Is Amazon's Kindle iPhone app crippled or companion? CFO says companion

TalkBack 1 of 5:

Next »

• Thread View
• Flat View

The iPhone as Kindle Killer

I'm so tired of this argument that the iPhone will never be good for reading books because you can't take it on the beach and the screen is too small.

I read books on my iPhone using Stanza, the most downloaded iPhone application. Stanza has proven the demand for e-books on the iPhone. More people have downloaded it than have bought a Kindle. The only problem with Stanza is the title selection. Ok, so in that rare instance when I'm at the beach, I won't use my iPhone.

I don't know about you, but I'm not really at the beach enough to drive a decision to buy another device. I'm much more often on the subway, or in the car, or on an airplane, at the airport, etc., and prefer not to have a clunky, specialize device just for reading books. My iPhone does just fine.

Your second point, that the screen is too small, is purely subjective. That's what they said I'm sure when books became their current size after scrolls.

Amazon's strategy is terribly flawed. They'd be selling more books if they just opened up the Kindle format to whomever wanted to make a device. There's something cool about making the device. Jeff Bezos can show it off to Jon Stewart, but ultimately, Amazon should be in the book selling business, not the hardware business.

Posted by: jranft   Posted on: 03/04/09 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

• Why Isn't Server Virtualization Saving Us More? A Few Small Changes May Dramatically Increase Your Efficiency VMware Companies have rapidly adopted server virtualization over the past few ... Download Now
• Building the Virtualized Enterprise with VMware Iinfrastructure VMware VMware virtualization software has been adopted by over 120,000 enterprise ... Download Now
• VMware Infrastructure: A Guide to Bottom-Line Benefits VMware Frustrated by the costs of maintain ever larger data centers?or building ... Download Now