NYT: Jeff Bezos: Kindle Books and Readers Are Separate Businesses

[sirbruce]

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/0...te-businesses/

In the future, Amazon.com’s Kindle e-book reader will display more book formats beyond its own. And you should also expect to see Kindle books on a lot more devices.

That was the clear implication of comments that Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, made at a conference in New York Monday on disruptive business models.

Of course, Mr. Bezos didn’t release any details at the conference, which was sponsored by Wired magazine. (He’s just as secretive as Steve Jobs at Apple, but he laughs more.) Mr. Bezos, however, talked about the Kindle in a way he hasn’t before: He described the hardware business and the e-book store as separate.

Already, Kindle books can be read on Apple’s iPhone as well as Amazon’s own reader. Mr. Bezos said that the company hopes to make the e-books available on other devices as well.

“The device team has the job of making the most remarkable purpose-built reading device in the world,” Mr. Bezos said. “We are going to give the device team competition. We will make Kindle books, at the same $9.99 price points, available on the iPhone, and other mobile devices and other computing devices.”

[...]

[JSWolf]

I highly doubt you'll see Kindle eBooks on any other eink device.

[sirbruce]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I highly doubt you'll see Kindle eBooks on any other eink device.

So you're calling Jeff Bezos a liar, or do you just mean eInk devices?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by sirbruce

So you're calling Jeff Bezos a liar, or do you just mean eInk devices?

I'm just saying eink devices. I do expect we'll see Kindle books on other devices like blackberries and other cell phone type devices.

And I do think that Kindle eBooks and the Kindle were at one time one business and they only recently got separated due to competition such as the 505, 700 and EZ Reader.

[Who are you?]

Why would they not have compatibility with say Sony? Their main business is selling books. Doubling (estimate pulled out of the regular place) the number of potential customers by adding support for Sony readers might be a lot more profitable than selling a few more Kindles.

[HansTWN]

but that is not how their current business model works. The kindle is an attempt to force Americans to exclusively use their store. If the kindle should stand on its own, why not sell internationally? They have web sites in many countries.

[Lbooker]

We shall see. I will only reverse my stance about Amazon when they actually do what the big boss just said. But it is better to hear this than the opposite!
But then the DRM question remains.

[JSWolf]

I think Jeff Bezos is full of it. If he really wanted the books to be seperate from the Kindle, he would have just gone with standard Mobipocket DRM.

[Tuna]

He says kindle books - so he means the kindle ebook format - on other mobile devices - by which I assume he means mobile devices running kindle software, like the reader for the iphone.

Don't expect support for anything that might directly compete with the kindle (such as the Sony or other eInk devices). He's aiming for the people who won't splash out on a Kindle because they've just spent a similar amount on a netbook or an iPhone.

This isn't opening up the supply chain in any way, it's just extending it to people who are adverse to buying extra hardware to read books. These are the customers who wouldn't buy the Sony or Cybook either.

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I think Jeff Bezos is full of it. If he really wanted the books to be seperate from the Kindle, he would have just gone with standard Mobipocket DRM.

I still fail to grasp why - if Amazon bought Mobipocket to get the software - the Mobipocket DRM won't work on the Kindle? Or, why can't Kindle owners legally buy Mobipocket books from their website as with Webscriptions. Owned but separate? Or have I totally missed something here?

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I think Jeff Bezos is full of it. If he really wanted the books to be seperate from the Kindle, he would have just gone with standard Mobipocket DRM.

Exactly. The only reason for making Kindle books different from Mobipocket in the first place was to create an exclusive format that only their device could support. If they really wanted a common format that could be sold for other devices, they already had it. Just sell Mobipocket books for the same price as the Kindle books.

They don't do that though, and it's not by accident.

[=X=]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

I still fail to grasp why - if Amazon bought Mobipocket to get the software - the Mobipocket DRM won't work on the Kindle? Or, why can't Kindle owners legally buy Mobipocket books from their website as with Webscriptions. Owned but separate? Or have I totally missed something here?

Companies by other companies for a wide variety of reasons that aren't always apparent to the outsider.

Reasons could be, killing competition, buying into an established market, people, technology, patents.

My belief is they bought MobiPocket for the people and technology. They did not buy it for the established business.

Why they chose not to go with a standard Mobi DRM or ePUB is simple Mobi DRM allows any book seller to sell that book. While amazon might be okay with selling their books to different eBook readers they are not okay with losing the control of the distribution.

My believe is the business model that will win the eBook frontier will be the one the comes up with the Gellete model. It's not the eBook Device that will win but those that have the best eBook support.

=X=

[John Bailey]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

Exactly. The only reason for making Kindle books different from Mobipocket in the first place was to create an exclusive format that only their device could support. If they really wanted a common format that could be sold for other devices, they already had it. Just sell Mobipocket books for the same price as the Kindle books.

They don't do that though, and it's not by accident.

Or..

The Kindle product line is more difficult to get going elsewhere than they thought it would be. Exclusivity can be a drawback as well as a benefit.

America is easy. One big country. One phone supplier, one set of publishers to deal with. One deal.
So Amazon>>> Publisher>>>Sprint. Easy..

International sales would require the same steps, but for every individual country. And some are not going to be big enough markets to make it worthwhile.

So. If it is going to be a case of splitting the rest of the world into different small blocks, and perhaps too small blocks to make it pay, then Kindle outside America with several different modems or with no modem at all is a different proposition. Remove the Kindle, and all you have to deal with is the publishers you already deal with, no support costs, no regional versions of the reader, no headaches. And most importantly, no EU competition commission knocking at your door with a court date.

Add the head start that Sony and others have got on the Kindle, and we have a less attractive device before the first one is delivered. So dropping the exclusive to the Kindle market would make sense.
A few thousand Kindle subscribers, or a few tens of thousands of potential e-book sales from readers/phones/PDAs/PCs etc.. . Which would you prefer if you were Amazon?

A walled garden is a difficult thing to sell. Especially if you are selling a pretty new concept to enthusiasts. Because realistically, this is not a product aimed at the impulse buyer. It's a considered purchase that will be looked into before buying. And the target market are keen readers. Not people who buy a book at the airport before going on holiday.

In an ideal world, Amazon would spin off the Kindle into it's own company, and sell books in any format people wanted. This is what I'd really like to see.
I can see the advantage of having your own device, and selling the media for it, but splitting the market into several chunks only loses money.

Even Apple, the great supporters of soup to nuts products still made the Ipod work on Windows, and allowed ripping of CDs and importing of MP3 files. To have locked it down to the point where the only place to get music was the iTunes store would have crippled the device, and not many people would have bought one.

Who knows what will happen. Personally I'm hoping he is true to his words, and does start offering everything in multiple formats. All we need then, is for DRM to bog off and die.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I highly doubt you'll see Kindle eBooks on any other eink device.

Oh, I suspect that if the price was right he would license the Amazon Kindle software and right to buy Amazon eBooks to other companies making E-INK readers. This is all about making money I think and leveraging his product and uniqueness into dollars. He doesn't have a corner on the e-INK market and probably envies ADE. Of course Whispernet will remain unique to the Amazon product I would imagine.

Dale

[sirbruce]

Watch the video and more comments here:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49173