Diversified market or not, there are those who think that Amazon is still the big e-book winner, now and for the foreseeable future. On AllThingsD’s “MediaMemo” blog a few days ago, Peter Kafka discussed a note from Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney:
Mahaney points out that Amazon, with its long-established relationships with publishers, still offers book buyers a wider selection of e-books than Apple does. And it sells its books for less.
He cites figures from the report that show Amazon has more New York Times bestsellers and a lower average book price, and predicts that people will still be attracted to low-price e-readers, since the iPad costs a lot more even if it also does a lot more.
On TechCrunch, John Biggs puts it more succinctly: “The Kindle won.” Not so much the hardware device, but the Kindle platform in general. Apart from its dedicated hardware device, whose price is steadily declining, Amazon has released Kindle Reader apps for a number of platforms, including the more-expensive, more-capable iPad.
Even if the iPad outsells the Kindle dramatically, as long as there are people willing to put the Kindle Reader app on it, Amazon will continue to sell e-books. And even the standalone devices’ prices are falling:
Ebook readers are on a race to the bottom, just like netbooks. Back when it was just Amazon and Sony, you could sell an ebook reader for $500 or so. Now, with Asian upstarts flooding the market and eink alternatives, including LCD, becoming viable, the ereader as a standalone device is doomed.
Jeff Bezos has played it smart, and parlayed Amazon’s early mover advantage into a solid head-start that has left others still trying to catch up. Even Apple only supports reading on the iPad and on iOS4-based iPhones and iPod Touches.
Even leaving aside PC, Blackberry, Android, and other platforms that have Kindle Readers, Amazon’s Kindle e-books can still be read on millions of earlier-generation iPhones and iPod Touches that will never see a compatible iBooks app.
