Amazon Kindle vs Apple Tablet
Dec/099
Apple Tablet?
People are worried that Apple’s Tablet will be lacking digital content because Amazon has the rights to so much of it, but I think that’s misguided.
The Kindle device isn’t a profit centre for Amazon — it exists solely to push digital content, which is where Amazon hopes to turn a profit. Before the Kindle, eReaders were horrible. It pushed the boundaries, and showed that eReaders were viable.
Amazon doesn’t care about being the #1 eReader device. They care about selling lots of digital content.
That is why Amazon will gladly allow Apple’s Tablet to access & sell its digital content. Because these sales & downloads won’t use Apple’s infrastructure, they’ll be happy to make a typical Associate’s commission on each sale.
Apple’s device will have access to ALL Kindle content on launch day (through the iTunes AppStore, which will be re-branded MediaStore or iMedia).
Of course, Apple will still make a larger (30%?) chunk of change on any exclusive content they sell (digital magazines, newspapers, etc).
That’s what I think, anyway.
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Amazon Kindle
Apr/091
I love the idea of the Kindle — buy books anywhere anytime, and when you move, you only have to move one device, not tens of boxes of super-heavy books.
But there are several things I don’t like about it, too.
1) DRM – Kindle e-books only work on Kindle devices. If Amazon stops making kindle, you stop having access to *your* books.
2) No “import” feature. I’ve already bought thousands (yes) of dollars worth of books from Amazon. Do I get free digital copies of those books? No.
3) You can’t buy it in Canada, and it doesn’t work in Canada 
4) No Annotations – This one is the nail in the coffin for me. I write notes in the margins of all my books. The books are my memories of the books (because I have a poor memory). It would be *amazing* if the Kindle came with a stylus, and you could tap anywhere to just start jotting down notes. And the notes section could expand infinitely, unlike the margins of physical books. It could also have some way of cross-referencing other books (a la hyperlinked annotation).
And if Sprint didn’t mind them using all this bandwidth, they could launch “Shared Annotations”. Imagine reading a book, and having the option to turn on shared annotation view. You’d be able to read annotations by anyone who had ever scribbled on that page/paragraph/word. By mimicking the web itself, this would become an extremely powerful research tool. Too many annotations to sift through? No problem — implement a digg style up-vote/down-vote the annotation system. This would enable books to take on lives of their own… growing forever.
Maybe the Kindle3 will do it… but I’m not holding my breath.
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6:03 am on June 9th, 2009You’ve both detered me from owning a kindle and made me really excited about them at the same time. HOW DID YOU DO THAT?
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6:03 am on June 9th, 2009You’ve both detered me from owning a kindle and made me really excited about them at the same time. HOW DID YOU DO THAT?
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9:45 am on December 29th, 2009
Makes sense. Apple is about making money on the device and Amazon is about selling content. Would you buy a Apple tablet? Right now I don’t see the need for me to have one.
12:05 pm on December 29th, 2009
I’d get one in a second. Would be nice for web browsing from the couch, or watching videos in bed. Also, handy for Ula to surf from the living room while I’m working. You see, she has many week days off and works many weekends, so there are LOTS of times when I’m trying to work, and she has the day off, so she’s on her computer watching Big Brother or Survivor or something. Can be pretty distracting, depending on how treacherous the episode is
2:17 am on December 30th, 2009
Wow, how did I miss that info on Apple Tablet.Could suit my needs more than an iPhone as I dont make many mobile phone calls anyhow.Much bigger screen and looks very light. Have put iPhone on hold (they will hang onto my money but thats OK for now) and wait to see whats cooking with this Tablet as even my mate at the Apple Store is very short of info but agrees I would be a fool not to wait. I dont want an iMac, an iPhone and a Tablet. Noone seems very sure about surfing capabilities yet.
10:44 am on December 30th, 2009
Your mate @ the Apple Store is a fool to advise you to wait. iPhone and whatever the rumored device will be serve two different purposes. You want a portable MP3 player, cell phone, semi-powerful computing device in a small form factor? You go with an iPhone. You want a larger screen, bigger footprint device to browse from your couch? Get that “tablet”. They are not mutually exclusive.
Personally, I can’t picture myself w/o an iPhone and will gladly get the “tablet” to replace my laptop (more like a desktop) when I’m on the go, depending on its technical specs.
11:21 am on December 30th, 2009
True, VK, but Apple’s just announced that it’s having an event on January 26th. Surely it makes sense to wait a few more weeks before buying anything, just to see what comes out at that event.
11:44 am on December 30th, 2009
Hi VK, my Mate is no fool he just knows me so well .Im dithering you see, well thats what happens when you get older:) I dont do on the move Music,hardly play any in the Car and my mobile (brick) lives in the Car in case I breakdown and need to call someone.
I was looking for a small device to use the Web when away from home on holidays etc and first looked at a MacBook Air, very light and then got to thinking of the fab iPhone and ordered one only a few days ago using my Mates 20% discount. Now having heard of the Tablet I have put matters on hold as if this is lightweight, cheaper than the Air ,it could well suit my needs and the bonus is my better half can use it to surf the web at home rather than using my iMac 24 when I want it.I have 100mb internet speed so sharing some of that wont slow me down much. At my age we make arrangements to see people on a Monday and turn up exactly on time the following Friday.We have a landline with an ansaphone which is really all we need. You younger folks are a lot busier than us.Me and the long suffering wife are enjoying our retirement but make use of tech to make our life easier not harder.My first computer was an IBM in about 1975 good only for a Lotus spreadsheet.
HAPPY NEW YEAR in advance:)
11:58 am on December 30th, 2009
Translation: “ansaphone” = “answering machine” = “voice mail” = “call answer”
8:56 am on December 31st, 2009
fair enough. even with an iPhone I would wait since most likely a new gen. will be annouched in June. don’t wait too long though, there’s always something better on the horizon when it comes to technology
HNY
p.s. although I never heard the word “ansaphone”, I understood it right way. sounds simple, cool and funny at the same time. something I would expect to hear from Bronx resident: “yo, let da ansaphone answer dat, bitch!”. can’t picture a Brit saying it.
12:15 pm on December 31st, 2009
Ansaphone=====goes back a long long way. When they first became available in the UK it was a reel to reel tape machine manufactured by a USA company ANSAPHONE. The name stuck with this type of product.
Actually Old Boy I cant imagine a Brit saying it either.Got to toodle along its time for High Tea dont you know and the Memsahib gets a tad frosty if Im late for it at the Club.
Ho Ho and HNY