What Amazon Can Learn from Apple
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A few months ago, I started thinking about what features would be offered on Kindle 2.0 & 3.0. At the time, I was hoping for a lot of new features (true web, Kindle 2 Kindle sharing, and ..). But one of the features that I did want to see on Kindle 3.0 was the ability to share the books you own with your friends (with restrictions) and get a commission check from Amazon once the other side has purchased the content you had recommended. That would not only make it easier for Kindle owners to find better books, but it allows Amazon to sell more books in the process through the word of mouth. Amazon has yet to offer this feature but it seems Apple will be! Here is what’s been reported on BusinessWeek:
iPhone 3.0 software includes features that, if activated by Apple, may let users share software with one another, according to a person familiar with the technology. Eventually, iPhone users may even get a commission when they’ve induced someone else to make a purchase…
Talk about a stunning, but expected, development. Apple and Amazon both have a large following, and it’d be bad business if these companies didn’t use their communities to their advantage. Allowing Kindle owners to share books with others is a wonderful way to get the word around and sell more ebooks. Sure you can always get the sample content from the Kindle store, but I have yet to read a sample copy and get enough information about a book to pull the trigger on the whole thing. Amazon could easily allow people to share full copies with each other and put a limit on the number of hours that they will work. That way you can go through the book, see what it has to offer, and decide whether it’s worth buying.
Amazon may have missed the opportunity to harness its community to push its best products, but it’s not too late. Amazon is planning to release Kindle 4.0 early next year and but that time we may even see more of these features.
Your take: should Amazon allow Kindle owners to share their content among each other (with limitations on use) and maybe even get paid for their recommendations? Would that be opening the Pandora’s Box?
