Amazon Kindle e-book downloads outsell paperbacks

[speedlever]

Originally Posted by Maggie Leung

That's the pattern in many DRM/format complaints, as well as in book price rants. It boils down to:

I want X company to sell me books in the format I want (or at the price I want).

snip

Well Maggie, it would seem to me that companies who listen to what their customers want and then find ways to profitably meet those wants and needs will generally end up being the most successful in the marketplace.

I wonder what the emusic industry would look like today if it were similarly restricted? (rhetorically speaking, of course).

Perhaps those who buy the ebooks of their choice from the store of their choice and then strip DRM and format shift to read on the EBR of their choice are, in effect, furthering the problem? Afterall, there's not much to complain about in that scenario and the books still get sold.

And yet I see no other solution in the near term.

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by speedlever

Well Maggie, it would seem to me that companies who listen to what their customers want and then find ways to profitably meet those wants and needs will generally end up being the most successful in the marketplace.

I wonder what the emusic industry would look like today if it were similarly restricted? (rhetorically speaking, of course).

Perhaps those who buy the ebooks of their choice from the store of their choice and then strip DRM and format shift to read on the EBR of their choice are, in effect, furthering the problem? Afterall, there's not much to complain about in that scenario and the books still get sold.

And yet I see no other solution in the near term.

Successful companies know how to target their customers. They don't try to chase every consumer; that would waste resources.

It seems Amazon is doing gangbusters in serving customers -- moneywise and in customer satisfaction surveys year after year. I'm not a loyalist when it comes to companies; if someone can serve me better than Amazon, I'm there. Amazon's competition is weak, though. If e-pub (or whatever format) is a gold mine, I'd expect others to quickly fill the void, even if Amazon overlooks the opportunity. I don't think Amazon has overlooked it, though. It seems to be one of the savviest companies around.

[speedlever]

I certainly can't and don't disagree with your assessment of Amazon's business acumen.

And I'm certainly in that bandwagon too with two K3s in the house.

Any comment on the dictionary issue I raised earlier? I'm curious if what I've read and inferred is true about dictionary support in mobi vs epub.

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by speedlever

Any comment on the dictionary issue I raised earlier? I'm curious if what I've read and inferred is true about dictionary support in mobi vs epub.

Sorry, I have no clue about this.

[Catlady]

Why do the Kindle fans always assume that everyone who didn't buy a Kindle secretly really wants one and secretly feels they've made a terrible mistake because they can't shop at Amazon anymore?

People are allowed to have opinions about Amazon's business strategy without necessarily having Kindle-envy.

And what's wrong with wanting a store you shop at to carry merchandise you want? When my local stores don't have items/brands I prefer to buy, I ask them to stock those things. They usually don't refuse and send me to a competitor. So if folks want to badger Amazon about epub, that's their right as consumers.

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by Catlady

And what's wrong with wanting a store you shop at to carry merchandise you want? When my local stores don't have items/brands I prefer to buy, I ask them to stock those things. They usually don't refuse and send me to a competitor. So if folks want to badger Amazon about epub, that's their right as consumers.

Nothing wrong with telling a company what you want, I figure. I tell companies all the time. I e-mail and say something along the lines of, "I'd love to buy X product, but I'm looking for something with Y. Please let me know whether you're working on such a product." I can't remember a company that hasn't responded to me directly, and they always do it politely. No reason they are obligated to meet my demand, though. And yes, companies have pointed me to competitors at times, which I've appreciated.

[Scott Nicholson]

DRM was a requirement of major publishers, not Amazon. Indie authors are perfectly free to upload without DRM at Amazon. And most do, because we respect and value their readers.

Scott Nicholson
http://www.hauntedcomputer.com

[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by Catlady

And what's wrong with wanting a store you shop at to carry merchandise you want? When my local stores don't have items/brands I prefer to buy, I ask them to stock those things. They usually don't refuse and send me to a competitor. So if folks want to badger Amazon about epub, that's their right as consumers.

They do carry the merchandise you want. You just have to take a few minutes to download some software to convert it so it can be used on your device.

It is rare that you see Amazon people calling for BN, Kobo, or Sony to sell Mobi. I normally only mention it when the EPub crowd wants Amazon to sell EPub.

I have a very simple take on all of this. People chose a device that could not read books sold by Amazon. Either download the software to read the books or be happy with the stores that you chose.

Asking Amazon to change their business model so you can buy books for a device that they do not support is a bit silly. To me it sounds like people feel that they are entitled to buy ebooks from Amazon even when they chose to buy a competing product. It is like going into McDonalds and demanding that they sell a Whopper.

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

The reason Amazon is so much more succesful than their competitors is because they are cherry-picking the ebook-buying market, drawing in those customers who don't mind buying most of their content and leaving the rest to their competition.

In the video game industry, which ebooks are starting to resemble, there is an important term that exemplifies the fact that not all customers are equally valuable to a platform holder: attach rate. At its simplest, this is the ratio of unit game sales divided by the number of unit consoles sold. This current console generation, the Nintendo Wii has clearly outsold the second place Xbox 360 in total number of consoles sold, yet the 360 regularly ranks way higher in total game sales and has recently been generating more game software revenue than the Wii and Sony PS3 combined. This is due to a combination of factors but it is mostly due to the Xbox managers' relentless focus on marketing the 360 as a gaming platform for serious gamers. Where the Wii drew in buyers who hadn't previously owned game consoles and Sony drew in buyers interested in the PS3 as a bluray player, Microsoft drew in a disproportionate share of buyers who's primary interest was gaming and routinely bought 8-10 or more games a year. In simple attach rate terms, the average Xbox owner has bought 9+ games per console while Sony and Nintendo buyers average more like 6 games. And this in an industry with healthy used and rental businesses on the side.

If Amazon ebook unit sales are outpacing their pbook sales it is because Kindle buyers buy a lot of books, not just because they've sold a Lot of Kindles. (Though it surely helps.) If there were any kind of reliable tracker of ebook and reader sales it would clearly show that Kindle has a higher attach rate than any of its competitors because it doesn't support library access and because you don't need a Kindle to buy and read Kindle books.

It is all to easy to focus overmuch on the Kindle hardware and forget that Kindle is also software. And even easier to forget that the real focus is the books. Amazon management is doing exactly what they set out to do: sell ebooks. Everything else is secondary or irrelevant.

Attach rate, huh? I typically purchase anywhere from 8-10 books a month. These sales were split between Amazon and B&M bookstores with Amazon getting the majority. When I started buying ebooks, my purchase rate went up dramaticly - I've purchased 25 books from fictionwise alone in the last 30 days. That is not counting my purchases from Kobo and smashwords nor does it include my print book purchases.

I would say that I am the type of customer that any bookseller would want.

If Amazon supported library lending (and never had that whole 1984 issue), I would have purchased a kindle and stayed attached to Amazon.

I decided to buy a Kobo because Kobo supports library lending (which I love) - and it's Amazon who gets the short end of the stick as well as less of my paycheck.

I no longer care that Amazon refuses sell books to me. I'm starting to wander away from Amazon - which hurts them a lot more than me, as I have been a great customer to them for a very long time.


Note: I never heard of Calibre, format conversions, or DRM stripping before joining MR. Since most consumers are in the same boat as I was, I do not consider any of those items something that can help a consumer make a hardware purchase decision.

[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

Note: I never heard of Calibre, format conversions, or DRM stripping before joining MR. Since most consumers are in the same boat as I was, I do not consider any of those items something that can help a consumer make a hardware purchase decision.

Agreed. I cannot remember hearing anything about this at Kindle Boards in the time I have been posting there.

Now that I know about it and have used it you can bet it is something that I will tell people about. I have already started doing that. I am even considering looking at Kobo Books for the discounts on books.

[queentess]

Originally Posted by speedlever

I wonder what the emusic industry would look like today if it were similarly restricted? (rhetorically speaking, of course).

I dunno, you should ask iTunes, which started out selling only iDevice-compatible DRMed files.

[speedlever]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

snip

Note: I never heard of Calibre, format conversions, or DRM stripping before joining MR. Since most consumers are in the same boat as I was, I do not consider any of those items something that can help a consumer make a hardware purchase decision.

Then I must be an atypical customer because as part of my initial research into the world of EBRs, I ran into the format issue. I had no idea it existed before. I assumed I could get a book from anywhere and read it on whatever device I chose.

Before I ever bought an EBR, I learned what I needed to know in order to accomplish that. From my perspective, I'm tempted to say, "Doesn't everyone do that?" But I know better.

[queentess]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Why is Kindle such a problem for some people?
They're not doing anything that dozens of companies from Sony to Nokia do all the time.

Originally Posted by queentess

Because people want to buy ebooks from Amazon, but they don't want a Kindle, and they don't want to admit they like Amazon's convenience and price and customer service, so they're angry.

Originally Posted by Catlady

Why do the Kindle fans always assume that everyone who didn't buy a Kindle secretly really wants one and secretly feels they've made a terrible mistake because they can't shop at Amazon anymore?

People are allowed to have opinions about Amazon's business strategy without necessarily having Kindle-envy.

And what's wrong with wanting a store you shop at to carry merchandise you want? When my local stores don't have items/brands I prefer to buy, I ask them to stock those things. They usually don't refuse and send me to a competitor. So if folks want to badger Amazon about epub, that's their right as consumers.

I'm going to assume that's aimed at me for my statement quoted above.

Please tell me then, why do you want Amazon to sell books compatible with your device if you don't want to purchase from Amazon, which is all that I said? I didn't say you have "Kindle-envy", I implied that you have Amazon-envy. I find them the most convenient ebookstore to purchase from, but that's just my experience.

It's well within your "right" as a consumer to pester Amazon, but much like Apple has no interest in dropping prices to sell more devices, Amazon sees no business reason to cater to every device out there.

[elcreative]

Don't forget that it was the music pubs who insisted on DRM, Apple managed to set up the least restrictive version they could despite not wanting to use DRM... which they got rid of as soon as they could... ooops, sorry to all Apple haters, just said something nice about them...

Originally Posted by queentess

I dunno, you should ask iTunes, which started out selling only iDevice-compatible DRMed files.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Sony PRS-500 was released in September 2006, over a year before the Kindle. Of course, it used Sony's own ebook format then. The PRS-505 with ePub support was October 2007, as was the Bookeen CyBook Gen 3 (using Mobipocket), with the Kindle in November 2007, but US only. I got my Gen 3 in February 2008.

The PRS-505 came out in October 2007, but epub support wasn't added until July 2008, via firmware.

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu...d=3622&os_id=7