“Kindle” and printed books

Just before Thanksgiving, Amazon introduced the Kindle, an electronic book-reading device. We think it is a turning point in the quest for an electronic replacement for printed books. It has a lot of features that put it in a better position to compete with print than any previous device.

Some key features:

Light weight (10 ounces)
A very readable monochrome display (using the “E-ink” technology developed at MIT a few years ago).
Wireless downloads of books (using cell-phone technology)
Low power usage (30 hours or more per charge)
A large range of titles available (or soon to be available) through Amazon

The price at introduction is high ($399) but the downloaded books are significantly less expensive than the printed version ($9.99 for bestsellers; $1.99 for out-of-copyright classics—including the transmission costs). And if the Kindle takes off, its price is sure to come down fairly quickly.

The traditional printed book is such a great technology that electronic versions have not been able to compete. None of the devices so far has made even a tiny dent in the book market. But someday that situation will change.

Kindle may not be the device that finally makes electronic books a market reality, but it does have a set of technologies and a business model that provides a glimpse of what a successful electronic book system will be like.

Kindle doesn't spell the end of the printed book, but it is a wake-up call to book printers. They need to think about what other services they might offer. One possibility: someone has to prepare the text for Kindle’s system, or for any other electronic book system. Some publishers will want to handle this themselves, but others will be happy to turn the process over to a service provider—who might also be their printer.