Amazon.com added embedded auto and video clips to its Kindle e-reader applications for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. Amazon continues to aggressively back the Kindle e-reader device, which displays text on a grayscale e-ink screen, but a robust Apple app would conceivably allow the online retailer to carve off a certain percentage of readers who opt instead to purchase an iPad. Multimedia-enhanced e-reader applications will allow readers to listen to narration during a tour, for example, or watch a demonstration video for a cookbook or home-repair volume.
Amazon.com has added embedded audio and video clips to its Kindle e-reader applications for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch�a feature seemingly designed to leapfrog not only Apple�s own e-reader, but also those of competitors such as Barnes & Noble�s Nook. The new Amazon feature bakes more multimedia into e-books; readers can now listen to a travel author�s narration during a city tour, for example, or view a demonstration video inside a how-to text.
�Readers will already find some Kindle Editions with audio/video clips in the Kindle Store today,� Dorothy Nicholls, director of Amazon Kindle, wrote in a June 27 statement. �This is just the beginning�we look forward to seeing what authors and publishers create for Kindle customers using the new functionality of the Kindle apps.�
Amazon�s Kindle Website; some media-enhanced books, the company cautions, will need to be downloaded using WiFi, apparently due to large file size.
The Kindle�s newest feature seems expressly targeted at Apple�s own iBooks application, which itself was touted as an advance over traditional e-readers due to its color screen and ability to display more dynamic layouts. While Amazon continues to aggressively back the Kindle device, which displays text on a grayscale e-ink screen, a robust Apple app would conceivably allow the online retailer to carve off a certain percentage of readers who opt instead to purchase an iPad.
While previously dismissed by analysts as a relatively stolid niche market, the popularity of e-readers during the 2009 holiday season�combined with the high-profile release of the Apple iPad, which features a baked-in e-reader�has led to something of an arms race between competing products: as soon as one device undergoes a software or hardware update, it seems, the others feel duty-bound to introduce a new feature of their own.
Price-cutting has also become a hallmark of the industry. On June 21, Barnes & Noble announced a price reduction for its Nook e-reader from $259 to $199, and offered up a WiFi-only version of the device for $149; the original Nook utilizes a 3G connection, theoretically allowing an e-book to be downloaded virtually anywhere with coverage. That same afternoon, Amazon announced that it would reset the price of its original Kindle from $259 to $189.
Additional e-readers have begun to skim the $150 price-point, including the Kobo, which is marketed through Borders and sells for $149, and Sony�s Reader Pcoet Edition, which retails for $169.
�With these cuts, eBook readers from Barnes & Noble as well as Amazon now are priced at about the breakeven level with their Bill of Materials (BOM) and manufacturing costs,� William Kidd, director and principal analyst of financial services for iSuppli, wrote in a June 24 statement. �With zero profits on their hardware, both these companies now hope to make their money in this market through the sale of books.�
In that manner, Amazon and Barnes & Noble seem to be following in the steps of Sony�s PlayStation or Microsoft�s Xbox franchise: �This is the same �razor/razor blade� business model successfully employed in the video game console business, where the hardware is sold at a loss and profits are made on sales of content.�
However, the question remains whether e-readers as a whole can add �gee-whiz� features quickly enough to attract new audiences. �There is no visible short-term solution to drive significantly more sales of eBook readers,� Kidd wrote, �except to use price as a tool.�
Amazon�s newest feature, though, emphasizes that the e-reader battle is becoming one of software just as much as hardware.
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