In bringing its Kindle e-book reader to a much larger audience through the iPhone and iPod Touch, Amazon.com Inc may benefit — even if the additional users don’t translate into actual sales of the US$359 Kindle device.
Seattle-based Amazon rolled out the free program on Wednesday, bringing several Kindle functions to the Apple gadgets’ smaller screens. The application can be downloaded from Apple’s online application store and lets iPhone and iPod Touch users read the same electronic books that Kindle owners can buy on Amazon.com.
The application’s release comes a few weeks after Amazon unveiled the second-generation Kindle. The company has not released sales figures for the device, which it began selling in late 2007, but Citi Investment Research analyst Mark Mahaney estimated the company sold 500,000 Kindles last year.
PHOTO: AP
Regardless of how many Kindles have been snapped up, the availability of the program on the iPhone and iPod gives Amazon millions more potential e-book buyers — 4.3 million 3G iPhones alone were sold in the US last year.
And while Amazon hopes that the application will mean increased sales for both e-books and the Kindle device, Creative Strategies Inc tech analyst Tim Bajarin said he believes the former is the more important result in extending Kindle capabilities to Apple’s products.
Amazon has 240,000 books available for the Kindle and its library will grow. The more e-books you have, the more people you need to buy them, he said.
“If you’ve only limited it to a Kindle [device] audience, you don’t have exponential growth,” he said.
He thinks the application will have a “significant impact” on people discovering e-books.
Stephen Ju, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, thinks Amazon simply wants to sell books.
“I don’t think they care if you don’t buy a Kindle if they can sell you a book. I think that’s what they really care about at the end of the day,” he said.
That’s not to say that analysts think the application will cannibalize sales of the Kindle device. Bajarin said the smaller screen was a good way to introduce consumers to e-books, but thinks serious readers will buy the Kindle as the economy improves.
And in its current form, the application is not a game changer for Amazon, Ju said, in part because it lacks an e-book purchasing feature.
Users must access the Web browser on their iPhone, iPod or computer to buy the books. But if the company adds this, he thinks it would set it apart from other e-book applications that are available for the iPhone and iPod Touch, like Lexycle’s Stanza e-book reader.
Stanza allows users to read e-books in the “epub” format, which is an open standard supported by the International Digital Publishing Forum that many publishers use to create e-book files.
The Kindle does not support the format, but Sony Corp’s competing Reader device does.
Michael Smith, executive director of the digital group, said he was not worried the release of a Kindle application would eclipse the “epub” format, since it will bring attention to the e-book market.
Publisher Simon & Schuster welcomed the program’s release.
Ellie Hirschhorn, head of digital operations, said the publisher hoped to see various platforms that get e-books to readers.
“The more choice, the more ubiquitous, the more content readers have access to, the better for the ecosystem,” she said.
The paramount chief of a volcanic island in Vanuatu yesterday said that he was “very impressed” by a UN court’s declaration that countries must tackle climate change. Vanuatu spearheaded the legal case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, which on Wednesday ruled that countries have a duty to protect against the threat of a warming planet. “I’m very impressed,” George Bumseng, the top chief of the Pacific archipelago’s island of Ambrym, told reporters in the capital, Port Vila. “We have been waiting for this decision for a long time because we have been victims of this climate change for
Rainfall is expected to become more widespread and persistent across central and southern Taiwan over the next few days, with the effects of the weather patterns becoming most prominent between last night and tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that based on the latest forecast models of the combination of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, rainfall and flooding are expected to continue in central and southern Taiwan from today to Sunday. The CWA also warned of flash floods, thunder and lightning, and strong gusts in these areas, as well as landslides and fallen
MASSIVE LOSS: If the next recall votes also fail, it would signal that the administration of President William Lai would continue to face strong resistance within the legislature The results of recall votes yesterday dealt a blow to the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) efforts to overturn the opposition-controlled legislature, as all 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers survived the recall bids. Backed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) DPP, civic groups led the recall drive, seeking to remove 31 out of 39 KMT lawmakers from the 113-seat legislature, in which the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) together hold a majority with 62 seats, while the DPP holds 51 seats. The scale of the recall elections was unprecedented, with another seven KMT lawmakers facing similar votes on Aug. 23. For a
All 24 lawmakers of the main opposition Chinese Nationalists Party (KMT) on Saturday survived historical nationwide recall elections, ensuring that the KMT along with Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers will maintain opposition control of the legislature. Recall votes against all 24 KMT lawmakers as well as Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) and KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) failed to pass, according to Central Election Commission (CEC) figures. In only six of the 24 recall votes did the ballots cast in favor of the recall even meet the threshold of 25 percent of eligible voters needed for the recall to pass,
RSS