Google Announces EBook Initiative – Jeff Bezos’ Monopoly is Crumbling Around Him

Posted on June 2nd, 2009

In the latest eBook news, yesterday the New York Times reported on a new Google eBook initiative – separate from its book scanning project. Google is in discussions with many book publishers to sell eBooks direct to consumers via Google. As publishers continue to fret over Amazon.com’s $9.99 pricing for eBooks that are currently available in hardcover (at higher price points), the story pointed out that Google has made it clear that publishers will be able to set the pricing for their eBooks.

Meanwhile, the latest Fortune magazine has a glowing cover story about Amazon’s Kindle, and the launch of the Kindle DX – a large-screen Kindle.

Despite Amazon’s success with the Kindle thus far, the Kindle’s only differentiation at this point is wireless connectivity. Admittedly, the ability to instantly download a title that you’ve heard about on NPR or read about in your morning paper drives unbelievable impulse purchases. And, those impulse purchases, are surely adding to the Kindle’s financial success thus far.

But, that wireless advantage could be short-lived. Ultimately – in the next 18 months – a competitor, Plastic Logic or Sony, will introduce an eReader with wireless connectivity. And, lurking in the background, is the 500 pound gorilla of well-designed consumer electronics – Apple. There have been plenty of rumors about a much larger iPod touch scheduled to be released. Regardless if Apple launches a larger iPod touch, as netbooks continue to grow, smartphones continue to grow, Apple will eventually release a device akin to an iPod touch with a larger form factor.

As eBook devices proliferate and eBook availability continues to expand via Google’s new initiative and others, will consumers continue forking over $359 for an Amazon Kindle? I doubt it.

Who is certain to lose regardless of how the eBook future unfolds? Sadly independent bookstores.

Amazon Kindle DX


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Using Twitter to Respond to a PR Crisis – Amazon.com Failed To Act

Posted on April 13th, 2009

I try to unplug during many weekends. Part of that is the fact that I have two small children, and I’m spending most weekends doing dad things. Another reason is that I like to try and take a break from the firehose of constant info that I’m dealing with throughout the week.

So, I was certainly surprised to check Twitter while waiting for a table at a sushi restaurant late Sunday afternoon and see post after post re: AmazonFail (lots of background info here, here, and here). If you’re not in the loop, Amazon began removing sales rankings from a wide variety of books over the weekends. And, surprise, surprise, almost 100% of the titles affected were books dealing with gay, lesbian, and transgender issues. Sales rankings can impact whether or not a book shows up on Amazon’s various bestseller lists and in customer searches on the site.

Regardless of what actually happened, a) Amazon made the egregious decision to delist numerous gay, lesbian, and transgender books, or b) there was a genuine backend computer glitch that resulted in the delisting, Amazon compounded their mistakes by not using social media to deal with this PR crisis.

I just checked out Amazon’s twitter account. As of 1:40 p.m. ET on Monday, April 13th, more than 24 hours after this PR crisis started, Amazon’s latest twitter message reads, “Amazon Daily: The Bldg Blog Book: The Blog Made Flesh http://bit.ly/uK5babout 16 hours ago from Perl Net::Twitter.”

I’m sure there were panicked conference calls yesterday among various Amazon.com execs. But the company’s PR response was to give the same exact statement/quote to multiple journalists reporting the story, ““We recently discovered a glitch to our Amazon sales rank feature that is in the process of being fixed.  We’re working to correct the problem as quickly as possible.”

Why didn’t Amazon.com use Twitter to respond to the crisis – a crisis that could have an impact on their revenue/sales since many of the Twitter posters were threatening boycotts?

Here’s what I would have recommended.

1. Figure out what the hell happened, and figure out what we’re going to do to correct the mistake. And, let’s figure out how we want to communicate ASAP what happened to our customers and the press.

2. Communicate what happened to reporters proactively – call the top 25-30 reporters who routinely cover Amazon.com – and respond quickly to any incoming calls from reporters.

3. Communicate what happened via Amazon.com’s twitter account. I would recommend hourly updates too – either repost the same basic explanation or add any additional info that surfaces.

4. Respond to #amazonfail posts on Twitter with explanation of what happened. This could get tedious – and wouldn’t scale. However, if Amazon.com’s corporate communications team had responded to 25-30 complaints per hour yesterday afternoon, they would have gone a long way in turning the conversation around.

How would you use Twitter and other Social Media tools to deal with a PR crisis?


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Plastic Logic – Mr. Bezos on Line 1

Posted on September 12th, 2008

This week at Demo, Plastic Logic demoed the second generation Amazon Kindle.

Okay. I’m joking, of course. Plastic Logic is a separate company in no way associated with Amazon – yet. But, they did display a new eReader device with a form factor that Bezos’ design team should be studying intently for the second generation Kindle. Lots of people are writing about Plastic Logic’s demo – here, here and here.

Currently, you can read the New York Times, and many other newspapers and magazines on the Amazon Kindle. But, would you rather read the morning’s New York Times on an airplane or your morning train ride on the cramped Kindle screen or Plastic Logic’s large screen? Plastic Logic’s eReader more closely resembles the typical size of a magazine page vs. the Kindle’s paperback book size.

As much as I love Plastic Logic’s large form factor, I seriously doubt they’ll achieve long-term success, unless Jeff Bezos is on line 1 to discuss a partnership or acquisition. Why so negative?

What’s their content strategy? – Joe Wikert beat me to this argument. But, I want to echo what he said.

I spent some time this morning perusing Plastic Logic’s website and management profiles. Plastic Logic has a huge amount of talent – technology talent. I didn’t see any manager with high profile, deep experience cutting deals with book publishers and other content companies – magazines, etc.

From the Plastic Logic demo, it appears that the company is aiming their reader squarely at the enterprise market. Why limit the device to corporate documents, newspapers, and other business content? Once again, consumers and business people will be forced into a device with a narrow focus.

Unless Plastic Logic execs are hard at work in New York City cutting deals with numerous book publishers to get thousands of front list and backlist novels and non-fiction book, ereader fans are going to face a frustrating choice. They’re going to have to shove their Kindle and their Plastic Logic devices into their briefcase for a flight. After they read their latest sales documents on their Plastic Logic (on a beautiful, large screen), they’ll have to dig out their Kindle to read a science fiction or mystery novel published four or five years ago.

I love the Plastic Logic’s form factor, but I’m seriously concerned about their content strategy. Launching with a few thousand bestselling novels and non-fiction books is just not going to be compelling, especially with 140,000+ books available on the Kindle.

I’m looking forward to seeing what Amazon has up their sleeve for the second generation Kindle, and I think I hear a phone ringing at Plastic Logic’s corporate offices.


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