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iHear iBooks?
The latest version of iBooks apparently has a read-aloud feature — which is awesome. But I wonder: does it work for all books? Wasn’t this a huge issue with the Kindle? I recall loving that feature, then Amazon essentially killed it after publishers complained.
Do you think it's even important for Amazon to fight for iOS users if Android is half the market now and Apple is unwilling to let Amazon in?
Asked by andrewnonumbers
For e-books, it’s important. Especially for the iPad. But bigger picture, not really given what it looks like Amazon is doing. They’ll fight for and take some would be Google Android users over to their own Amazon Android ecosystem. Cannot wait to see how that plays out.
Amazon Probably Sold A Few Kindles This Past Quarter. But No One Knows For Sure.
Still find it a bit odd that Amazon does not release their actual Kindle unit sale numbers. The product is clearly a huge hit — what are they worried about?
Are they concerned people will figure out what poor margins they make on each device sold? Or that they’ll be overwhelmed by tablet sales numbers soon — or already?
This Businessweek story from December cites people “aware” of the sales numbers saying that 8 million Kindles were sold in 2010 (up from 2.4 million in 2009). Apple sold just shy of 15 million iPads in 2010. Some are projecting them to sell 40 million this year.
Obviously, you could make the argument that two aren’t directly comparable. But maybe Amazon knows that the press would definitely rush to compare the sales numbers between the two. And the Kindle would look weak in comparison…
Kindle With Ads — Deal Or Crappy Deal?
Are the ads going to be shown within the books themselves? Or just on the menu pages? If it’s the latter, good deal. If it’s the former, it’s an awful deal — definitely not worth it.
Update: Jason has the details:
But fear not, skeptical bibliophiles: Amazon says that the ads will only show up on the Kindle’s home screen and screensavers, and they won’t show up when you’re actually reading.
You get a Kindle for $114 with the ads. I think it’s worth it but I don’t understand why Amazon wouldn’t push it down to the killer $99 price point. Are the $14 really that key to their margins? Put in two ads, do whatever, just get to that price point!
Imagine how many units a $99 Kindle would sell.
Notes