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Motley Fool think Amazon Can’t Win on the iPad

There’s a new post today from Motley Fool. I think it does a pretty good job of showing why they call themselves fools (I assume it was becuase the word idiot wouldn’t have the same alliteration). Here’s a summary:

In this video, Fool.com analyst Eric Bleeker talks about the continuing battle between Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPad and Amazon.com's (Nasdaq: AMZN) Kindle. Bleeker feels that chatter in the media about Amazon and Apple — that Amazon’s success on the iPad creates a win-win situation for the company — is missing the mark.

Specifically, he’s afraid of companies that become reliant on other platforms, where the owner can change the rules at any time. In this case, Amazon is captive to whatever direction Apple takes the iPad.

While Apple didn’t initially ship iPads with Apple’s iBooks pre-installed, there’s little doubt it’ll be the default book reading program going forward. That’s the large concern for Amazon. Whenever users are required to take a separate action (download Amazon’s book application), a large number of those users will take the path that requires no action and use a pre-installed program. As the platform owner, Apple can promote its own bookstore in whatever format it desires.

He is ignoring so many details here that I don’t know where to begin.  I think I’ll just stay with the most obvious: you can only get the iBooks app in (I think) 4 countries and you can access the Kindle Store in 140. Apple would have to put a lot of work into expanding iBooks before they could serious impact the Kindle app. And then there are the number of platforms you can get the Kindle on and the vast difference in ebook selection.

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Comments


Perry August 6, 2010 um 1:54 pm

The article ignores current behaviour and normal consumer behaviour. Currently, people download the apps for different readers on their devices when they are able to do so. I have 6 different reading apps on my iPod Touch. I use mostly the B&N and Amazon.

The normal behaviour for consumers is to shop around for the best deal. With e-books, you have to shop around for the title – I’ve found books at Fictionwise that weren’t on Amazon and books priced differently on both.

The Motley Fool predictions can come true but will rely on there being a one place to shop for ebooks, and it being tied to one format.


Harmon August 7, 2010 um 6:32 pm

Apple is selling ipads, not ebooks. Kindle app sells ipads.


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