Skip to main content

Start a fire with some kindling

Yesterday was a big day for Amazon.com. They announced a whole new lineup of e-readers and tablets for their Kindle line of products. Many a pundit said that they were going after Apple in their latest play, and to some degree I think there's some small truth to that, but I don't think that's the whole story.

In fact, I think the first person that Amazon is trying to take down is Barnes & Noble. B&N's Nook tablet has been their answer to the Kindle for a few years now, and from a technology and feature standpoint, the two have been leap-frogging each other. Before the Kindle announcements yesterday there was the Nook with glow-light, so you can read in the dark. The ad for this device played constantly on TV in recent months, and I'm sure it caught the eye of more than a few customers. Yesterday Amazon answered with a version of it's own, that also upped the ante by including a capacitive touch screen, a step up from the Nook version.

On the high end, B&N has struggled to define what it's Nook Color really is. Once you put a color screen on an e-reader, it opens up a whole new set of content, but you need an ecosystem to support that content. B&N has always been a top notch bookstore, and is pretty much the only big-box bookstore left around. But their music business is a hold-over from the pre-digital age, and they've never been big in the DVD world. So that leaves books. As an e-reader, B&N's offering is really top notch, and I'm personally a big fan of their product. But, it's obvious that first up on Amazon's list of goals, it taking down this competitor once and for all.

At the heart of it all is the issue of ecosystem. Amazon, over the past couple of decades, has built a tremendous ecosystem of products that mesh well into a digital lifestyle. They were one of the first to the online book business, they embraced the digital music revolution (albeit a bit later than others), and because of their wide range of products most people think of them first when looking for everything from DVD's to diapers. This ecosystem is what Amazon is hoping will draw you away from being simple a book reader, which you can do on a B&N Nook quite easily, to being an Amazon.com 'digital consumer'. They're hoping that once you realize that you can do more than read books on a Kindle that you'll choose their ecosystem over the competitors. For many people, that may be a very compelling argument.

Sadly, the range of offerings that Amazon put out yesterday may be the beginning of the end for Nook. Or maybe it's an opportunity for B&N to realize that they can't compete in the ecosystem game, and focus on letting the Nook be the best e-reader it can be. Perhaps it's OK for B&N to look at a smaller portion of marketshare and be content with that, if they can be the best at what they do. Only time will tell if consumers would go along with that notion however, and for the time being it looks like the next move on the chess board is Barnes & Noble's.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The beat goes on

Yesterday Apple revealed their long awaited entry into the streaming music field. They were able to do this quickly because of the acquisition of Beats last year, and the systems and intellectual property that came with that purchase. Considering that the music reveal was pretty much the only big news out of a pretty benign developer keynote, I'll take a few moments to talk about what I think about it. Apple was perhaps the defining company in the music revolution of the past 20 years. With the introduction of the iPod that revolutionized portable music, to the creation of the iTunes store and the eventual death of DRM, Apple has been at the forefront of digital music. This leadership comes with high expectations to continue to lead, and so many people have long questioned Apple not getting into the streaming music business quicker. For the past few years new companies have come forth to lead the change in the streaming music evolution. From Pandora and its ability to create un

Microsoft Surface Pro 3

So I've been a horrible blog author and have neglected this site for far to long. It's not that I haven't had anything to say, I've just neglected to say it. So with an attempt to get back on the wagon, here's some thoughts on Microsoft's announcement yesterday for it's Surface Pro 3. Despite being a minor Apple fanboy, the most interesting company to watch, in the personal computing space right now, is Microsoft. With the departure of Steve Ballmer, and the rise of Satya Nadella, it has been an interesting 9 months for one of the founding pioneers of personal technology. Many agree that Windows 8 has not lived up to what Microsoft would like it to be. They made a bold attempt to redefine how users interact with their computers, and merge the tablet and desktop experience. However, that experiment, by most accounts, has failed. This is a common pattern for Microsoft however, alternating between a mediocre OS release, and then a stellar one. Therefore, it&#

Under the Surface of Microsoft

One of the big tech announcements recently, that caught the world by surprise, was the new Microsoft Surface tablet. Although many people expected some sort of tablet annoucement, I don't think anyone thought that Microsoft would pull out a full-on iPad competitor, complete with massive innovations in design and functionality. My first impression of Surface is that it's a really great piece of technology, and things like the built-in kickstand, and the smart-cover-like touch keyboard are really inventive. Since I'm writing this on an iPad with a wireless keyboard, I know there are plenty of times when the marriage of an old-school physical keyboard input method with modern touch screen interfaces results in something even better :) The thing I wanted to comment on though wasn't the introduction of new hardware, because I think that story is still evolving, and Microsoft's involvement with it's OEM's could be quite the fireworks show. What I want to ramble