The Kindle

Peter Kilborn | 10/08/2009

The excitement this week has been that Amazon is at last ready to bring the Kindle to Europe. By the time you read this we shall know if it’s true.* The UK is a natural market for Amazon, where it already takes a commanding share of the online retail market for books, but the wireless technology Kindle has used in the US for e-book downloads – certainly the reason for its remarkable success - has not up to now been available in the UK, let alone across continental Europe. How this will be resolved will come as a surprise to everyone.

Certainly this seems a natural time to be launching: at the time of the Frankfurt Book Fair and with Christmas approaching. The rumour has been fuelled by reports of recent meetings with the major publishers and a ratcheting up of the pressure from Amazon UK’s Kindle evangelist Genevieve Kunst to persuade publishers to make their titles available.

What if it’s true? As previously indicated here, the UK has been in a kind of limbo as far as e-books are concerned, waiting for Kindle. Waterstone’s, Borders and more recently W H Smith have e-readers available to buy – and reasonable but not spectacular numbers have been sold - but the volume of downloads had been distinctly lacklustre. It is certainly possible that the much more user-friendly Kindle will grow the market very quickly, especially if it makes the process of buying and downloading content a simpler and more intuitive process.

There is concern here, though, about pricing policies: probably one of the most tricky issues facing the emerging e-book market. Clearly this will be dictated by Amazon in the end (and it’s unlikely that publishers will hold out against it) but there must be anxiety that cheap e-books (that is, e-books priced well below that of a hardcover equivalent) will further undermine the value of the book market – although it is arguable that the levels of discounting in the marketplace have already done exactly that. And, as I mentioned in my last post, the fact that e-books are subject to value-added tax where printed books are not means that in commercial terms you can’t make like-for-like comparisons in any case.

So, things may be about to change here; and it could be an interesting few months ahead. To what extent in the final analysis the impact of an e-book reading device will dictate the way people consume content is not yet clear. There are those who believe that e-readers are a distraction from the main issue; but a dominant player such as Amazon, with an established customer base and an innovative new way of delivering its content, is bound to send ripples through this market and perhaps mark a decisive digital moment.

If the rumours are true… 

*Postscript

The announcement was duly made – expectations had been raised too high for it not to have been - but it was very far from being a full-blown launch. It begs too many questions to be answered right now, especially whether it will indeed be enough to change the landscape of UK digital publishing.
At first glance, the answer is no. First, the Kindle will be sold only via the Amazon.com site and shipped from the US at a dollar price of $279. Potential UK consumers have been quick to note that there are substantial carriage costs to add to that, plus import duties, plus – apparently – a $1.50 surcharge on each downloaded file. The wireless technology, based on AT&T’s network, will work for many but not for all: some will have to download to a USB device before loading onto Kindle.

It seems probable that Amazon has done things this way to manage the expectations of the UK publishers who have agreed to make their content available. We know from experience that this is not the way Amazon normally launches potentially huge new developments and no doubt the Kindle will come properly to the UK in due course; but that moment does not seem to be now.
I will report further when the dust has settled and the Frankfurt Book Fair has had its say.

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