Joe Wikert's Publishing 2020 Blog

B&N's Nook with GlowLight: Why I Still Use an eInk eReader

My new eInk reader, B&N's Nook with GlowLight, arrived last Thursday. I'm winding down my use of a Kindle Touch and wanted to move to another ebook retailer's platform going forward. This, of course, is a major headache since I've already bought dozens of DRM-protected ebooks from Amazon. I figure I'll read the last couple I bought on my Kindle and all future purchases will be from B&N...until some other device catches my eye. :-)

So what do I think of the Nook with GlowLight? It's just like my Kindle Touch, but with a built-in light. That pretty much sums it up. eInk eReaders have quickly become a commodity. Sure, B&N was the first to build a light source into their device but I'm sure Amazon and others will be close behind. When you're buying one of these devices it's less about the device and more about which retailer you want to commit to. That's an unfortunate byproduct of DRM.

I'm happy with the Nook so far but it's not wowing me. Then again, I didn't really expect it to. The benefit I see for the GlowLight isn't for reading in bed but for reading on a plane. About half the time I press that overhead light button on a plane nothing happens. The bulb is either burned out or the fixture is broken. I guess that's another sign of the times as airlines continue cutting back on their services. Let's just hope they spend more time making sure the engines are in better working order than the overhead lights.

Two years ago I didn't think I'd be using an eInk reader at all. I had just bought a first-gen iPad and was putting my Kindle in storage. That worked for about a year. I then saw a third-gen Kindle and decided it was thin and lightweight enough to carry with my iPad. In fact, the iPad case I was using had a handy pocket that the Kindle fit perfectly into.

I ditched my iPad a few months ago for an Android tablet and now I'll be taking that plus my Nook with me on the road. Even though I could easily read all my books on that Android tablet I still prefer to do all my long-form reading on an eInk device. Why?

It's not really about the display and how great it is in the sun as I rarely find myself reading outdoors. My eyes never had any problem reading for an hour or two at a time on the iPad display either. For some reason I never ran into the eye fatigue I get with my laptop's display. The reason I'm hooked on eInk displays has to do with battery life and device weight. If I'm reading for more than 20 minutes or so I'd much rather hold a feather-light eInk reader than any tablet out there. I also love it that I can go weeks without recharing an eInk device. It seems like my iPad and now my Android tablet's battery rapidly loses juice when using a reader app on it...much more so than when I'm just watching a video on the device. I end up having to recharge that Android tablet at least every couple of days. That doesn't sound like a big deal but it makes me much more miserly when I'm on a plane for several hours with no power source available.

There's talk of hybrid display devices coming out soon. Think of a tablet with the ability to switch to an eInk-like display that's (supposedly) easier on the eyes and offers a much longer window between charges. It sounds like it will still need a pretty large battery so it lasts long enought between charges in tablet mode. Unless battery technology changes radically between now and then I doubt I'd buy one since it will still probably be a fairly heavy device.

Thankfully these eInk readers are pretty inexpensive and incredibly lightweight. I might be in the minority but I see myself carrying both an eInk reader and a tablet for the forseeable future. And for now, at least, that eInk reader is B&N's Nook.

What if DRM Goes Away?

TOC Latin America was held last Friday in the beautiful city of Buenos Aires. Kat Meyer, my O'Reilly colleague, and Holger Volland did a terrific job producing the event. As is so often the case with great conferences, part of the value is spending time with speakers and other attendees in between sessions and at dinner gatherings

Last Thursday night I was fortunate enough to have dinner with Kat, Holger and a number of other TOC Latin America speakers. We discussed a number of interesting topics but my favorite one was asking each person this question: What happens if DRM goes away tomorrow?

The DoJ suit against Apple and five of the big six has led to a lot of speculation. One of the most interesting scenarios raised is that if the government is intent on limiting the capabilities of the agency model, publishers need to figure out what other tools they can use to combat the growing dominance of Amazon.

Charlie Stross is right. DRM is a club publishers gave to Amazon and then insisted that Amazon beat them over their heads with it. So what if we woke up tomorrow and DRM for books disappeared, just like it has (for the most part) with music?

I was unable to reach a consensus at that dinner, but here's what I think would happen: Initially, not much. After all, Amazon has a lot of momentum. If current U.S. estimates are accurate, Amazon controls about 60-65% of the ebook market and B&N is second with about 25-28%. That only leaves 7-13% for everyone else. And if you've been buying ebooks from Amazon up to now, you're not likely to immediately switch to buying from B&N just because they both offer books without DRM. On the surface Amazon's and B&N's ebooks use incompatible formats, mobi for the former and EPUB for the latter. But that's where it gets interesting.

Converting from mobi to EPUB (or vice versa) is pretty simple with a free tool like Calibre. I've played around with it a bit, converting some of the DRM-free ebooks we sell on oreilly.com. I didn't do those conversions to get our books in other formats. After all, when you buy a book from oreilly.com you're buying access to all the popular formats (mobi, EPUB and PDF, as well as others), not just the one format a device-maker wants to lock you into. I did the conversions because I wanted to see what's involved in the process.

If you've ever used Microsoft Word to save or convert a .doc file to PDF you'd find it's just as easy to go from mobi to EPUB in Calibre, for example. But just because the tool is available does that mean if DRM goes away we'd suddenly see a lot of Kindle owners buying EPUBs from B&N and converting them to mobi with Calibre? I doubt it. Those Kindle owners are used to a seamless buying experience from Amazon, so unless there's a compelling reason to do so, they're not likely to switch ebook retailers. And that leads me to the most important point...

Creating the best buying and reading experience is one way any ebook retailer can steal market share from the competition. Amazon has a pretty darned good one, that's for sure, but there's plenty of room for improvement, IMHO. I'm not convinced any ebook retailer has pushed the envelope on innovation and exciting new features in their devices or reader apps. In fact, these enhancements seem to move at a glacial pace. So what if B&N (or anyone else, for that matter) suddenly invested heavily in reader app functionality that puts them well ahead of the competition? And what if some of those features were so unique and innovative that they couldn't be copied by others? I'd much rather see a competitive marketplace based on this approach than the one we currently have where the retailer with the deepest pockets wins.

Innovation is better than predatory pricing. What a concept. The iPod revolutionized music, an industry that was highly fragmented and looking for a way forward in the pre-iPod days. The iPhone turned the cellular market on its head. Think about how significantly different the original iPod and iPhone were when compared to the clumsy MP3 players and flip phones that preceded them. I believe today's crop of ebook readers and apps are, in many ways, as clumsy and simplistic as those MP3 players and flip phones. IOW, we haven't experienced a radical tranformative moment in the ebook devices and app world yet.

Of course all of this innovation I'm dreaming of could happen today. We don't need to wait for a DRM-free world. Or do we? Amazon has no incentive to innovate like this. They already have a majority market share and it's only going to get larger when the DoJ dust settles.

This is more of a rallying cry for B&N, Kobo and every other device and ebook retailer. If DRM goes away tomorrow nothing much changes unless these other players force it to. But why wait till DRM disappears? It might not happen for a long time. Meanwhile, the opportunity to innovate and create a path to market share gain exists today. I hope one or more of the minority market share players wakes up and takes action.

Disappointed by Google

Last week Google announced plans to wind down the reseller component of their eBook service. As Google put it, the program "has not gained the traction that we hoped it would", so they're pulling the plug next January. Like any well-focused company, Google is smart to reinvest in successful products and kill ones that aren't working. I don't question Google's decision to end the reseller program but I do question whether they invested enough to give it a chance.

Google seems to have a corporate philosphy of planting a product seed and assuming others will embrace it and help it bloom. That might have worked with a superior search engine but it's not always the best approach in other sectors. Android is a great example.

Carriers and smartphone manufacturers embraced Android as a free alternative to the iPhone. Those carriers and manufacturers have sold a lot of phones but the customer experience isn't always that great. Some of the common frustrations are that Android OS updates are unevenly distributed (if at all) and some apps only run on certain devices. I often complain about Apple's walled garden approach but at least if you have an iPhone you know you'll get the new iOS version on day one and every app in iTunes will run just fine. Tablets have only exacerbated this problem. For example, I recently discovered Next Issue, a new all-you-can-eat e-magazine subscription app, but it's incompatible with both my Android phone and tablet. Very irritating.

I realize the decision to push out a new Android OS is in the hands of the carriers and device manufacturers but I think Google should exert more pressure on them to distribute those updates when they're available. Of course, if you're AT&T or Samsung you'd rather force someone to sign up for a new 2-year contract or buy a new device than just give them the latest OS. Notice how Apple doesn't let that happen in the iPhone world though?

I also think Google should have used some of that mountain of cash they're sitting on to build a better Android app ecosystem. Unlike iOS, Android doesn't have any unique killer apps. All the decent Android apps are simply copies of the iOS ones and most of the better iOS apps aren't even available on Android (e.g., Flipboard, The Elements, etc.) Google may have renamed their Android Market to Google Play but there's still no compelling app to lure customers away from iOS. Most developers will tell you there's no money to be made from selling Android apps; if that trend doesn't change it will definitely affect the long term viability of the Android platform.

Getting back to the Google eBooks reseller program... How much did Google invest in it to ensure success? They basically opened the service to booksellers and assumed it could be a hit. I would argue that the only way the reseller piece could succeed is if the larger Google eBook platform succeeds.

Let me ask you a question: Have you ever bought an ebook from Google? I haven't and I don't know anyone who has. You'd think Google would have become a major ebook player by now since they offer all formats. Well, actually...they offer all formats except for the most popular one. As you can see at the bottom of Google's supported reading devices page, they still don't support the Kindle. Doh!

In Google's defense, the only way they could support the Kindle is by offering DRM-free mobi files. Impossible, right? Even though all of our ebooks at O'Reilly are distributed DRM-free there's no way Google could have gotten other publishers to agree to doing so.

Or could they? Remember that mountain of cash I mentioned before? Wouldn't it have been cool for Google to have approached just one of the big six publishers and said, "Hey, we want to level the playing field so that DRM is no longer a weapon used against you to build an ebook distribution monopoly. Let us distribute your ebooks without DRM for 6 months. We'll use our amazing computing power to measure how much piracy there is of your content before, during, and after the test. If we determine a significant piracy increase on the torrent sites, etc., we'll pay you 10 times what you've earned through our service for that period and we'll immediately shut down the DRM-free distribution." Let's say a 10x payment isn't enough to make the publisher's concerns go away. OK, make it 20x. Or 50x. Google's got the money and could have really proven a point that DRM provides nothing more than a false sense of security.

In reality, I'm not convinced Google even cares about the ebook market. Ebooks were just another item on a product checklist they felt compelled to include so they could compete with Apple. Google eBooks doesn't appear to have any momentum so the reseller program could just be the first sign of a more significant retreat from Google. That's too bad. Google had a chance to do something special with this but, like the Android platform, they've relied too much on others and haven't invested enough of their own resources to make it as successful as it could have been.

B&N's Nook Platform is Rough Around the Edges

Now that I've abandoned Amazon I need to find an alternate ebook retailer. Even though I'm switching platforms I have no desire to buy someone else's dedicated e-reader. My plan is to do more reading on my new Asus Android tablet. B&N was my first choice but my initial results have been very disappointing.

The Nook ebook buying experience is similar to Amazon with two exceptions: the number of customer reviews and topic subcategories. Most reports indicate B&N has no more than half the ebook market share that Amazon does. That translates into considerably fewer customer reviews for most titles on bn.com. I don't base all of my purchase decisions on customer reviews but I always feel more confident when I see a larger sampling.

It's more the awkward navigation and lack of subcategory depth in the Nook app that really disappoints me though. I enjoy reading about WWII and the Kindle app lets me drill down with the following menu structure: History->Military->WWII. The nook app, on the other hand, only offers this sequence: History->Military History. That's it. There's no WWII option, so the resulting page shows all wars lumped together. And there's no going back one level with the Nook app. If you accidentally selected Military History when you really wanted another option on the History list you're out of luck and you have to start over.

Also like Amazon, B&N has created a series of reader apps you can use on other platforms. I use a Mac every day, so I try Nook for Mac. No dice. It downloads and installs but won't run on my Mac (running Snow Leopard). It turns out I'm not the only one with this problem. This thread on B&N's own forum features posts from other frustrated users who can't find a solution. The last entry on that thread was from a couple of months ago and was a desperate plea from someone else who's been waiting weeks for a solution. Btw, if you run into this problem you might want to follow that thread's advice about using Nook Study instead. It's apparently intended for students but it looks like anyone can use it. Why don't they just fix the Nook for Mac bug though?

After all that the Nook app on my tablet partially forgot who I am. Despite having bought a couple of books and downloaded a number of samples the app suddenly showed absolutely nothing in my library. This, despite the fact that when I went into the settings it still showed me logged in as well as my AMEX card info. I had to play around a bit with the app and finally got it to recognize my content again after a few screen refreshes.

The reading experience in the Android app is very similar to what you find with Amazon's Kindle app for Android. At least that part of the Nook experience was free of any annoying problems. But, if B&N is really trying to compete with Amazon for a leadership role in the ebook space it's clear they've got a lot of work to do with their Android and Mac apps.

My iPad Replacement

The name is a mouthful: Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime. Don't confuse that with the Asus Eee Pad Transformer. Yes, the Prime is the newer generation device. Maybe they should have just called it "Prime." Either way, it's the new tablet in my life and, for the most part, I love it. If you're interested in buying one all I can say is "good luck." They're extremely hard to find. I got mine at my local Fry's. It was the last one in stock and it had already been opened. They gave me the same warranty as an unopened one though, so I was delighted to get it there.

After a few weeks of use here are the pros and cons I've found to owning an Asus Transformer Prime:

Pros

Android -- Jumping from iOS to Android is a liberating experience. You definitely have the sense that you're getting more access to the device's capabilities and that you're more in control. Also, I've downloaded and installed a few dozen apps on the Prime and my Android phone (Samsung Galaxy S II) and I've never spent a penny on a single one. There's a downside to that too, of course (see below).

Unique device combo -- The Prime comes as a tablet in a box, just like the iPad. But Asus takes you a step further by offering a keyboard accessory that fits the Prime like a glove. It's a $150 option, which means that buying it makes the Prime a higher-priced option than an iPad, but it's worth it. Those who say a tablet should exist without a keyboard are wrong. I find the combination of keyboard and touch screen outstanding and, of course, you can always disconnect the keyboard if you want a standalone tablet.

Battery life -- The battery in the Prime lasts longer than the one in my first-gen iPad. But if you get the keyboard accessory you suddenly have access to much more power. That's right. The keyboard has a battery inside as well. Asus claims the two together will give you 18 hours of power but I'm finding it to be more like 12-14 hours, max; and that's while using wifi and actively using the device, not letting it drop into sleep mode. So if you're looking for a powerful tablet that won't run out of juice on a long overseas flight it's hard to find anything better than this one. (Bonus: I can recharge my Android phone from the keyboard battery, so it's like having my own tiny power plant on a plane. I wonder if I could start selling charges to other desperate passengers...)

Expandability -- Where's the SD slot on the iPad? That's a trick question, of course, as Apple doesn't want you to add memory to it. I had to make plenty of compromises on my iPad because of this limitation. The amount of video I could keep on it was limited and I never bothered putting my music on because it would have taken up more than half the iPad's memory. That's no problem with the Prime. In fact, Asus goes a bit overboard here. You'll find a microSD slot on the tablet and a full SD slot on the keyboard. The memory upgrade options on the Prime are endless.

Speed -- Can you say "quad core processor"? That's what you get with the Prime and that means it's a screamer. You'll notice the impressive speed while you're downloading apps or running a whole bunch of them at the same time. 

Cons

Android -- OK, Android has it's plusses and minues. As I mentioned above, I haven't paid for a single app. There are plenty of paid ones out there but none that I need. And even some of the paid apps in the iOS ecosystem are free (or have free equivalents) in Android. So if developers aren't making much money on Android what's the incentive for them to continue building on that platform? That's an important problem that needs to be fixed. At this point though, I'm starting to feel like I should never have to pay for an app; that's not a good model for Android's long-term viability, at least if the goal is to have a rich app ecosystem.

Missing key apps -- Speaking of apps, I really miss both Zite and Flipboard. Zite is definitely an app I'd gladly pay for on Android. I feel like Google is asleep at the wheel on this aspect of the platform. They seem to want to let the app world develop on its own but I think it desperately needs an injection from that mountain of cash Google is sitting on to push it over the top. Would it really cost Google that much to pay developers to port some of the key apps from iOS to Android? No, but it would make a world of difference in the platform's app experience. And while they're at it, why not invest in a couple of totally new apps that don't exist on iOS. Isn't it worth Google's time/money to create a killer Android app or two? I think so.

App glitches -- This is probably where Apple shines the brightest. Every so often I'll open an app that thinks I'm in portrait mode when I'm really holding the tablet in landscape mode. Sure, some apps require one mode or the other and that's fine. What I'm talking about is a situation where certain app operations flip the orientation for no good reason. It might be when I'm tweaking the settings or doing something else and I have to awkwardly hold the Prime (with keyboard attached) at a 90 degree angle to read it. Silly. I guess there's a good reason why Apple has a review process for their apps while pretty much anything can get into the Android app Market.

Do I miss my iPad? A bit. But I still have visitation privileges on evenings and weekend when I'm home so I still get my Zite fix from time to time. Do I regret spending more for this Prime+keyboard than a comparable iPad? No way. I'm thoroughly enjoying the experience and trying to figure out how I can move all my docs to the cloud and start leaving my MacBook Pro at home.

 

Why I'm Breaking the Amazon Habit...And Why You Should Too

Kudos to Mark Suchomel and the stance he's taking with Amazon at IPG. As Don Linn mentions here, this is indeed a gutsy move but I hope Suchomel holds firm. I've written before about Amazon's formula and how it's slowly locking me into their platform. Interestingly enough, if you take a closer look at that formula post you'll see I was Mr. Amazon Advocate in a fun Apple vs. Amazon debate I had with Kassia Krozser.

A lot has changed since that friendly debate last fall. In a few short months I've gone from Amazon fan to Amazon critic. One reason I've become disenchanted has to do with Amazon's Kindle Owners' Lending Library. As Amazon stated in the Lending Library press release, compensation to publishers for "the vast majority of titles" is on a "fixed fee" basis. I strongly feel this should be an uncapped, pay-for-performance model similar to what Safari Books Online and Books24x7 offer. Unless you have a perfect crystal ball anything less than a pay-for-performance model risks underpaying publishers and authors. And yes, it also risks overpaying but I seriously doubt that's happened up to now.

Then there was last December's showrooming debacle. Even though bookstores were excluded, did Amazon really need to take such an over-the-top approach and poke brick-and-mortars in the eye with the price check incentives on December 9th? This, after all the years of having a built-in price advantage over many of those brick-and-mortar stores because of state tax deals and loopholes. I'm glad my home state of Indiana is addressing this issue but I think it's ridiculous it won't take effect till 2014.

And now Amazon is reportedly leaning on IPG for even more favorable terms than they've agreed to in the past. Good for you, Mark Suchomel, I just became a big fan of yours.

Many of you are probably shrugging your shoulders and saying this is all about choice. Publishers can remain out of the Kindle Owners' Lending Library program if they don't like the terms. And customers were showrooming long before Amazon released their app; if I don't like it, I shouldn't do it myself and/or I should buy from other vendors. IPG's choice was to take a stand and now their Kindle editions aren't available on Amazon.

You're right. This is about choice. I've been choosing Amazon for all my ebooks up to now and it's time to put my money where my mouth is.

It's unfortunate that when you buy an eInk reader you're pretty much locked in with that vendor's content library. But that's not the case with a tablet, at least the ones that aren't tied to a single e-bookstore. Now that I have this terrific new Asus Transformer Prime Android tablet I'm beholden to no single ebook retailer. It's time to start buying ebooks from bn.com, Kobo, or anyone else with an Android reader app. It's less than optimal to manage an ebook library across retailers but it's also very liberating.

So as of today, Monday, February 27, 2012, I'm officially breaking my Amazon habit. How about you?

Why TOC NY 2012 Will Be Our Best TOC Ever

I've been to several of O'Reilly's Tools of Change (TOC) conferences before but this is my first experience as one of the conference chairs. Now that I've had a first-hand view in preparing for next week's TOC NY 2012 I can tell you that Kat Meyer and the rest of this team are nothing short of amazing. As we put the final touches on pre-conference prep I wanted to point out a few of the reasons why I believe next week's event will be the most inspiring, unique and memorable TOC ever:

Executive Roundtable -- We've partnered with Publishers Weekly to host an executive roundtable on Monday, 2/13. It's separate from TOC itself and is a by-invitation-only gathering of approximately 100 industry CxO's and other influential leaders. We've received more requests than we can accomodate for this initial roundtable but we're planning for this to become a quarterly event. If you're interested in receiving an invitation to future executive roundtables email me with your name, title and company so I can add you to our list.

Top Secret Announcements -- One of the perks of being a conference chair is that you get the inside scoop on announcements some of the speakers are planning to make at TOC. I'd like to share each of them with you now but I'm sure Kat would ban me from the conference. You'll just have to wait till next week to learn the details. If you won't be there, be sure to tune into our Twitter hastag (#toccon) to keep up with all the news.

Digital Petting Zoo -- Don't you love that name?! Kudos to Kat for coming up with the idea and the name, btw. Where else can you go to test drive almost 40 tablets and dedicated ereaders? Nowhere. We've spent a great deal of time and effort gathering a wonderful assortment of devices for all attendees to tinker with, so if you've wanted to take a closer look at the ereading hardware landscape be sure to swing by the petting zoo on Wednesday. It's not just hardware on display either, btw. We've got a few content providers spending the day there to showcase the latest in content development and presentation.

Attendee Diversity --  We always encourage attendees to connect with one another and that's one of the key reasons for the Attendee Directory. If you're registered for the show be sure to get the most out of that directory. And as you look through it, I'll bet you'll discover the same thing I did: We have an incredible array of players from all areas of the content industry. Attending TOC means you have the opportunity to meet and mix with folks from every sector of publishing as well as other media industries. It's sort of like Woodstock's "three days of fun in the mud", but without all the mud.

Startup Showcase -- Back by popular demand, this was one of the most popular aspects of TOC 2011. This year we once again received way too many outstanding startup submissions. It was extremely difficult narrowing down the field but we came up with a list of 11 finalists that I think you'll be impressed with.

Change/Forward/Fast -- In case you missed it, "change/forward/fast" is the theme of TOC 2012. The message it conveys is that our industry is moving forward at an incredible pace and, in order to keep up, you better be experimenting with new forms of content development, delivery and pricing. That's the heart of TOC 2012 and our goal is to provide a platform for those who are leading change and provide an opportunity for the entire community to learn more about what's working and what's not.

Have you signed up to attend TOC NY next week? We're running ahead of last year's attendance levels but we've still got a few slots left. Don't wait till the last minute though. Sign up now and reserve your spot at what undoubtedly will be an outstanding experience!

Barnes & Noble: It's Time to Disrupt the Industry!

Three articles have sparked my thinking on this post. The are:

• The Charlie Stross piece entitled Cutting their own throats,
• Joseph Esposito's insightful post on How B&N Can Take a Bite Out of Amazon, and
• The New York Times article, The Bookstore's Last Stand

Stross talks about how the publishing industry has allowed Amazon to use DRM as a tool against itself. Esposito suggests "B&N needs an MCI solution" while the Times piece encourages B&N to have a sense of urgency in avoiding the same fate as Borders.

Rolling all of these together I have a radical, three-step suggestion for William Lynch, CEO of B&N:

1. Get publishers to understand they need to get out of their comfort zones before one player in the publishing ecosystem establishes what could become an irreversibly dominant position.
2. Start distributing ebooks not only in EPUB format, but also in mobi format.
3. Do it all DRM-free.

Yes, I realize I'm asking for a lot here, but I think it's time for bold moves from the brick-and-mortar leader. If Lynch implements what I've described above then suddenly bn.com is able to sell content to those millions of Kindle owners (not to mention owners of pretty much every other ereading device). More importantly, bn.com becomes the content destination for every smart consumer who doesn't want to get locked in to any particular hardware device or content vendor.

The risk to B&N? They lose some nook sales along the way...maybe. I'm not convinced that would happen though. What B&N would really do is radically expand their base of potential ebook customers and earn some serious goodwill as they break down the walls of DRM and platform lock-in. And so what if they were to lose some nook sales? All reports indicate B&N represents less than half Amazon's ebook device market share. Whatever they stand to lose in hardware sales could easily be made up in ebook sales to all those Kindle owners who want the peace of mind that they'll be able to read their library on any device in the future.

In today's world the winner is the company with the deepest pockets who can afford to sell devices and content at a loss longer than the competition can. In the world I'm describing the best device and content provider wins. I like the world I'm describing much better than the one we live in today. How about you?

Kindle Fire Lessons Learned

I don't regret spending the $200 I paid Amazon for my Kindle Fire. I tried it out and decided it wasn't for me, so I gave it to my daughter instead. Even though I no longer use the Fire I wanted to share the things I learned about the device and myself over the past several weeks. Let's start off with the good side of things.

Kindle Fire Pros

• Form factor -- I prefer the Fire's size to the iPad's. It's nice being able to wrap your hand around the entire device and the lighter weight is a big plus for the Fire. Of course, it's the same form factor as RIM's Playbook, and given how poorly that device has performed it's clear you need more than just a great form factor.
• Meets the needs of typical consumer -- The Fire wasn't for me but my daughter really likes it. That's why you see so many good and bad reviews of it. Consumers who want a cheap tablet are OK without all the bells and whistles of the iPad, for example. Early adopters, or those who want to push the technology to the limit, are disappointed though. More on the early adopter in a moment...
• Connection to Amazon content -- There's no question Amazon is using the razors and blades economic model here and the Fire is clearly the razor they're willing to sell at little to no profit. Connectivity to Amazon's ebooks, video and audio content is second to none with the Fire. And tying in the Prime membership program will only lead to more Amazon products being sold.

That's it as far as pluses go. Now let's talk about the minuses.

Kindle Fire Cons

• Connection to Amazon content -- As easy as it is for Fire users to access Amazon content it's just that difficult to access anyone else's. If there's one thing I've learned from the Fire it's that my next tablet will not be locked in to one provider's content. That probably means I won't be buying from the typical content providers, of course. I don't mind paying more for that capability, btw. So if Samsung comes up with a terrific tablet that meets all my needs, and it's $100 or so more than the Fire, I'm in.
• Awful for the early adopter/tinkerer -- As noted above, the Fire is pretty good for the typical consumer. But if you're buying it to root and open it up you'll be disappointed. Even if you go through the rooting process you'll quickly find some of the apps in the Android Market simply won't run on it (e.g., NHL Gamecenter App, the swipe keyboard, etc.) And if you do root it, watch out for those unsolicited auto-updates...
• Auto-updates -- This one's ridiculous. How in the world can Amazon think that forcing OS updates on every Fire owner is the right thing to do? Amazon, take a page out of the Apple book and let your customers decide when and if they want the update. I couldn't help but feel the auto-update was intended more to penalize rooters than to fix problems and offer more functionality. It also reminded me of the unfortunate "1984" debacle Amazon brought upon themselves a few years ago. Really stupid.
• "Silk" browser -- This has to be the biggest embarassment of all for Amazon. Remember how excited Bezos was when he demo'd the Fire's lightning-fast browser at the press event last year? It turns out the browser isn't that fast after all. In fact, in my totally unscientific side-by-side testing, the Fire almost always loaded pages slower than both my iPad and my RIM Playbook. Even with all these other issues I figured the Fire would offer a browsing experience that's second to none. The results were considerably weaker than promised. I'm disappointed that Amazon hasn't come out and admitted their failure here. It's remarkable that they still prominently feature the Silk browser on the Fire's product page. They seem to be in denial about it as they haven't even hinted it will be fixed in a future software update. As much as I criticize Apple, this is something Steve Jobs never would have let happen.
• Missing a "killer" app -- This is the reason why I had to keep my iPad handy throughout my Fire use and am stuck (for the time being) on iOS. Zite is my go-to app. I use it every single day. It's outstanding. It's a free app but I'd gladly pay as much as $10 or $15 for it, especially now that I'm totally addicted to it. There's no Android version of Zite...yet. I can't even consider another Android tablet till Zite is available. Flipboard is a close second and it too doesn't exist in the Android world. Amazon should have invested some money with the developers of apps like Zite and Flipboard to make sure they were available when the Fire launched. Better yet, wouldn't it be nice if a Fire-specific app or two came out that made the device irresistable? I'd love to be talking about a Fire or Android app that's unbeatable but not available on iOS. I can't think of a single one.

I realize I'm a fairly unique user and that plenty of Fire owners are perfectly happy with their purchase. That's great, but I'd also love to see Amazon step up, act like the market leader they're trying to be and address these shortcomings.

I'm convinced that my next tablet will be an Android-based one. The only Android tablet I'll consider though is one that gives me access to all types of content, not just content from the company who sells the hardware. Heck, as closed as they are, even Apple lets you install e-reader apps from Amazon, B&N, etc. One of the reasons they can do that is they're confident they've got a terrific piece of hardware and you'll want to buy it over the competition. They also charge a premium for it. I've learned it's worth paying a premium, as long as it's not ridiculously high, for the ability to choose from multiple content providers.

So while my next tablet won't be the cheapest on the market, I won't make the same mistake twice and limit myself to one source of content for it.

Content Lessons Learned from NHL GameCenter LIVE

I'm a huge hockey fan and even though I pay Comcast extra for the NHL Network I only get to see a few games a week, most of which don't interest me. I want to see my favorite team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, but they're not on the cable channels frequently enough. I'd like to have access to every Penguins game and the only option for that is NHL's GameCenter LIVE subscription. It costs $169 though and, being a cheapskate, I resisted signing up...till now.

I coughed up $169 over the weekend and I'm glad I did. Now that I've used the service for a few days I've discovered there are a number of lessons GameCenter can teach those of us who manage other types of content:

The ongoing value of the direct sale -- When you sell direct you capture 100% of the transaction. There's no middleman. So now the NHL has a direct relationship with me and I'm no longer some unknown customer with Comcast in the middle. The NHL now has an excellent opportunity to upsell to me, especially since they'll quickly discover my preferences.

Trust your customers -- I was amazed to discover that I could use my GameCenter account on more than one device at the same time. That means I can watch one game on my iPad while another is playing on my computer. I'm assuming this means I'll be able to share my account with my son (who's also a big NHL fan). If so, we could both watch the same or different games simultaneously. That was a very pleasant surprise, btw, as I expected them to lock the second device out. Think of this as the equivalent to a DRM-free ebook. I'm sure the NHL doesn't want me posting my account credentials for anyone to use but their system is loose enough to surprise and delight. I can't wait to watch two games simultaneously (on different devices) when a couple of good ones are on at the same time! Btw, this is how all types of content access should work. But with all the restrictions and limitations we encounter every day in the digital world I was blown away to see how liberal GameCenter's access policies are. This makes me like them and their product even more. Trust is an amazing thing, isn't it? :-)

Make sure your content is available everywhere (including direct!) -- This sounds so obvious but it's so frequently overlooked. Sure, some of the NHL content was available to me via cable but I wanted more. Are you only making your e-content available on the "big" sites? Are those sites reaching all your potential global customers? Probably not. Once again, that's why you need a strong direct sales presence and the ability to serve that content globally.

Make sure it's on every platform -- I can watch games on any of my devices. That includes Mac, Windows, iPad, Android phone, and yes, even my Blackberry Playbook. Are all of your ebooks available in EPUB, mobi and PDF? Those are the key three today and if your content isn't available in all of those formats you're definitely missing some platform opportunities. More importantly, when a customer buys your product do they receive it in all those formats? Unless you're selling it directly as a multi-format product (like we do on oreilly.com) I'll bet the answer to that is no. Don't force your customers to buy mobi today and epub separately tomorrow, for example. That's irritating. Give them all formats in one transaction. This once again underscores the importance of having a strong direct channel. After all, you're probably safe assuming the big e-tailers are only going to offer the format that best suits their needs, not the customer's.

Pricing shouldn't be a race to the bottom -- At first that $169 price tag sounded awfully rich to me. But the more I looked into the service the more I realized it's actually quite reasonable. That's mostly because the NHL is delivering a very high quality product without the limitations found in other services (e.g., MLB's AtBat). All the games I care about are featured and the video is somewhere between standard and high def; pretty remarkable considering it's coming in via wifi. Every ebook doesn't have to be $9.99 or less. Consider your product's overall value proposition before you give in to the pressures of a low-priced solution.