Amazon has taken the Kindle to another level.
As the price point goes down, its functions go up.
In the middle of a tablet boom, Amazon has been able to keep their footing with this primary reading device. While tablets do more and more different things, the Kindle is limited from an application and functionality standpoint. It’s intuitive control, excellent reading screen, and perfect weight and size, have all lend to its competitive edge, but it will never outperform a tablet. So, for it to stand-out among the competition, it must continue to build on the one and only thing it does really well.
Book reading.
Amazon has increased the value of their Kindle by teaming up with OverDrive.
OverDrive is a leading full-service digital distributor of eBooks, audiobooks, and other digital content. They deliver secure management, DRM protection, and download fulfillment services for publishers, libraries, schools, and retailers–serving millions of end users globally.
OverDrive currently hosts more than 500,000 premium digital titles from more than 1,000 publishers, including Random House, HarperCollins, BBC Audiobooks America, Harlequin, and Bloomsbury. Their e-book lending service is utilized by more than 11,000 American libraries.
Impressive, right?
Kindle users have not been able to download any of the OverDrive lending books, since the OverDrive books use a unique DRM protected file format.
Later this year, Amazon’s Kindle readers, as well as devices running the Kindle software, will be capable of borrowing books from their local library.
If you have a library card, you can borrow an e-book. Not too long ago, that sentence wouldn’t have made any sense!
Books are downloaded through the library’s website and are automatically removed after a set number of days, with a maximum loan time of three weeks.
There’s even some rumors about users being allowed to add notes to e-books, which would be great for study! A reading device that has no games and no social networking distractions, gives the Kindle more momentum in the marketplace for sure.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have all those heavy college textbooks on a Kindle?
Profitability is really starting to hit-home with publishing houses that have been built on paper bound publishing.
Amazon has indicated that it will respect the terms of lending use laid out by publishers. In the case of Harper Collins, the company has stipulated that its books, once purchased by a library, can only be made available for 26 loans, before being erased permanently.
Our world is becoming vastly electronic day by day.
It’s difficult to think that books could be in danger.
[via BBC]
Adam Shields says
Print publishers are in trouble for many reasons. But I don’t think that libraries are one of them. Libraries have been loaning books for a long time. Now that they are loaning ebooks, they are asking for new concessions that just are not reasonable with paper books, but libraries are getting stuck with because they don’t have a large negotiator. Can you imagine a library accepting that a paper book has to be taken out of circulation after 26 times being checked out?
This does not really help publishers, but it does hurt local libraries that are already being drastically cut.
What is a bigger problem for print publishers is that nationally in January and February, ebooks sold more than either paperback or hardback and is very close to selling more than paperback and hardback combined. Most analysts were predicting it would be 4 to 5 years more years before ebooks overtook print books. But it looks like it may happen this year if growth continues as it has over the past year.
Adam Shields says
By the way, it is a different from the library lending that this post is about, but you can borrow books from other kindle account owners. I have about 200 ebooks that are lendable (about 1/4 of my books are lendable, publishers get to choose). You can read the books with iphone, ipad, android phone, windows or mac computers and windows phone. The lending is limited to 1 lending for each books and you only have 14 days to finish the book before it expires. But if you want to borrow a book from me here is the list on my blog
http://bookwi.se/new-kindle-lending-page/
Eric Dye says
Good thoughts, Adam.
Love your website and thanks for sharing your lending page!
Jonathan Blundell says
Adam that’s awesome! I was just thinking of doing something similar myself (although I only have 2 or 3 books that are lendable right now).
I just wrote a post about this as well – wondering how this could change the church libraries that we’ve known from yesteryear.
http://www.casadeblundell.com/jonathan/libraries-of-tomorrow/
Imagine if we could put together a “library” that people could borrow from all over the world!
Eric Dye says
Very true!
(Nice post :-))