How Kindle reinvented "the book"
How Kindle reinvented "the book"
or should we say rekindled "the book"
The fact that I called Kindle the reinvention of “the book” is a testament of the fact how humans perceive the well distributed as the original or the first time something was ever made.
Kindle and the e-reader has a very strange connection with Tesla and the electric car. The one thread that binds these two is a name which was more important than Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk combined.
BTW HIIII… I’m Aryan and I share stories around business, startups and life in a pursuit to figure out the philosophy behind everything, every weekend.
Re—Kindling
The year was 1998, Martin Eberhard created the “Rocket ebook” reader and presented it to Jeff Bezos of Amazon for an investment.
Jeff saw a great amount of potential in the device, but wanted an exclusive control over it. Rightfully so, because at that time their rivalry with Barnes and Noble (the old American bookstore) was raging and they didn’t want to fund some company that could be later bought by B&N to pick up a fight with Amazon.
But it actually wasn’t just a “monopoly minded” decision. Jeff was actually able to understand how to scale this business from that point on, Eberhard didn’t.
Even with the greatest funding, this device would have never been able to convince publishers to sell their books for a relatively cheaper price in an ebook form. They needed the fire power Amazon bought with itself.
They needed the network and control that Amazon had over it’s publishers.
All this wasn’t in Eberhard’s vision, so he pulled out. But he had already given Jeff the feel of the future. He gave Jeff the formula to creating the next big revolution.
In 2004, Amazon started working on a device that could reinvent the “book”. It was intended to keep the main parts of the book and remove all the non-essential parts. It was created to make the book disappear on your hand, to leave whatever is truly important. Devoid of all distractions.
And that wanted to make the main reading experience exactly like the book, and not make the reader feel like it’s something else. An uncompromised pursuit for the original form, inside the reinvention.
You cannot replace the book by giving them a differently made LCD display. If there’s any compromise with the original experience, people won’t choose it over a normal book.
In this pursuit they never tried to reinvent the core concept of the book and make it into something else. They didn’t want to reinvent the behaviour we’ve been conditioned with for centuries. They didn’t want to “out-do” the book. All they wanted to do is solve for everything a normal book cannot do and including those parts inside this beautiful device. Just using modern technology to rethink how the book can be made better.
Best thing about the Kindle is no-eye strain and a full book-like experience. It's their USP, their magic. And they've solidified their moat by improving upon the experience with each iteration.
There are two types of products: universal and focused. Historically everything universal has been defeating focused. Like blackberry was a focused niche product beaten up by the iPhone, a universal product.
Or something like an iPod. Beaten by the phone.
But there are certain gaps in the market where customers don't want to use universal products. They want certain products which numb the noise, and do exactly one job. And do that well.
I think Amazon has been exceptional at finding such huge hardware gaps not filled well by universal products and consolidating market share there.
The iPhone and the iPad are universal products. They are exceptional products, but they aren't the best for reading books. That's where the Kindle rules.
Again in the world selling choices, the one selling focus won.
The iPod changed the way people listen to music and Jeff Bezos wanted the Kindle to change the way people read books. It did.
The fact that you can get your books delivered on your device and start reading it as soon as you buy is crazy awesome. This makes it a Delta4 product.
I think the real reason behind the success of Kindle is that they've been successful at making customers feel like it's an "investment".
To any customer the Kindle seems like a bundle of value and it makes the perceived value of the device "worth the price" in our head
Why is that? It's because Amazon knows that we want things at a great price, want them fast and be able to choose from a large selection. The Kindle solves all these three things for books.
Common Jeffrey you can do it…
Jeff isn’t really well- known for inventions. What people actually regard him for is his business side. The Kindle is one genius business model.
They sell you the device, then you buy books to read & buy their Kindle Unlimited subscription.
It's not a normal platform product where you have a choice to choose between services. If you use Kindle and you want an ebook subscription, you have to buy Kindle Unlimited.
They literally sell you a product, and then sell you a service which you pay for every month, and you can't even switch to another one. What a business and what an amazing customer lifetime value they must be having.
If you want to buy a book, you have to use the Kindle Store. That's also something they profit from.
It was Amazon all along, not the product…
But even after understanding all that, I still wasn’t convinced about the reasoning people were giving about the success of Kindle.
It was right in front of me and I completely ignored it. The real reason isn’t the just the fact that the product is so good, it is a success because it is built by the largest book retailer on the planet.
Amazon has the biggest library of books and publishers under their belt. So, almost all titles are available to read on the Kindle.
This right there is their competitive advantage. Amazon's existing network in the book business has been a boon for them here.
Any other company cannot build such a library. A lot of them tried, only a few remain. Simply because you can’t compete with Amazon at scale. And Amazon is extremely good at keeping it “everything store” moat alive.
The rapid pursuit for nothing but “we sell it all” has been the biggest reason for Amazon’s success, and even Kindle’s success.
This shows us that no matter what you invent, no matter how good it is, if it doesn’t have the capability to serve it’s customers completely, it won’t work. You need an end to end seemless experience.
Steve Job’s iPhone won against all other players because it had mastered the art of the platform. Platform is all about breeding the creators. Getting them in and giving them an opportunity to make a tremendous business over it.
Jeff Bezos did the same with Kindle. He made every publisher feel that if they aren't on Kindle, they are over!
Also they breed new publishers on their platform. Many people don't know that with Kindle Amazon has taken over the task of democratising another industry: Publishing.
With 'Kindle Publishing' any person can write and publish their books exclusively for Kindle devices and make money Removing the hassle of going to a publisher.
Even though he lost the battle with the e-book, Eberhard moved on to e-vehicles. Yup Eberhard is the cofounder of the company that revolutionised electric cars, Tesla.
Interesting how he was at the starting point of two major creations with two men who went on to become the richest on earth.
A piece on Tesla coming soon. Stay tuned:
If you liked the “reading experience” please share this with a friend. It would mean the world to me❤️
Bonus: Deep-Dive for the ultra curious
If you want to continue your dig on the Kindle then I’d recommend you read this beatiful story written by Barrett O’Neill on the battle of the Ebook market between Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos. It’s a masterclass in negotiation:
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What’s coming up?
Enough about Kindle’s successes, it has also seen it’s fair chunk of failures. What we’ve witnessed in the last decade about the human behaviour with smart devices like the phone, iPad or even Kindle is an extraordinary.
I will cover more about the failures of Kindle and it’s attempt to become a universal device pretty soon.
Also to compensate for last week, tomorrow another issue is coming on Kunal Shah. You’ll love it.