Amazon's Kindle Lowers the Price, Raises the Heat

I was out of the country on vacation for most of July and decided to take a break from blogging thinking it was the middle of summer and hey, things would be fairly quiet in the book world, right?

Boy was I wrong!

For starters, Copia, a new company launching a "social" e-reading experience and web based community, has announced they are releasing a $99 e-Reader with a color touch screen sometime in the fall. This is a complete new strategy from the one I had learned about and reported here back in March. It's still unclear whether or not this ambitious and relatively unknown company can make e-waves with consumers, but I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Barnes & Noble is coming on strong with plans to introduce huge installations within their stores to promote the Nook e-Reader. It's a bold and necessary move that demonstrates their commitment to the growing demand for e-Books, but its success will be riding on the execution of this strategy. Will enthusiastic employees significantly help sell devices to curious shoppers? My guess is yes, but I still say improvements to the Nook itself would go a long way to increase its popularity.

If I'm correct about the need for a better Nook, then B&N will need to do it soon 'cos Amazon just announced two new Kindles that are sleeker, faster, lighter, and most importantly, less expensive. These latest versions seem to be taking a page from the Sony Reader by reducing the amount of the casing that surrounds the 6" screen. Plus they're now available in both white and graphite, which is interesting because in the past Jeff Bezos had consistently said that the decision to make the Kindle white was because it made the device virtually disappear in the reader's hands, allowing the eye to focus on the written word. He was right, for I've experienced that effect myself, so the introduction of what's essentially a black Kindle was probably made to simply attract more male customers. I'm convinced this is why you can now purchase the Kindle DX in graphite as well. It just looks cooler and let's face it, guys like that. I still marvel at how amazing my sleek, black 80GB iPod Classic looks and feels in my hand. If only all electronic makers could create objects of such beauty .

And for me that includes the design of these new Kindles, which yes, look nicer, but surprisingly still include a physical keyboard and toggle for navigation. What would be great is if Amazon could create a dual screen Kindle, sort of like the Nook and Alex, with an E-Ink screen at the top and a touch screen for navigation located below it (color or not), but with a non-raised body to give it a "full screen" look, as with the iPad and Zune, and with nothing more than a thin flat line separating the two screens. Basically a flat tablet with an E-Ink screen that you can read in sunlight. Wishful thinking I guess, but in the slick universe of Apple and Android products, these Kindles still look a bit archaic to me. But I suppose most people aren't nearly as fussy about this as I am since Amazon has reported they've already sold out of the new devices and they won't be back in stock until September.

Clearly the main attraction for Amazon's customers has been price. The Wi-Fi/3G model remains $189 but the new Wi-Fi only model is a very affordable $139. It's not hard to foresee these price-points decreasing even further as we head into the holiday season, which will not be great news for Sony, B&N, Borders, Copia, or Kobo, unless they too can afford to lower the cost of their e-Readers, but either way all of this means one thing: A whole lot of e-Books will be purchased during December and the result will be a noticeable shift in consumer behavior affecting the publishing industry and bookselling community in profound ways throughout 2011.

How do you think this will all play out?

A New Reading Community of Cornucopian Proportions

This week I attended an event held by a technology company called DMC Worldwide that introduced COPIA, a new, robust social community created especially for book lovers.

I confess I hadn't heard of DMC before but apparently they've been around for more than 40 years successfully developing products for the Telecom industry and they appear to be well funded.

After a very nice cocktail party thought-leader Mike Shatzkin, who's been working closely with the Copia team in an advisory role, took the stage to deliver an enthusiastic speech about the service. This was followed with an overview emphasizing how Copia was different from others and THEN there was a demo showing how it actually works. Unfortunately this part of the presentation got somewhat derailed by technical difficulties, but it didn't really matter because by that time the presenter had already gone over much of what readers will be able to do using this platform. Overall it appeared to be similar to existing book community sites like Shelfari, GoodReads, and LibraryThing, combined with an eBook marketplace that functions much like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Sony, but...on steroids.

So what exactly is Copia? Well, here's how their official press release describes it: The COPIA platform is a hybrid solution for consumers of all ages to experience a completely new way to discover, enjoy, share and purchase books, newspapers, magazines and a wide variety of digital content. At the same time, it integrates a software application engine for OEM brands looking to deliver content across their digital devices including e-readers, notebooks, netbooks, tablets and smartphones.

Plus, here's a video on their website that helps tell more of the story.

If this all looks and sounds like a lot, that's because it is! And as impressive as Copia appears, it just might be too much too soon for users to embrace from a company with not much name recognition or reputation.

As mentioned above, Copia intends to ambitiously launch with their own eReaders and SIX of them to boot! So I was pretty disappointed when there weren't any devices at the event to try out. Also disappointing in my book is how they'll all use ePaper, a similar technology to eInk, which means black and white, no color. That said, I was told by a representative the highest end model with features like a 9" screen, Wi-Fi, 3G, Etc., will cost around $300, so that's pretty affordable. I did manage to find a video on YouTube that demonstrates one of the 6" touchscreen models called the Ocean6 and a spokesperson provides even more description of the overall service.

Another thing missing from the event was the mention of how Copia intends to reach consumers and raise awareness about this incredible world they've created. Yes, it will be a community accessible on practically every type of mobile device and computer integrating the ability for users to connect with all their current Facebook friends and Twitter followers as well as new ones inside the Copia universe, but first people need to know that the service even exists. And that seems like a huge challenge when you consider how long Sony has been plugging away to promote their Sony Reader and eBookstore with ads in airports, magazines, and even television with modest results. And of course Amazon, who currently has the bulk of eBook market share, owns Shelfari and when they decide to integrate that community within their eBookstore they'll have thousands of Kindle owners ready to participate.

Personally, I don't quite understand the need to communicate with complete strangers about books I'm reading and only consider recommendations from people whose opinions I trust. But that's just me. I'm aware there are indeed tons of people who find it appealing to make their personal libraries public in the hopes of finding others who share their passion. With Copia they'll definitely be able to do all that and then some.

One way or another I believe Copia will succeed, even if they end up powering the backend of a higher profile eBook company.

If I were Sony, I'd contact DMC in a heartbeat!

How does Copia look to you?