Yesterday I downloaded a book to my iTouch via Amazon. It’s the same as if you purchased it on your Kindle. It’s quite a wonderful addition to the iTouch and frankly anyone who loves reading and wants their books instantly. Even though the iPhone and iTouch are competitors, Amazon just insured itself more and more purchases of ebooks. They just opened their potential buyers on a massive scale. And they did it without worrying about being fully proprietary and protecting their product.
I look at it this way. Google’s philosophy is that they do things better than everyone else. And if they don’t you’ll go use the other companies products. That keeps them pushing innovation. It seems to me that Amazon is smartly thinking the same way. If the Kindle is the best people will still buy it, and if not then they will at least purchase books from them because no one can deliver books better. I only wish Apple would do the same with iTunes.
So why is this so smart? Because it means Amazon just shipped one less book to me while making nearly the same amount of money. Its a simple, but brilliant strategy. They cut out the warehouse, U.S. Post Office and the delay between getting the product into my hands.
I don’t buy books for the sake of owning paper. I buy books for the sake of gaining knowledge. Now it just got faster and cheaper.
