Dec 30

The Kindle reader never really interested me since it's fairly limited. And with the arrival of the iPad and soon would be competitors...I don't see a long future for the Kindle or Nook. But the Kindle format could be the sleeping giant.

 

Why I think the Kindle format will win out as the e-reader format of choice.

Three simple reasons lead me to believe the Kindle format will be the standard e-reader format. One it was first. It was the leader and so has a slightly entrenched lead in the number of users. Two Amazon is the largest seller of books...so it has a natural edge in choice and contract negotiations with content providers. And three, Amazon has made the Kindle "app" available on almost every platform. You can get a Kindle reader app for your iPhone, ITouch, iPad, Mac, PC, Linux, Kindle device and I'll assume whatever is next. The flexibility is astounding and I think the lead might be too great to overcome by others...yes even Apple's iBook format.

 

Apple may make a great device in the iPad and iPhone, but their shortcoming is they don't like to share. I doubt we'll see an iBook reader app that can be used on a PC or other tablets when they arrive. iBook will most likely exist only in the Mac ecosystem. There's nothing wrong with this approach...but what is a problem is that if you don't have only Apple peripherals you'll be limited to where you can read your books. The Amazon Kindle format is the opposite of this, Amazon's approach to deploying the reader app everywhere makes it a compelling choice. In fact just yesterday I downloaded the free Kindle app to my iPad and iPhone so I could purchase a book and read it on both. Then at the office, I downloaded the Mac app and enjoyed reading it on my computer too. The choice and flexibility is quite nice.

 

Further cementing the Kindles format advantage - the Kindle format is now unveiling the ability to "loan" the electronic books you've purchased to others. One of the biggest disadvantages of electronic books (and other items like music and movies) is that you can't share them. This is particularly troublesome with books since sharing books is as old as books themselves. If the Kindle can do this and does it reasonably well it will be another compelling option to go Kindle. After all, if the device you're reading it on doesn't matter....you can take your Kindle "book" with you on any device you can use with the Kindle app.

 

There may be other challengers to the Kindle format but with their substantial lead and Amazon's embracing of universal availability and now sharing of e-books - well I can't see why another format  would be able to unseat the Kindle as the format of choice. And I'm writing this as a devout Apple fanboi who sees that the Kindle is the format to beat. Unless of course Amazon screws up somehow.