Amazon made the Kindle for iPhone (free) reader available on the iTunes App Store today. While the app itself is still rudimentary, it has a clever method of automatically tracking bookmarks across devices and marks a sea-change in the electronic books market.With the release of the first of what Amazon promises will be many Kindle readers for smartphones (and in a way that is complementary to the Kindle wireless hardware device), the first step toward a complete remaking of the publishing industry has been completed.
Content Is King
The Kindle reader on the iPhone isn't really that special by itself. What makes it a game-changer is that iPhone and iPod Touch owners now have easy, one-click buying access to Amazon's vast catalog of 240,000 current titles, most at prices far below their hardcover and paperback cousins.
Most popular books are available for $10, with brand-new releases generally about $15 and older paperbacks a little over $6. (Rumor is that Amazon presently subsidizes the cost below its royalty payments to publishers.)
Competitors such as Fictionwise's eReader simply cannot match either the number of titles offered nor the prices, which are as much as 50% off the price at the eReader store (if you can even find them there).
[Update (3/5/09): Fictionwise, which owns eReader, announced that they have been bought out by Barnes & Noble, which is the strongest of the remaining traditional bookstores. So it's possible this will give them the leverage they need to improve pricing and availability.]
There will be some readers who will never make the shift from a physical, paper book to an electronic reader, but most will find the tactile experience outweighed by the convenience of instant availability in the buying process, and being able to carry your library with you at all times.
Using The Kindle Reader for iPhone App
Like all iPhone apps, getting the Kindle reader is a drop-dead simple exercise that takes only a couple of minutes. From the iTunes App Store, you choose the Kindle reader and with a single touch download and install it.
Upon opening the Kindle reader app, you're asked to log in with your Amazon account and password. This registers the iPhone with Amazon, and if you already have Kindle books allows you to wirelessly download them to the iPhone without being charged again.
The reader itself is minimal, especially compared to eReader and Stanza, which offer numerous small ways to customize the font and page display, as well as adding notes to the text (a feature on the Kindle that is not replicated here).
I also prefer to tap to turn a page, and the Kindle reader only supports a swiping motion. It's also bizarre that you can't read in landscape (horizontal) mode as only portrait mode is supported.
Buying Kindle Books
Buying content is also a little awkward, as you can't do it directly from the Kindle app. You're pushed out to the amazon.com web page, which you can access from either Safari on the iPhone or the browser on your Mac or PC.
But after that Amazon has done some clever things to enhance the buying experience.
Once you've logged in, the Amazon web site will automatically recognize all of your registered Kindle devices and give you the option of downloading the material to that device with a single click.
After you've completed your shopping via the web browser, the next time you open the Kindle reader on the iPhone, it will automatically find and download all of your purchases.
Other Amazon Improvements
The most unusual innovation from Amazon is WhisperSync, which automatically tracks the last page read on any Kindle-compatible device and returns you to that point. You can sync up to six devices that way, so if you start reading a book on a Kindle, then read a few more pages while at the store, and then return home to the Kindle, each time the next device will pick up where you left off.
It's also nice to be able to download free samples of books (generally the first two chapters), as this is often how I discover new authors in a physical bookstore.
Otherwise, the main advantage of the Kindle iPhone app over the Kindle app is that it offers the capability of full-color graphics, which is a little hit-or-miss at this time. Some publishers only provide black-and-white text or illustrations, or poor quality color images, but a few have added high-quality graphics (though unfortunately you can't zoom in yet).
The graphics will only improve, and it's my understanding that while the reflective (gray-scale only) eInk display technology used in the Kindle hardware device is easier on the eyes and closer to the traditional book-reading experience, its slow response time makes it impractical for rapid surfing or thumbing through the Internet or other reading material.
Shortcomings
Beyond minor interface improvements, the Kindle reader still has some room for improvement.
Notably, it doesn't support buying or reading Kindle newspapers and magazines. This is an odd omission as the iPhone would seem a natural vehicle for the latter due to its superior graphics capability and its supreme portability.
I'm also not how to load books from the large trove of free third-party electronic books in the public domain (mostly books from the late 19th and early 20th Centuries), offered via initiatives such as Project Gutenberg, even though the books are available in Kindle (.azw) format. But Amazon offers quite a good number of free books but they're hard to browse through, so it's easiest to search in the Kindle store by author.
It's also very strange not to know how many pages are in a book (the Kindle reader doesn't tell you). While Amazon uses its own weird "locations" method of tracking the progress of a book, it's a close enough analog to a page that knowing your relative position by location would serve the same purpose.
The Verdict
I was almost shocked by how quickly I converted to electronic books a couple of months after getting my iPhone. Increased eyestrain was quickly counterbalanced by the tremendous convenience of always having my entire library with me, especially when traveling.
Within a short period I had converged on eReader as my favored application because of its simple, refined interface and the availability of both new books for purchase as well as free books in the public domain.
But in a single stroke Amazon has swept all of that away. I had become frustrated by the lack of available titles, or by the calculation of spending over $20 for a book that costs the site and publisher virtually nothing (in incremental costs) to deliver to me electronically even as paperback versions were offered for $7.
I downloaded four books today:
- The Great Decision by Cliff Sloan and David McKean (Kindle: $14.82; Amazon hardcover: $17.79 plus shipping; not available on ereader)
- Angel Isle by Peter Dickinson (Kindle: $9.99; Amazon paperback: $9.99 plus shipping; ereader: $17.09)
- Princeps' Fury by Jim Butcher (Kindle: $9.99; Amazon hardcover: $17.13 plus shipping; ereader: $23.36)
- Angelica by Sharon Shinn (Kindle: free sample of 2 chapters, full price $6.39; Amazon paperback: $7.99 plus shipping; ereader: $7.99)
The Future
This is only the beginning. From these crude and humble origins, the publishing industry will be reborn if, like Amazon, they have a vision for the future that sees opportunity in the new electronic technologies that are finally maturing. But the industry is trapped in both traditional thinking and business relationships, as electronic distribution poses a mortal threat to traditional bookstores.
Amazon asserts that the Kindle for iPhone reader is a complement to their hardware device, and with their clever autosyncing WhisperSync they're partially right. But I'll never buy a dedicated Kindle device, especially not at $350. I'll either use my iPhone or, I expect, some successor to it that bridges the gap toward a laptop.
Electronic books and their associated reading devices are still a little crude today. But both electronic displays and processors are moving rapidly up the low-energy consumption, high-capability curve, and it's only a matter of time before the shift is complete.
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