The next few weeks should be interesting for Amazon.com
The leading online retailer is widely expected to introduce a tablet soon, giving it a gadget that can take on both Barnes & Noble's
A major advantage that Amazon will have over the competition is that it already has an unlimited video-streaming service in place. The Seattle-based e-tailer offers a limited selection of movies and television shows -- 8,000 titles strong and counting -- at no additional cost to members of its Amazon Prime subsidized shipping club.
Amazon's digital-video push, just as Netflix
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Amazon is in talks with book publishers to gauge interest in launching a Netflix-like service for digital books. Customers would pay a flat annual fee -- just as they do for Amazon Prime -- and then have unlimited access to the e-book library.
It won't be an easy sell, but it would be spectacular for Amazon if it's able to pull this off.
Taking the Kindle to the next level
The Kindle is an undisputed hit. Amazon has sold millions of e-readers over the past four years. However, it's still a hard sell for some diehard bibliophiles. Kindle books are generally cheaper than their hardcover equivalents, but they just can't hang on a bookshelf for bragging rights. Amazon has been beefing up virtual sharing options to close in on the real-world ownership experience, but it still needs that one killer app to make a Kindle as obvious an accessory for book lovers as a library card.
A digital smorgasbord of literature would do the trick, as long as it's able to talk some of the heavy-hitting publishers and authors into giving it a shot.
That won't be easy. Amazon will face the same resistance that Netflix has faced with Hollywood studios. If a book -- or a DVD -- will sell well on its own or fetch healthy ransoms as piecemeal rentals, why devalue it as part of a virtual buffet?
Kindle owners already have access to countless public-domain works, so it's not as if they'll be impressed by sheer quantity. They will need quality, too, and that is where the publishers hold all of the cards. It also doesn't help that publishers are already wary of the power that Amazon already has over them. They caught a break when Apple's iPad and Barnes & Noble's Nook successfully entered the market. If Amazon gets to lead the way here, the Kindle will grow its already significant market share.
Amazon wants this story to end one way -- but the publishers are pushing for a different conclusion.
If you want to see how Amazon's Kindle dreams play out, add Amazon.com to My Watchlist.
