Lessons from the Kindle: Simple use, easy buying and the right price
By Joe Wikert
Here’s an excellent Kindle article from Elizabeth Blackwell on TheStreet.com.
The various quotes from me are the result of a conversation Elizabeth and I had recently.
I wasn’t sure what direction she was taking this story in, but I think she nailed it with her three key points:
- Think User-Friendly — Sure, the physical design is weak but it still resulted in a device that ranks high on convenience (even though I’m trying to use mine as more of a print replacement than most other Kindle owners).
- Make Buying Easy — I don’t think the model could be any better than Amazon’s one-click purchase and fast, wireless download. In fact, plenty of Kindle owners are complaining that it’s too easy!
- Price it Right — OK, we’re talking about the books/content pricing model, not the price of the device! $350 is still way too high a price for wide adoption but if those 250K-300K first-year device sales estimates are accurate I’ll bet Amazon is quite happy with these early adopter results.
August 19th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
From a business standpoint, does it make sense to sell a product which users have no way of getting to touch? If a user is going to spend $400 on something, they better damn well know that the form factor is exactly what they want.