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Originally Posted by Harmon
I'm with Harry on this one. Jobs has said "people don't read." It doesn't really matter if he's right. What does matter is that he's saying "Apple's market target is not people who read."
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But the people who will gravitate to the Apple device will not go there for the reading experience. They will go there for the interactive experience - movies, games, mobile communications. The people who will gravitate to the Kindle will go there to read, and do their interactive stuff on laptops.
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That is not true. The majority of the people who have readers now are older people who can afford $400-700 on the spot. A 20 something year old will think about it a lot before maxing a credit card for a kindle. But I can see that same person not thinking about it so much if Apple makes a device that can appeal more to the masses i.e. a multifunctional reader. And there is no denying that Apple has youth appeal, battery life or no battery life.
I agree with you on the multimedia appeal of the Apple products but, their ipods mainly sell for music, net books mainly sell for surfing the net on the go, ect. The "Apple reader" would sell for reading books and the additional functions would be pluses that would simply seal the deal to the person.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Harmon
All the posts on this topic seem to be centered around whether Apple's new device will compete with the Kindle. But another way to look at the question is whether Apple's target consumer is the same person as the Kindle target consumer.
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It is and it isn't. Some people are on the fence about the kindle. A lot of the people who come up to me to ask me about my reader are always "interested in buying one." Apple would just pull in the "fence crowd," and convert some Kindle users that may not be happy with it.
Plus, the majority of the consumers never research what they are buying, so with an appropriate ad campaign Apple could gobble up the market of reader, wanna be readers, and the trendsters.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Harmon
There is, however, one big factor that might make the Apple tablet the eReader of choice for some. That is that the Apple tablet has the potential to be the only truly open eReader, because it will be able to run Apps to read any filetype from any eBook provider, DRMed or not. But how many people will be interested in paying Apple prices for the marginal ability to get ebooks from other providers?
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If the "hit" of the reader is big enough, someone will figure out how to "open" it so people could buy books from other providers.
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Originally Posted by Harmon
And not a Kindle Killer. That's the thread topic, & the more I think on it, the more I see the Kindle and this hypothetical iTablet co-existing, not really competing.
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I agree, but it would definitely affect the sales of future Kindle VersionX.X.
If my reader (which I l<3ve) expired and I had the choice between a "tablet" that can be a good reader and do other things aside that and my "dedicated" reader... i'm not picking my old reader, just like no one now would pick a dedicated mp3 player.
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Originally Posted by JSWolf
What would be a Kindle killer is a 9.7 or 10 inch screened eink device that does what the DX is meant to do but better.
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This is not so. This KindleDX IS more for the educational crowd, which is a large market as is; but wouldn't bum rush apple stores to get the newest apple gadget. After much thought, The kindle killer would be a multipurpose reader that has style and "buzz." And I know a lot of people think the youth don't read anymore, but you would be surprised. It might not be done out in the open or might not be the Nietzsche, but it is Harry Potter and it is Twilight. So add the latest novel out there with the ability to see Beyonce live in Concert, while i'm downloading the new Green Day album; and you have the "dedicated" reader killer.
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Originally Posted by HarryT
That's down to the power of Amazon's advertising, I suspect. No matter how many people might like a Kindle, I really don't think that many people outside North America actually buy one. The Sony Reader, for example, is what dominates the European market, hence my comment that I don't personally believe that "Kindle compatibility" is a particular (or even minor) "issue" for the success of a world-wide device such as Apple are likely to produce, given that the overwhelming majority of the potential customers for such a device have no access to the Kindle.
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I second.