Kindle vs. Google eBooks

Google has released its eBooks store. While the marketing is convincing and inspiring and its selection and prices appear to be on-par with Amazon, its biggest selling point is flawed and its improvements over Amazon are in fact (so far) singular.

Google’s marketing its eBook store as the best way to access your digital book collection from across a wide range of connected devices. While they’re doing a better job advertising this function than Amazon, they’ve barely done a better job of implementing it.  They’ve added a slick web-based eBook reader (no need to install Kindle software on your Windows PC or Mac, or wrestle with WINE to get it working on Linux), but your progress on a given book in the web reader or an iOS/Android device doesn’t carry over to or from your reading of that book on a supported eInk device (such as the Nook or Sony Reader).  Google really touts this ability to pull out your phone in-line at the DMV and pick up where you left off in your book from when you were at home… but they leave it to the fine print to explain that you can’t have this if you’re using an eInk device anywhere in the mix.  Amazon doesn’t have this problem.  Read a book on your Kindle, iPhone, PC… you can pick up where you left off no matter what (the only catch being that the book was purchased and not side-loaded from a DRM-free source).

Amazon could (and should) copy Google’s eBook web reader. I expect they will eventually.  Google can’t copy Kindle’s progress syncing on ePub devices like Nook or Sony Reader unless those manufacturers allow them to publish an app for those devices that ties them into the Google eBook store (which is very unlikely).

Amazon’s continued refusal to add ePub support to the Kindle still disappoints me, but they HAVE created apps for a wide range of platforms (iOS, BlackBerry, Android, Windows/Mac) and they’ve made all of their features sync across those platforms.  The only downside to no ePub support is that I mostly have to buy from Amazon. But their competitive prices and unparalleled selection make this a non-issue.  The only Google eBooks feature I covet as a Kindle owner is the web-based eBook reader, and I expect Amazon to copy it in the near future.

The Google eBook Store doesn’t make me regret owning a Kindle. But if I were a Nook or Sony Ereader owner, I’d definitely consider buying my books from the Google eBook store from now on.

 

Some Thoughts on the 3rd Gen Kindle

Now that Amazon’s released its first new generation of Kindle devices since the iPad, a lot of people are criticizing the device for its lack of color and touch screen.  I too was a little underwhelmed, until I learned a little more about the improvements (or refinements) Amazon’s made:

• smaller size body but same size screen with higher contrast
• a Wi-Fi version that’s $50 cheaper than the 3G version
• a new open source browser based on WebKit (just like Chrome, iPad, etc), which includes a button to remove content surrounding articles (like the Readability bookmarklet)  (I have a cell phone for browsing the web on the go. The web browser on my ebook reader should be for locating sites that I can then strip down to just the content and enjoy.)

When I showed the knew Kindle to a co-worker, he dismissed it as soon as he learned it didn’t have a touch screen.  I explained how a touch screen decreases the visibility of non-backlit screens, but he then just added the complaint that it’s not backlit. I showed him this quote from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, but he wasn’t as impressed as I was:

“There will never be a Kindle with a touch screen that inhibits reading. It has to be done in a different way. It can’t be a me-too touch screen.” [emphasis mine]

I was also happy to see I’m not alone in appreciating Amazon’s commitment to a simple, quiet, e-reading device.  A commenter on a BoingBoing article on the new device said:

I’m glad to see that Amazon’s not trying to bloat the device with silly features like touch screen and color in a misguided attempt to compete with the iPad–instead, they’re improving its base functions, and lowering the price. They know their product and their market.

The Kindle is a specialized device for comfortably reading [digital] books without eyestrain brought on by backlighting and glare. In that limited scope, it excels, and far surpasses the iPad and other devices that use non-eInk screens.

The biggest (dare I say, only) problem I have with the new Kindle is that is still only accepts Amazon’s DRM. Adding the ability to buy from other e-book sellers (which would simply mean accepting the e-Pub standard) would be a huge step towards eliminating DRM altogether. Amazon has fallen far from the days when we applauded them for championing the DRM free music transition. I still hope they’ll be the ones to bring us DRM-free e-books, but this proprietary “nobody else plays on our device” garbage isn’t any less repulsive then when Apple does it.

So yeah, e-books are still heading somewhere and the value of e-ink hasn’t been swallowed up by flashy LCD tablets like the iPad and Archos. Hooray! But DRM (and even limited e-book availability from some backwards publishers and authors) is still forcing me to stick with buying and borrowing paper books for now.