Steve Work announces iTunes Match,
Tiffany Wedding
Second Class Citizens? (Photograph by Troy Holden by means of Flickr)
Apple iCloud
Apple's iBook and iPad
Amazon's Kindle (source: Newsweek)
Google Books
eBook Reader Competitors
Last December, I wrote about an ebook killer app waiting to be built, and that I wanted for Christmas. I didn’t get it. But, with Apple’s introduction of iTunes Match, there’s a glimmer of hope that Apple (or Amazon or Google) could build my hoped-for app. So I figured I’d float my wish list again,
Pandora Bead, before the Christmas rush. If you have an in with Steve, Jeff, Sergey or Larry (or Santa),
Pandora Beads, could you pass my wish along?
The app I want is an ebook system that lets me read every book in the rich way the web has taught me to love and expect: with multimedia, hyperlinks, and the ability to cross-reference and annotate. By “every book,” I mean every book, not just the new acquisitions I’m making for my Kindle or iPad. The problem is the hundreds of books in print form that I already own and that have been relegated to second-class status. Any app that brings my old books across the chasm into the digital world would indeed be a killer app.
Right now, there’s no feasible technical or economic model for digitizing my library. I can’t just rip my books the way that I ripped my music CDs over the years. And, while I’d certainly pay something for getting my library into ebook format, buying every book at full ebook price doesn’t make much sense.
Now, though, Apple’s iTunes Match has offered a model for how my desired ebook app might work. For $24.99 a year, Apple will give me iCloud access to songs in my existing digital music library, irrespective of whether I bought them on iTunes. That’s worthwhile for me, because I’ve ripped hundreds of my pre-iTunes CDs into my computer library over the years. It’s worthwhile for music labels, too, because they will share in the revenue with Apple and essentially get paid again for music that there’s no chance of me ever buying again.
You see where this is going.
Someone should build an app, let’s call it eBooks Match,
Pandora Silver Bracelet, that does the same for books. eBooks Match should let me populate my cloud library with previous online bookstore purchases and “match” my paper bound books. I could use RedLaser, Delicious Library, or some other phone-based scanner app to read the ISBN numbers on my books. (Use whatever honor system you’d like for me to certify ownership.)
Once book matter is rescued from the printed page and put into the cloud, all those cloud servers can be employed to layer in dynamic content. Unlike the static, one-version-fits-all ebooks being delivered to Kindles and iPads today, cloud-based ebooks could be updated over time. Dynamic content could even be annotated based on my preferences and the rest of my library.“The Lord of the Rings” might link to J.R.R. Tolkien’s readings of Middle Earth poetry, Rob Inglis’ remarkable unabridged audiobook rendition, film footage, other books in the series,
I Heart Old Towne Orange, critical analyses, and even updates of Peter Jackson’s coming Hobbit movie. Ted Gioia’s “History of Jazz” might link to photos,
Tiffany Co Australia, recordings, video and contemporaneous information. Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” could link to the latest scientific data and visual evidence supporting, or refuting, his predictions.
For anything close to $25 a year, owners of pre-Kindle books should flock to it.
On the surface, such an app would be good for all players in the value chain. Readers get richer content for a reasonable price. Authors and publishers share in a new revenue stream and have a mechanism for interacting with readers that was never possible before. (Imagine the options for book clubs, periodic upgrades and other types of upselling.) And,
Pandora Silver, whoever unleashes this killer app gets the opportunity to secure a ton of serious book readers (and therefore customers) for their content ecosystem.
Let’s take a closer look at the likely suspects:
For Apple (which, I’d guess, would rather name the app iBooks Match), this would be a natural expansion of its content ecosystem. iTunes Match is a elegant strategy to coax music lovers to migrate to the cloud. In the process, of course, iCloud keeps those customers buying generations of iPad, iPhone, and other iWhatever-the-Future-Hold devices and gets them to buy their new content by way of Apple. eBooks are one of the weak spots in the Apple strategy,
Tiffany Silver, leaving a Kindle-sized strategic wedge for Amazon. Expanding the “Match” product to books would be a game-changer for Apple’s ebook strategy and make it a viable threat to Amazon.
For Amazon, eBooks Match (Kindle Link?) could cement its hold on the ebook marketplace for a generation and position it well for its razor-and-blade strategy as the seller of both Kindles and ebooks. It would also help Amazon towards its aspiration of being a publisher as well. Amazon has the advantage of having a relationship with most book lovers already. It could, instantly, populate my cloud library with at least 50% of my books, because I’ve bought them from Amazon itself over the last 15 years.
For Google, things get really interesting. eBooks Match (Google Library?) would deliver ebooks, but the strategy would be all about search and Adwords. Serving my cloud library would give Google tremendous added knowledge about me, and therefore open up myriad ways to improve my search results and serve up better-targeted ads. Thus, it would be in Google’s interest to structure a cloud library subscription service that is sweeter for both publishers and customers than Amazon or Apple would otherwise offer. Google Library would also validate the search giant’s efforts in digital books, and it might slow the Apple and Amazon juggernauts.
There are other contenders to build eBooks Match, or at least other players who would benefit from doing so (like Sony or Barnes and Noble). The big three of Apple, Amazon and Google, however, have three important advantages over all others. First, all are immersed in ebooks, and an ebook cloud strategy serves their larger enterprise strategy. Second, each already has the cloud infrastructure in place. Third, all have big enough checkbooks to get publishers’ attention,
Authentic Tiffany, and to make it happen.
Sure, a lot of details have to be worked out. But there are six more months before Christmas.
* * *
Help me stress test this idea, and to make it better. Would you pay $25 a year to get your books into the cloud? What functions/features would you like? Who’s best positioned to pull this off? How might it fail? Thanks.
Follow Chunka Mui on Twitter @ChunkaMui
Authentic Tiffany iBooks Match Could be the Next K
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