How Amazon Could Keep Our eBook Business, Even If We Switch to the Apple iPad

By Patty Seybold (and Clients & Colleagues)

 
It’s not often that we’re faced with the dilemma of choosing between two exceptional customer experiences. The advent of Apple’s iPad poses that dilemma for me. I’m almost certain that once I start using Apple’s iPad, I will use my Amazon Kindle less and less. And that means that my impulse buying, not just of digital books, magazines, and newspapers, but also of digital music, movies, TV shows, and games will move to Apple. Why? Because the iPad is seductive. It embodies the incredible Apple “i-”user experience and I’ll be able to enjoy crisp black and white reading, brilliant color reading, and interact with my content, my friends and colleagues, and the world while relaxing in my favorite leather armchair or lying in my hammock.

This troubles me. I am seduced by the iPhone, but I’m still in love with the Amazon customer experience. Amazon has made my life easy since 1994. I entrust most of my purchases to Amazon. They rarely let me down. I’ve had great customer experiences. I act on many of the recommendations they give me because they know what I love.

Seeking Advice When Torn between Two Loves

So, this week, I sent out an SOS to my family, friends, and my smartest customers—Patty’s Pioneers and Patty’s Visionaries—the people who are my role models—the lead users who break new ground in customer experience and business innovation. I asked them for advice: Advice for me and advice for Amazon. Here are a few of the things they recommended for me, for other loyal Amazon customers, and for Jeff Bezos at Amazon to consider:

According to my clients, Amazon should:

1. Make it easy to buy digital goods FOR all platforms FROM all platforms.

2. Sell easily portable content

3. Provide the best digital library and back-up services

4. Continue to offer the Kindle Reader software across all devices

5. Support color and better graphics on its e-Readers

6. Sponsor an Open Source e-reader platform

7. Embrace ePub and other E-Book formats that are publishers’ standards

8. Provide competitive commissions; but compete on price

This last suggestion relates to the recent controversy about Amazon’s “price-setting” for bestsellers at $9.99. Cory Doctorow, a noted author, provides great insights into this pricing question in his February 15th article in Publisher’s Weekly, With a Little Help, The Price Is Right, that has garnered lots of discussion. Cory suggests that publishers shouldn’t try to price e-books the same way that they “window” hard cover books—selling them for $27, until the demand has been met and then releasing a lower price paperback version. The purpose of e-books isn’t to cannibalize the market for hardcover bestsellers, but to expand the market and to attract people who aren’t currently reading books. I agree with Cory. And apparently Apple now does too. See Mokoto Rich’s New York Times article.

What I particularly enjoyed about the process of researching and writing this article was the passion and interest among my clients that this query provoked. It’s fun and rewarding to rely on my smartest clients to contribute the smartest ideas. I hope we’ll continue the dialogue. I suspect we’ve just scratched the surface. You can join in, too. 

Will Amazon Lose Marketshare to Apple in Digital Content?
How Amazon.com Could Sell More Digital Content in the Post iPad Era
By Patricia B. Seybold, CEO and Sr. Consultant, Patricia Seybold Group
February 18, 2010

Comments

[Patty Seybold]

Amazon announced Kindle for iPad on April 2, 2010