You know what sets top marketers apart from us mere mortals? Their uncanny ability to figure out what makes people tick. They constantly come up with strategies that turn prospects to customers and customers to loyal advocates. One of the best marketing strategies out there is to give a lot of value away and make folks want to come back to you for more. That is exactly what Amazon has done with the Kindle.
As I mentioned a few days ago, this is a risky move by Amazon. But the rewards are much greater. By giving away the Kindle app to the community of iPhone and iPod users, Amazon is banking on these guys taking the next step and buying the hardware. Many experts claim that more people read books and documents on their iPhone than we have Kindle owners. But iPhone is not an e-book reader. It’s one of the best gadgets that has ever been made, but it simply does not go easy on the eye if you decide to read a 400 page book on it.
The Kindle application will give iPhone owners a taste of what it means to own the real thing. Paying $359 for a device that you are skeptical about doesn’t make sense. But Kindle for iPhone should do enough to pre-sell the Kindle to the community of iPhone and iPod Touch users. And there is no reason people shouldn’t own both the iPhone and the Kindle. So when you think about it, Amazon does have an ambitious strategy.
Your take: will this strategy work? Could this approach lead to the demise of the Kindle?
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0 comments
#1KarenMarch 6, 2009, 12:37 pm
Those who are adamant about carrying only one device, having a backlight (and immune to the eyestrain) may be happy with just the iPhone. part of that is having better than 20/20 eyesight, in order to read the very, very small graphics (not that it will last, if you are a real reader, with that backlight). As you can see from the comparison pics on my blog (http://booksontheknob.blogspot.com/2009/03/kindle-iphone-pictures.html), the Kindle provides a much larger reading surface and that becomes important for anything that isn’t plain text. Also, if you read for very long, any backlit screen will wear on your eyes. Headaches and dry eyes are not a normal consequence of reading – just of using backlit screens.
#2CameronMarch 6, 2009, 4:14 pm
Although i do enjoy reading on my kindle more then my ipod touch or computer. I have never found it to be a huge difference.
Although i am relatively young, i think the advantages of eink are overblown. I read on a computer screen all day long and have never had issues with headaches or eyestrain.
Anyways back on topic.
Yes the Kindle on iphone app is a great move on amazons part, but not because it might drive more kindle sales.
Amazon is NOT a consumer electronics company. They are a retail company.
The more ways they give consumers to buy ebooks, the better off they are.
The only reason Amazon made the Kindle was to jumpstart the ebook market.
I fully expect to be able to read my kindle books on a wide variety of devices within the next few years. I want to be able to read on my computer, ipod, kindle, and anything else that has a screen.
What will be the ultimate brilliant move will be the syncing of audio books to ebooks.
On my daily commute on the bus i love to read my ipod touch. But i really can’t read while walking to and from the bus. Wouldn’t it be amazing to be able to switch to the audio book.
Now i am not talking about the text to speech option, which at this time i think is almost useless. I am talking about the actual audio book version.
Amazon controls about 90% of the audio book market. Hopefully they can make this happen at a reasonable price.
#3P. RadMarch 6, 2009, 5:27 pm
I love your audiobook / ebook sync idea. As you mentioned, Read-to-Me sort of addresses that issue, but yes. It’d be brilliant to have that feature across all devices. I do agree with you that Amazon is not an electronics company. It’s not their core competency, you could say. But the Kindle allows them to push their proprietary format. But Apple folks have suggested in the past that they may enter the ebook market. It’d be interesting to see. And let’s not forget Google. Google is building up its content bank. There’s going to be interesting times ahead.
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