Kindle is heading for retail shelves this month. Some are speculating that this is strategy to “thwart” the iPad and it’s all but assured success.
Nope.
This is brilliant timing, and it isn’t a direct attack on Apple. It’s clear that all Amazon cares about is being the leading ebook retailer, not whether their hardware sells more than the iPad or any other device for that matter. That’s why they have an ebook reader/store app for every device on the planet; you want to use an iPad, not a Kindle? Great! We’ve got an app for that.
What we’re seeing here is a gold rush. Even if the iPad was a commercial failure (it won’t be), the hype surrounding it has force fed the reality of ebooks in the faces of the mass market for the first time.
People who would never have otherwise heard of ebooks now have.
People who always assumed they’d be complicated have now seen a dozen video demos of iPad and it’s “Books” app, and have realized they aren’t.
How many people watched Charlie Rose’s interview with David Carr and Walt Mossberg about the iPad? It was border line pornographic.
People are going to want an iPad, but not everyone will be able to afford one. That is the Kindle’s new target demographic, and how it will ride out the iPad storm.
Now all they have to do is assure their ebook store beat’s Apple’s own in terms of price, quality and catalog size. The flood gates are open, and I think it’s going to be a good time to be Amazon.
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