Amazon faces big challenge from iPad
By Rachel Metz |
March 31, 2010, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
AMAZON.COM, which has dominated the young but fast-growing electronic book market for the past few years with the Kindle, could get its biggest threat on Saturday, when Apple releases its iPad multimedia tablet.
The Kindle starts at US$259 and is designed mainly for reading text on a gray-and-black screen. The iPad starts at US$499, but comes with a color touch screen for downloading books from Apple's new iBookstore, Web surfing, playing videos and more.
It will take time to determine whether the iPad causes a tremor in the e-reader market, a high-magnitude quake or something in between. But in the meantime people who read electronic books or are considering buying a reading device will find their choices getting more complicated.
If the Kindle e-reader falls out of favor with people drawn to Apple's offering, there could be a very thick silver lining for Amazon: It sells e-books that can be read on many kinds of devices, including the iPad and other Apple gadgets. That means the Kindle could fade and Amazon could still occupy a profitable perch in e-books.
However, Apple could find ways to tilt the field in its favor. At least for now, both the Apple iBookstore and the Kindle service will be accessible in much the same way on the iPad - as "application" icons that users can click. Eventually Apple could give its own bookstore and reading program more attention on the iPad.
Apple also could try to curry favor with publishers in a way that matters to consumers, perhaps by securing exclusive titles.
Publishers' relationships with Amazon have been strained by Amazon's insistence on charging US$9.99 for some popular e-books.
Publishers have complained that it is an attempt to get consumers used to unsustainably low prices.
The Kindle starts at US$259 and is designed mainly for reading text on a gray-and-black screen. The iPad starts at US$499, but comes with a color touch screen for downloading books from Apple's new iBookstore, Web surfing, playing videos and more.
It will take time to determine whether the iPad causes a tremor in the e-reader market, a high-magnitude quake or something in between. But in the meantime people who read electronic books or are considering buying a reading device will find their choices getting more complicated.
If the Kindle e-reader falls out of favor with people drawn to Apple's offering, there could be a very thick silver lining for Amazon: It sells e-books that can be read on many kinds of devices, including the iPad and other Apple gadgets. That means the Kindle could fade and Amazon could still occupy a profitable perch in e-books.
However, Apple could find ways to tilt the field in its favor. At least for now, both the Apple iBookstore and the Kindle service will be accessible in much the same way on the iPad - as "application" icons that users can click. Eventually Apple could give its own bookstore and reading program more attention on the iPad.
Apple also could try to curry favor with publishers in a way that matters to consumers, perhaps by securing exclusive titles.
Publishers' relationships with Amazon have been strained by Amazon's insistence on charging US$9.99 for some popular e-books.
Publishers have complained that it is an attempt to get consumers used to unsustainably low prices.
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