Fortune takes a closer look at Amazon’s vision for the future of publishing but doesn’t come up with anything new. As the article states, Bezos is “relentlessly on message.” The article is worth a read, however, as it confirms that Amazon is aiming to be the gatekeeper of written word.
Fortune suggests that not all Amazon experiments have been successful with internal sources indicating that the music and video download programs have been failures thus far. Kindle’s success has been its wireless program and price point.
If the success of Apple’s iTunes Store offers any guidance to Amazon’s grand plan, it’s that consumers will pay for content when the bar is set low enough. Sure, there’s still plenty of piracy, but for many of us the ease of buying digital music has rendered file sharing a quaint anachronism, a past transgression stored away next to memories of that drug-fueled summer following sophomore year.
I own a Kindle and I love it, I think you’re right about the price point. Everything is affordable. Of course I’ll buy the electronic version of a book at $2 or $3 rather than going to a bookstore and buying a paperback at $14.