used to one- or two-week restrictions from unshackled, converted library EPUBs (which I delete from my Calibre library once the loan period is over). And I don't mind that I can't read it while they've borrowed it, I'm used to that from years of lending p-books.

[mrzerga]

i feel the same way as everybody else on this thread - this release about new features is just a downer - could not care less about lending, since kindle density in my neck of woods is about 2 per 100 square miles(yes miles), and it is on par with facebook sharing according to its uselessness.
What do we have next- oh right some newspapers on PC kindle - don't care, since I have real Kindle .

so dear Amazon, why not check into these features for Kindle that your competitors offer on their devices:

alternative, more sofisticated interface - Sony has it
ePub support - Sony has it
more customization, flexible wallpapers - Sony has it

this is what your customers are asking for, not some obscure lending features.

[daffy4u]

Not too impressed. I'm not a lender or a borrower but if I were I would like 21 days as opposed to 14. The periodicals is not something I'm likely to use either (the few periodicals I check into come via Calibre). I'm still not happy with the only apps available being games.

I believe Amazon can do better than this.

[curstpriest]

They are banking on people starting/not having time to finish said lent books. Then they will have to go buy them. And for those stubborn people who refuse to buy them but still want to get them, well, sucks for them. And you can't always get new releases illegally. Despite what Dilbert says about book piracy =).