Amazon’s Kindle satisfies preferences identified by e-book readers in the United States, based on a recent survey released by Strategy Analytics. The survey reported that current e-book readers report a high level of satisfaction with their devices, and prefer e-books to physical or “dead tree” books. It also reported that e-book readers are looking for three things in their devices: ease of access to books, ease of content transfer, and newspaper and magazine availability. With more than 400,000 titles available to purchase and increased access to free content through services such as Scribd, Amazon offers superior content availability. In addition, Kindle has 107 newspapers and 50 magazines available for subscription, including most of the major US and international periodicals. Both the Kindle and Kindle DX can access Amazon’s bookstore with 60 second downloads.
The one unknown factor is the strength of Apple’s brand recognition. With its strong marketing strategy, buildin up hype prior to this month’s release of the iPad, Apple is betting on brand recognition to tip the balance in its favor. While the survey reported that Apple ran a close second in terms of preferred brand, it also said content will still trump name recognition.
“While brand name is still an important factor for current owners when choosing their next e-book reader,” commented Chris Schreiner, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics. “Consumers buying their first e-book reader will focus more on the durability and availability of e-books.”
Strategy Analytics is an international research and consulting firm that specializes in the information, communication and entertainment industries.
If it’s about content, then Amazon might want to nix their Kindle app. Because then apple has the brand recognition and the Kindle content. (Not to mention their own content, which some people might see as a plus to have multiple “bookstores”.)
I am really surprised that someone has not come up with a device or app that allows any book to be read on any device. Can anyone even imagine having to buy Buick fuel for their Buick that won’t work in their Ford? I know that sounds absurd, but it is the way with e-books and is incredibly stupid on the part of the device makers IMHO. I don’t think Amazon, Apple, B&N and Sony are helping their sales, I think they are hurting them. Where is the universal format? Where is the universal DRM? Where is sanity in this scene? Missing in Action!
@AL
I agree with you. I see only egos and greed driving ebooks/ereaders and not really paying attention to what we the readers really want. I rather wait than spend bucks now, forcing them to rethink how to make a ereader. As for Apple, they lost touch with edu a long time ago. iPad could have done that but no, Jobs is blinded by the pub egos control. An ipad for scholars now could define the market. Oh well.
A challenge: Jeff can your school going relative do research effectually on a Kindle, if not, make it so. Now.
I’m tired of seeing people focused on content sold by Amazon for Kindle. The main advantage for me of a good ereader is to see my documents that I already have (free online books, rss feeds converted with calibre) in it.
I’m preferring Amazon devices just because it is the bigger books seller with an ereader. So, in the rare ocassions when I buy a book, it will be there, on my kindle, and online where I expect someday it will stop being a DRM’ed file (and meanwhile, if amazon continues creating new ereaders, they will be there too). I also hope, Amazon to offer a 2×1: whenever you buy a print book, you will have for free the ebook version. When I buy physical books, I always do it in Amazon.
I agree. Kindle should nix the Kindle app for the iphone/ipad.
getting amazon/bezos to nix hte kindle app for iphone/ipad is exactly what apple intended to force. imo, amazon should stick with this as their plan is to provide this as a book selling platform rather than an ipod / itunes monopoly.
remember, amazon is not in this to sell more kindle, they are in this to be the defacto digital book selling platform
The fuel analogy is nonsense. My car uses diesel, not petrol, plus other fuels are available such as LPG and electric. Plus there’s Ethanol in some countries.
Personally, I’d like to see Amazon kick some serious butt with regard to those newspapers. I have refused to subscribe to any because of their general shoddiness. Apparently you don’t get the complete newspaper, articles will oftentimes end in mid-sentence, and you can’t even do the crossword. I should say that I don’t know that this is the case for all papers, but it sure as heck is for the New York Times.
Still and all, formats aren’t that huge an issue to me. I can convert books. It’s a pain because it can take so long, and you cannot really do mass batches of them. My only complaint on that point is that I’d like to be able to change fonts on PDFs.