App developers will keep 70% of the revenue (same split as the iPhone revenue sharing model) after covering the costs of wireless delivery.

What Kindle apps should Amazon sell?

The Kindle is not a multimedia device and cannot compete with the iPhone or other mobile handsets with more powerful hardware and color screens, like the future Apple tablet (if it’s going to be equipped with an E-Ink capable display).

Other ebook readers will probably have better hardware, but developers should focus on improving the reading experience on the Kindle instead of just porting existing apps from other devices.

Gaming on the Kindle would be very limited, but game concepts based on interactive reading, like gamebooks (also known as choose your adventure books), would be perfect for ebook readers and could be revived by adding a multiplayer interface that would create new stories depending on the players involved.

In conclusion, Amazon’s goal is to keep its dominant position in the ebook reader market by making the Kindle the best choice for book lovers because of its exclusive apps and benefits.

Ideas on how to build Kindleville

Two cornerstones that would help Amazon in increasing ebook sales and building a community of Kindlers are book discovery and sharing.

Pushing book lovers to discover new titles and explore new authors, review books and take part in quizzes and competitions in exchange of discount codes for ebooks could also work if users had the ability to create their own quizzes and participate in teams or individually.

The first apps that could help in building a community of Kindlers would be the ones aimed at existing online book lover communities like Shelfari and Anobii. Scanning barcodes would still be possible only by using smartphone software like the Anobii iPhone App, but users on book lover social networks should be the first target of Amazon’s expansion plan.

Targeting Shelfari and Anobii users by offering them a deal to buy the Kindle and have the money back without the obligation of returning it if they don’t like the ereader after a few weeks of usage, would increase ebook sales and word of mouth advertising in social networks.

An Ebookcrossing platform could allow users to create treasure hunt games based on book quotes and riddles that could exploit the Kindle’s GPS. Bookcrossing would be refreshed if users could lend ebooks (one of the features that make the Nook stand apart), or just tie an ebook to a location (airports, train stations, coffee shops, parks…). Making ebook sharing fun should be Amazon’s top priority.

These are just a few ideas that I’m sure Kindle developers are already considering working on. If I were a developer maybe I would just start a discussions on Shelfari and ask: What kind of app would you like on the Kindle?

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If you think about it, Christmas day might be too late to shop for a gift in a crowded bookstore, while it’s perfect timing for downloading an ebook or two on your newly received ereader.

Print books will still outsell ebooks in 2010, however more and more people are quickly getting used to reading on E ink screens, ereader prices are dropping and Google Books is playing its part in the process.

It’s the end of the Book as we know it

I have an encyclopedia at home, high on a shelf, it’s been there for the last decade I guess. It makes a beautiful piece of furniture though. Dictionaries suffered the same fate, which is happening to manuals, handbooks, all replaced by their online counterparts. The future is called media digitisation and it’s happening now.

A couple of weeks ago Sony launched a Digital Comics Service for the PSP, that enables the download of Marvel comics on a wi-fi connection. Soon print books, magazines and newspapers could become vintage items for nostalgic collectors.

I don’t think that mainstream consumers will adopt ebook readers soon, but as Seth Godin points out, it’s not the people who buy a couple of books a year that matter, but the heavy users who read tens or hundred of books are already determining a market shift.

Book lovers on aNobii and other social bookshelf sites have been busy on “ebook vs. real book” forum discussions and users opposing the new technology begin to sound like vinyl record collectors.

Nothing is going to change for them in the end, aNobii already makes book list importing from Amazon or Google Library very convenient. Traditional book publishers will probably see their profit margin increase thanks to digital books. No need to worry about it then, the future looks bright, unless you are working in a bookstore.

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The main benefit of breadcrumbs is that they help users understand where they are in the site in a very clear and simple way. Sometimes navigational click paths are displayed, allowing the user to click back to the previously visited pages (the Hansel & Gretel way), but usability benefits are greater when breadcrumbs show categories that represent the logical structure of the site.

Normally the current page isn’t shown as a clickable link, while the other links provide a convenient way to navigate to higher levels in the site hierarchy.

Breadcrumbs in E-commerce

Breadcrumbs are used in e-commerce websites not only to show categories, but also to address checkout abandonment. Checkout stages in breadcrumbs can show the different parts of the process and reassure users about the distance from the completion of the transaction.

E-commerce sites and websites that use breadcrumbs to offer users a supplemental navigation system, could see their pages on Google SERPs shown in a new way: The green URL can be replaced by clickable breadcrumbs, as for the Amazon result in the image below.

Analyzing Amazon from a web design perspective can teach a lot about usability and conversion optimization. If you click on the result featuring breadcrumbs, the page surprisingly will not show this secondary navigational option, probably as a result of A/B testing on landing pages.

My guess is that Google’s algorithm is taking into account that at a higher level breadcrumbs are shown.

Why is Google showing breadcrumbs instead of URLs?

Sometimes URLs, let’s admit it, aren’t very communicative, especially when a lot of obscure parameters are displayed, along with descriptive folder names as… “products”. Showing the precise location of the page in the website can help the user identify the content of the page, and change destination in case user’s intent would be matched better by a page with more general information.

SEO can be applied to breadcrumbs by optimizing anchor text for usability and better internal linking. Some sites use Page Titles, but Categories should be named with the same terms used in other navigational menus and bars used in the websites.

The “Home” link can also be optimized by using a relevant keyword, but remember that overoptimizing it could cancel the beneficial effects of breadcrumbs on usability.

Google’s adoption of breadcrumbs in snippets will reinforce users’ familiarity with this navigation system that is already considered as “conventional”.

Complying with web design usability conventions, especially for e-commerce websites, will ensure that users will always feel in control on your website, and provide internal linking SEO benefits.

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Amazon, who doesn’t support the ePub format, is currently offering 300.000 titles to the Kindle Store and controls 45% of the ereader market, while Sony’s share is just 30%.

More players are entering the promising market of e-book readers.

All of them support the industry standard ePub format, and give the consumer the opportunity to access to seven million ebooks on Google Books:

• British publisher and ebook reader manufacturer Interead will sell Google Books on Coolerbooks for the COOL-ER eReader;
• Asus has recently presented an innovative dual screen color e-reader, that will be followed by an entry model which will be cheaper than Sony’s and Amazon’s counterparts, currently priced at $199 and $299 respectively;
• Plastic Logic will introduce an ereader compatible with Barnes and Noble’s ebook store next year.

Will Amazon be able to sustain its business model over time and maintain an early lead on the market? The Kindle is not the iPod of e-book readers and it may never obtain that status in the consumer’s mind.

Opening to the ePub format and offering free downloads of out of copyright books could be a viable strategy, but the clash between The Open Book Alliance and Google Books suggests it won’t become a reality anytime soon.

A study from Forrester tried to figure out the retail price that US consumers would consider a bargain for an ebook reader and the sweet spot falls in between $50 and $99.

How much would you pay for an ebook reader? The good news is that the more competitors join the e-book arena, the sooner prices will fall and ebook readers will be affordable enough to reach the mass market.

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