Comments on: Will Kindle Reignite Amazon’s Flame? – Seeking Alpha http://www.blackrimglasses.com/2007/11/21/will-kindle-reignite-amazons-flame-seeking-alpha/ Music + Technology + Random Nonsense from the Music Industry by Ethan Kaplan, VP Product, Live Nation Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:55:16 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Frank http://www.blackrimglasses.com/2007/11/21/will-kindle-reignite-amazons-flame-seeking-alpha/comment-page-1/#comment-189815 Frank Fri, 23 Nov 2007 23:26:03 +0000 http://blackrimglasses.com/archives/2007/11/21/will-kindle-reignite-amazons-flame-seeking-alpha/#comment-189815 And hell, since Kindle is supposedly a "service, not a device" how 'bout letting other hardware manufacturers build compatible software on their devices? It looks like Amazon got obsessed with the high-concept tag "the iPod of books" and ignored the difficulties every previous e-book device has had gaining traction. Instead of aping the iPod business model, they should have taken an approach like Google is taking with their new Android phone platform, with Amazon, like Google, making money on transactions instead of hardware, and partnering with as many hardware companies as they could. The market for standalone e-book readers will always be a tiny fraction of the market for devices that could read e-books (phones, iPods, laptops, desktops...) -- why not deliver a solution that could capture the larger market? And hell, since Kindle is supposedly a “service, not a device” how ’bout letting other hardware manufacturers build compatible software on their devices?

It looks like Amazon got obsessed with the high-concept tag “the iPod of books” and ignored the difficulties every previous e-book device has had gaining traction.

Instead of aping the iPod business model, they should have taken an approach like Google is taking with their new Android phone platform, with Amazon, like Google, making money on transactions instead of hardware, and partnering with as many hardware companies as they could.

The market for standalone e-book readers will always be a tiny fraction of the market for devices that could read e-books (phones, iPods, laptops, desktops…) — why not deliver a solution that could capture the larger market?

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