Sony Reader vs. Amazon Kindle

Posted on August 7th, 2008

John Gapper, a Financial Times writer, has written an interesting article about Sony’s fumbled Sony Reader. Gapper makes some interesting points and argues that Sony Reader’s lack of a wireless connection has doomed the device vs. the Amazon Kindle.

While I agree with much of Gapper’s article, I don’t necessarily agree that all is lost for Sony. However, for the Sony Reader to go head-to-head with the Kindle at this point, it would take a passionate, fanatical executive in charge of the Sony Reader team.

Here’s my prescription for the Sony Reader not to be an also ran vs. the Kindle:

Celebrate the design – Have you seen the Apple vs. PC commercials that have blanketed the TV and web for years now? Sony should follow Apple’s lead and immediately launch a marketing campaign celebrating the Sony Reader’s design vs. the Kindle. Would you rather pull the sleek Sony Reader out when you’re on a plane or in a meeting, or would you rather pull out the Kindle which could be mistaken for a 1980s PC keyboard chopped in half. And, if the Sony Reader team doesn’t have the budget for TV commercials (which I doubt they do), record some video spots on the cheap and get them on the Web tomorrow.

Newspapers-magazines – A Sony Reader contracts exec should buy a tent from REI and camp out in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal offices until they have a digital deal to offer those newspapers on the Sony Reader. And, why stop there? Once those deals are inked, Sony should go straight down the list of the Top 50 (hell the Top 100) newspapers in the U.S. and abroad and get those newspapers – and magazines – available on the Sony Reader yesterday.

Wireless – The next generation Sony Reader HAS to have wireless to compete with the Kindle. Is there a next gen Reader ready for production? Does it have wireless? If not, scrap it now Sony and integrate wireless in whatever next gen Reader you release.

Software – Do you own a Sony Reader? Have you ever connected a Sony Reader to your PC to download books? And, don’t even bother trying to connect your Sony Reader to a Mac, the Sony Connect software for the Sony Reader won’t work on a Mac.

Well, if you have tried the Sony client software for the Sony Reader, that probably has something to do with your early onset balding. You’ll pull whatever hair out of your head trying to use the Sony Reader software. I’m not a software engineer, but this needs serious work. Is it possible to scrap the client software all together and log in via a secure web page for your Reader downloads? Maybe that’s the way to go vs. trying to fix the Sony Connect client.

RSS – Currently, the Sony Reader supports limited RSS feeds. Going back to marketing vs. the Kindle, Sony should be crowing about the fact that they’re not charging for RSS vs. the Kindle’s nickle and diming RSS strategy. Also, open it up. Set up feed software that enables me to grab any RSS feed out there for the Reader – not just the RSS feeds that Sony has chosen.

Additional content – Sony should be adamant about not allowing Amazon to take the lead with more books available. If Amazon announces a new digital rights deal with a publisher that Sony doesn’t have a contract with, that contract exec noted above needs to pull out his tent and prepare to camp out in the publisher’s office until Sony has an equal deal. And, try to take the lead with the number of ebooks available on the Reader vs. the Kindle. Right this minute, there are probably more than a hundred literary agencies in NYC sitting on a goldmine of digital rights. Sony should be meeting with all of those literary agents to get thousands, hundreds of thousands, of long tail, out-of-print novels available for the Sony Reader.

In addition, Amazon has set up a process for authors, and others, to publish their own content digitally and make it available for the Kindle. Sony needs to set up a similar process. Right now, I can load a PDF on my Sony Reader. The formatting doesn’t always work great. But, there should be an easy way that I can upload a PDF and push it to the Sony store – or even push it to other select Sony Reader users. That would be a wonderful selling point for sales forces everywhere. Salespeople would no longer have to carry around briefcases bulging with documents and catalogs. It could all be stored on the salesforce’s Sony Readers.

Short stories – Sony is offering short stories now for the Sony Reader, but they should ramp up that process even faster. There are hundreds of thousands of authors sitting on previously published short stories, and they control the digital rights for those stories. Get those short stories available for the Sony Reader now.

Well, that’s all my ideas for now. Regardless of what happens, it will continue to be interesting to watch Sony’s competition against Amazon. Sony may have taken a few lumps, but they’re not out of the game by any means.


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Um, what took you so long

Posted on August 5th, 2008

Dell is marketing a new stylish PC – called a Studio PC.

I admit. I think that computer is pretty cool looking. I certainly wouldn’t mind having one sitting on the corner of my desk. But, I doubt it runs OS X. So, alas, I won’t be using it anytime soon. But, I do have to wonder, why has it taken computer manufacturers, especially PC makers like Dell, so LONG to move beyond the beige box.

Design gurus have been saying for years that consumers would love stylish PCs – and pay more for them. I guess when you’re on the ascendancy, and selling millions of boring beige boxes every year, you don’t really stop to experiment with design. The incremental sales increase of a stylish design wouldn’t matter all that much when you’re phone is ringing constantly with new orders.

But once those sales have peaked, you’ve got to find something to distinguish your commodity boxes. And, so Dell launches a stylish PC.

The first computer I was ever aware of was the Apple II which was originally released in 1977. My brother was in high school at Mt. de Sales Academy, a Catholic High School in Macon, Georgia. I remember my brother Tony talking about this new computer, and I have a memory of seeing the Apple box that the computer came in with that distinctive multi-colored Apple. I also have a dim memory of seeing either a Time or Newsweek with Steve Jobs on the cover.

The first computer I ever owned was a Radio Shack Color Computer. Check out this vintage ad featuring none other than Isaac Asimov.

It’s amazing that it took 30 years for computers to look as stylish as the Dell Studio PC noted above. I know, I know, Apple has been making stylish machines for years. I’m typing this on a MacBook Pro. I bought a MacBook about 2 years ago, and I’ve never once regretted making the switch. I spent years and years dealing with blue screens of death.

I do wonder what kind of computing devices my sons Zachary and Noah will be using. I’m sure they’ll be small and mobile, and I bet they’ll probably be using some type of Tablet style machine with Touch controls when they need to work on a document or file not suited to a tiny, handheld device.


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Kindle is selling

Posted on August 2nd, 2008

According to this Silicon Alley Insider post, Amazon is indeed selling lots of Kindles – 240,000 of them since they went on sale in November.

I’m actually surprised at those numbers. Sure, Amazon has done a pretty good job of marketing the Kindle. And Amazon has an advantage that any online marketer would kill for – the Amazon home page – front and center and above the fold.

I don’t have a Kindle, but I’ve played around with one my friend has. I’m not wild about eInk. I have a first-gen Sony Reader. My biggest complaint about eInk is that I can’t read the darn thing in bed without fiddling around with an awkward book light. That’s why I continue to use my old Gemstar eBook. The Gemstar eBook is still around thanks to the guys at Fictionwise. It’s now called the eBookwise – 1150, but except for a few minor tweaks it’s the same as my Gemstar.

The Kindle’s true killer app is the built-in Sprint wireless connection. If you hear or read about a book you’re interested, the eBook is only one click away on your Kindle (provided of course that the Kindle eBook version is available).

However, I will be very interested to see where the prices for Kindle books end up. Right now, most new hardcover titles are available on your Kindle for $9.99. And, for many of those titles, Amazon is selling them for a loss. How happy will Kindle owners be when those prices start going up?

Frankly, eBook pricing just doesn’t make sense. The pricing is based on a physical book, and it’s a price based on buying paper, ink, printing, cover art for a physical book. When distributing an eBook costs pennies (or less than a penny) how does that antiquated pricing make sense?

And, given the lower distribution cost of selling a digital eBook, why don’t publishers lower the prices for eBooks, sell more books, and make more money in volume. That’s certainly the model that worked for Wal-Mart – lower prices and make money on volume.


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