After liveblogging Amazon’s Kindle announcement earliertoday, I was able to sit down with Jeff Bezos for a quick one-on-one. Here is the Q&A:
Q: Who do you see buying this device?
Bezos: Heavy readers. Anyone who keeps three or four books open at the same time. It is heavy to carry all of those books around. People who are really busy. The traveler is another constituency. it id designed to be usable by someone who does not even want the complexity of using a computer. It is closer to being an appliance.
Q: Would you take this to the beach?
Bezos: Yes. I would treat it like Blackberry. I wouldn’t bury it in the sand. But it is much better than trying to read a newspaper on the beach with the pages blowing everywhere.
Q: Do you really think anyone is going to pay to get newspapers or blogs on this device when they can get the same thing for free on the Web?
Bezos: The convenience of having your newspapers pushed to you full text—newspapers and blogs—is fantastic. People will understand the subscription charge is essential to cover the wireless delivery. 99 cents a month for a blog, a third of the cost of a latte? To get the wireless convenience of having that blog resident on your device and updated at all times? [Ed.’s note: Some blogs, like TechCrunch, are $1.99 a month. We remain skeptical that anyone will pay for these, but hope to be surprised].
Q: Would you consider opening up this service to other devices so that I can get my Amazon e-books on my Tablet PC or my iPhone?
Bezos: In principle, I think that is a very good idea. [Ed.’s note: Nothing to announce at this time].
Q: What about getting rid of the DRM [digital rights management]? You came out with a DRM-free music download service. If that is the right thing to do for digital music, why not do it for digital books as well?
Bezos: We’ve made it so the publishers can choose. Publishers are not ready to do DRM-free books. We worked with the music labels for years to get them to the point where they would be able to do DRM-free music. It is up to the publisher. [Ed.’s note to publishers: Don’t make the same mistake the music companies made by limiting how people can consume your books].
Q: How important is this for Amazon, and what is your time horizon for measuring its success?
Bezos: We have invested significantly. In terms of meaningfulness, this could be one of the most meaningful things we have ever done. . Things we have done on the past have taken years to come to fruition, but we are very patient.
To date we’ve had the opportunity to talk with 2008 presidential candidates Governor Mitt Romney and Senator John McCain about their positions on various technology related issues. As promised, Senator John Edwards, our first Democrat, is next up. See his PoliticalBase page here.
Last week we asked for your questions and received a great response. Senator Edwards has now answered many of those questions.
He is planning bold initiatives in a number of areas. He’s promising to support Net Neutrality (this issue is now falling firmly along party lines - Republicans either won’t address it or favor a free market approach; Democrats are behind it):
I believe that if we do not guarantee net neutrality, the Internet could go the way of network television and commercial radio - with just a few loud corporate voices and no room for the grassroots and small entrepreneurs.
He wants to see universal broadband available to all U.S. households by 2010, half way through his first term (and voters can therefore hold him accountable). And he’s firmly behind Google in the new mobile spectrum allocations (good update on Google’s plans is here).
When it comes to clean energy, he wants to find ways to freeze demand for electricity and reduce our carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. His plan includes a $13 billion a year New Energy Economy Fund to invest in alternative energy sources, and tax credits/guaranteed loans for renewable biorefineries.
Regarding China, Edwards says he’s pro market and wants to encourage trade and cooperation. He does not address the current issues, such as the Yahoo/China debacle, head on.
One of the best reader submitted questions asked Senator Edwards to explain the differences between his tech policies from those of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. His answer, along with the rest of the discussion, is below.
Q&A With Senator John Edwards
Michael Arrington: Let’s start with a broad question. The U.S. technology industry has been a world leader and has grown substantially through international markets, what would you do to advance these efforts?
Senator John Edwards: I believe that the single most important factor for America’s future prosperity is investment in education, science, technology and innovation. But today we are challenged by other countries which have invested aggressively in education, engineering and infrastructure, giving them an edge in the global economy. The country that developed the Internet is now 16th in broadband deployment, and America’s competitiveness has suffered. In 2002, for the first time ever the US imported more advanced technology products than it exported—the deficit is now $40 billion. The spread of broadband has been uneven and costly, too driven by the profits of a few entrenched companies and technologies to allow the nation as a whole to realize the billions in economic benefits promised by truly universal Internet access.
I will set a goal of universal broadband by 2010, make the Research and Experimentation tax credit permanent, make higher education affordable with College for Everyone and improve patent quality by reforming our patent laws and devoting more resources to the patent office. I will also enact smart trade policies that provide a level playing field for American business and workers and fight currency manipulation and illegal subsidies.
Finally, I will reverse the trend of having America invent transformative new technologies like the electric car and the solar panel, only to have other countries lead in deploying and marketing them. As part of my plan to combat global warming, I will help American usher in a new energy economy based on clean, renewable, and energy-efficient technologies.
MA: Would you make it a priority in your first year of office to re-instate Net Neutrality as law? What is your specific plan to ensure equal access to all players, regardless of size?
JE: In May, I – like thousands of citizens – wrote a letter to the FCC urging them to guarantee net neutrality. I believe that if we do not guarantee net neutrality, the Internet could go the way of network television and commercial radio - with just a few loud corporate voices and no room for the grassroots and small entrepreneurs. Our country is already divided enough between the haves and have-nots. Where we go to school, where (and if) we get health care, whether we can retire with dignity - we have big divides in all of these areas in this country.
While we work to create One America, we should not allow the Internet to be divided or corporate censorship to take root. That would make the other important work we have to do that much harder. The Internet is not the answer to everything, but it can powerfully accelerate the best of America. It improves our democracy by making quiet voices loud, improves our economy by making small markets big, and improves opportunity by making unlikely dreams possible.
As president, I will do several things to encourage innovation and neutrality online. First, I will ensure that the FCC preserves free expression and competition on the Internet by enforcing net neutrality, ensuring no degradation or blocking of access to web sites. I will also bring the Carterfone rule to wireless so that Americans can connect any device or applications to their wireless service, just as they can to their landline phone service.
MA: The U.S. higher education system is among the best in the world. But not enough students seem to be interested in science and math at younger ages, and some studies suggest we turn out far fewer engineers than India and China, among other countries.
The purpose of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act is to help bridge the gap between primary and secondary education. Among other things, it has a goal of ensuring that every student is technologically literate by the time they finish the eighth grade, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, family income, location or disability.
Do you believe we are achieving these goals and serving our children today? What do you think is the best way to reach the goal?
JE: We all pay a price when young people who could someday find the cure for AIDS or create the next Google end up sitting on a stoop because they didn’t get the education they need. Today, too few of our schools are teaching our children creative, analytical skills, and too few students have access to the technology that can light that spark. Ninety-five percent of urban high schools report problems getting qualified science teachers. American 9th-graders are 18th in the world in science education.
No Child Left Behind has lost its way by imposing cheap standardized tests, narrowing the curriculum at the expense of science, history, and the arts and mandating unproven cookie-cutter reforms on schools. As a result, it has lost the support of teachers, principals, and parents, whose support is needed for any reform to succeed.
Every year, 200,000 college-qualified students cannot enroll because their families cannot afford it.
Our children are every bit as talented as our foreign competitors, but they have not been given the tools they need to succeed. I believe that every school should be wired and that we need to overhaul our curricula to emphasize technological skills, math and science, creative thinking and problem-solving. I also support Career Academies in high schools that link students to local employers and skills in high-demand industries, including information technology. If we do not invest in developing these skills among our children now, the United States risks becoming a technology follower, rather than a leader.
As president, I will overhaul No Child Left Behind to center our schools around children, not tests, and help struggling schools, not punish them. I will also launch a “School Success Fund,” a Marshall Plan-like effort to rebuild and restore America’s schools. I would ask teams of experienced educators, what I call “education SWAT teams,” to spend a year at struggling schools helping launch reforms where we need them the most.
To ensure that every child is prepared to succeed, I will provide resources to states to help them offer universal high-quality “Great Promise” preschool programs for four-year-olds. I will work with states to give all teachers in successful high-poverty schools up to a $15,000 raise. I will also create a national teachers’ university – a West Point for teachers – to recruit 1,000 top college students a year, train them to be excellent teachers, and encourage them to teach where they are needed most. Finally, I will create a national version of a program I started in a rural county in North Carolina, called College for Everyone, which provides a full year of public college tuition and books to any college-qualified student who is willing to work part-time.
MA: The Digital Divide is roughly defined as the gap between those with access to computers and the Internet with those who don’t. More broadly, it includes not only access, but the skills and ability to use those resources effectively.
The controversial Federal E-rate program allocates money from telecommunication taxes to poor schools without technology resources. Some statistics suggest 100,000 or more schools have been provided with Internet connectivity and additional computers.
What is your opinion of the E-rate program? What else can be done to increase access to technology in our schools? What can be done outside of schools to address the digital divide more generally?
JE: First, let’s talk about what the digital divide really means in America. It means that while half of urban and suburban households have broadband, less than a third of rural homes do. It means that African Americans are 25 percent less likely to have Internet access at home than whites. The Internet has been an engine of innovation and opportunity – one that started in America and then revolutionized the world. Yet, here at home, too many are denied access to it, including 40 percent of rural Americans. That is just not acceptable.
As president, I would do a number of things. First, I will help create universal, affordable access to broadband. There should be no neighborhoods in America where the lights of the Internet are not on.
The starting place for that is setting a goal of giving all U.S. homes and businesses access to real high-speed Internet by 2010. I will establish a national broadband map to identify gaps in availability, price, and speed. I will also create public-private partnerships to promote deployment and require providers not to discriminate against rural and low-income areas. I will work to improve Internet accessibility for people with disabilities. I believe we need to improve the e-rate program with a goal of universally wired schools.
Since achieving truly universal broadband will require every tool at our disposal, I will encourage local service providers and municipal wireless projects, and use the newly available 700 megahertz spectrum and broadcast television white spaces to support wireless networks that can connect with all digital devices.
MA: The U.S. has fallen woefully behind Asia and Europe in terms of mobile technology innovation. Most of the innovative startups we see in the mobile space today are based outside the U.S. and have no immediate plans to enter our market.
Current rules allow mobile carriers in the U.S. to “lock in” customers, which prohibits them from adding or accessing third party services via their phone. The effect has been a stifling of competition or, as the NYT’s David Pogue puts it, a “calcification of the U.S. mobile market.”
The FCC is currently in the process of allocating a new area of the spectrum – 700MHz. There are two schools of thought surrounding these auctions.
The first, supported by the big mobile carriers, is that the new spectrum should have few regulatory requirements around how services are offered to consumers. This should maximize government revenue but would, as we’ve seen, likely result in increased calcification and reduced competition in the market.
The second, supported primarily by Google and everyone except the big carriers, is to force spectrum holders to allow open access to their platforms once they offer services. This would likely result in lower revenues to the government from these auctions, but our mobile markets could gain a competitive edge over Europe and Asia.
What is your position on the mobile spectrum? Should government force open access or should they simply auction it off to the highest bidder and let the carriers decide what types of services to offer?
JE: I was the only presidential candidate to write to the FCC in May to urge it to adopt auction rules for the 700 megahertz spectrum that would unleash the potential of smaller new entrants, transforming information opportunity for people across America — rural and urban, wealthy and not.
I called for as much as half of the spectrum to be set aside for wholesalers who can lease access to smaller start-ups, offering the potential to improve service to rural and underserved areas. Additionally, I wrote that anyone winning rights to this valuable public resource should be required not to discriminate among data and services and to allow any device or application to connect to their service, just as they can to their landline phone service. This open access rule will force service providers to compete on quality and price, not just on exclusive contracts with in-demand products.
I also support using at least part of the white space spectrum that will become available in the transition to digital TV for unlicensed wireless use. Unlicensed uses in other spectrum bands have resulted in innovations we now take for granted, such as the cordless phone. I believe that offering some of this “beachfront” broadcast spectrum for unlicensed use would not only expand wireless Internet access but would allow new technologies and business ideas to flourish, without interfering with nearby television transmissions.
MA: What will you do to encourage U.S. innovation into renewable/sustainable energy sources? Should carbon emissions be taxed? What else, if anything, should the government be doing?
JE: New energy technology holds incredible potential to unleash innovation and reshape our economy. Clean tech venture capital has doubled in the past year to $2.4 billion, and American entrepreneurs, farmers and manufacturers can lead the world in technology to generate clean, reliable energy and use it more efficiently. My climate change plan includes three great goals: reduce our carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050, transform energy use in America to usher in a new energy economy, and freeze the demand for electricity with efficiency for the next decade.
I will create the $13 billion a year New Energy Economy Fund to invest in clean, renewable energies like wind, solar, and sustainable biofuels, develop a new generation of efficient cars and trucks, and put new energy-saving technologies to work in buildings, transportation and industry. The result will be more than 1 million new jobs – with a new Green Collar Jobs training program to ensure that the opportunity is widely shared.
I will make the Renewable Energy Production Tax Credit permanent and provide loan guarantees for renewable biorefineries. By opening the electric grid and requiring utilities to consider local, distributed generation of electricity before investing in central power plants, I will guarantee market access for local entrepreneurs including co-operatives like “community wind” projects. I also believe that we need a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants without the technology to capture their carbon emissions, and a major investment in developing carbon sequestration technology.
We need to be honest about the need to sacrifice some as we make this transition. Under my plan, polluters will pay for all their carbon permits under a cap-and-auction system after a short transition period of less than five years. This will not be easy, but global warming is a crisis, and I believe it is time for a president to ask the American people to be patriotic about something other than war.
User Questions:
Internet Taxes
JE: I believe we must continue to keep the internet affordable and democratic. When I served in the Senate, I voted for the 2004 Internet Tax Nondiscrimination Act, which extended the federal ban on state and local Internet access taxes.
How are your high-technology policies meaningfully different from those of Clinton or Obama?
JE: I believe that I am more willing to set ambitious goals and to fight for the kind of transformation we need. For example, in the past year alone I’ve written three letters to the FCC on issues where there have been armies of lobbyists for entrenched corporate interests: net neutrality, the 700 spectrum auction and media consolidation. My philosophy on these issues is simple: we need to take away the corporate bullhorn and let many voices be heard.
But today, Washington is broken – too often, our laws are written by big corporations and their lobbyists, and what’s good for the rest of us gets lost completely. Where some of the other Democratic candidates use the language of compromise or are in fact taking money from and in support of the corporate interests who are blocking real change, I think the policies I’ve released and the way I’ve spoken out show that I’m more willing to fight to achieve the change we need.
What do you think are the responsibilities and benefits of internet companies operating in oppressive regimes like China?
JE: I firmly believe that it is good for us and good for China when Americans do business there – especially when they offer technologies with the democratizing potential of the Internet. But we have to be careful always to support our fundamental values, such as freedom, democracy and human and labor rights. I am also concerned about China’s practices like currency manipulation and unfair subsidies which threaten American competitiveness.
American businesses can have a tremendous amount of leverage over repressive regimes, as we saw in the 1980s when American companies helped open up the Soviet Union. They should refuse to cooperate with authoritarian and anti-human rights practices abroad, and help move societies like China into the world’s mainstream. In the coming years, China’s influence and importance will only continue to grow—and the United States will have to continue to show moral leadership. On issues such as trade, climate change, and human rights, our overarching goal must be to get China to commit to the rules that govern the conduct of nations.
This past Thursday, Viddler launched an advertising system that lets companies and individuals overlay advertisements at variously tagged points within the videos it hosts. The system is very similar to Google Adwords, except advertisements are within videos instead of search results, and advertisers sponsor tags instead of search terms.
Viddler’s embeddable player has always been unique in providing content producers and viewers with the ability to place comments and tags at various points within a video. If something is funny at the 1:39 mark, you can submit the comment “lol” and it will show up as a discreet overlay at that particular time during playback. Similarly, you can tag a video during playback with “bicycle” at a point where there’s someone riding a bike. As with other video services, you can also submit tags that describe videos as a whole, rather than just particular points within a video.
While CEO Robert Sandie says that these metadata features were not developed with monetization in mind, Viddler now provides a way for advertisers to run campaigns that take advantage of both global and timed tags (the former being tags that describe videos as a whole, and the latter being tags that describe points within a video). Anyone can advertise through this system by participating in a bidding process akin to Google Adwords. Viddler has also partnered up with Amazon, and is talking with the likes of Buy.com and Shopping.com, to serve up ads for products sold by those online retailers.
The bidding process involves the choice of particular keywords through which you want to advertise. It also involves the highest CPC (cost per click) that you are willing to pay for each keyword. If you are willing to pay more per click than anyone else who wants a particular keyword, you practically own that keyword, and your advertisement will show up as an overlay in any video hosted by Viddler that has been tagged with it. This will remain the case until someone else outbids your maximum bid threshold. Viddler will email you if this happens so you can up the ante if desired. As for Amazon, its advertisements will automatically show up as overlays for tags that have not already been claimed by bidders.
A note on so-called global tags: while the placement of advertisements for timed tags naturally occur at their respective spots during playback, advertisements for global tags show up 1/4 the way through videos. They are also represented as green dots in the timeline, whereas advertisements for timed tags appear black (and regular comments show up white).
Viddler has decided to split revenues 50/50 with content producers, and it has given them a good deal of flexibility regarding the service as well. Producers can opt out of the advertising system completely or sign up for multiple levels of deployment. For example, you can deem that only advertisements from bidders can be displayed, and only through timed tags that you as a producer have created. Or you can allow Amazon to advertise as well, and through tags that your viewers create in addition to your own. For bidders’ advertisements, you will only receive money when your viewers actually click on them (not just view them); and for Amazon’s ads, you’ll only receive money when your viewers actually end up buying something from them.
If you currently publish videos on Viddler, you can set up advertisements by first going to the “Revenue” section and clicking “Enable Revenue Share”. You’ll then have to provide a PayPal account email address and/or an Amazon Affiliate ID to get paid. From this revenue section, you can also manage the tags on your videos and track how many impressions and clicks you’ve experienced for each. You can also set the advertising preferences that will apply to all of your videos (per video settings are not yet available). Advertisers who want to bid on keywords can do so here.
Viddler’s new advertising system can be compared to Google’s Adsense for Video, which has yet to be rolled out fully on YouTube, or any other video sharing service for that matter. As you can see on YouTube’s advertising page, Google plans to deploy animated flash overlays and run video commercials once those overlays are clicked on.
Below is a demonstration video by iJustine for Viddler’s new ad service:
We haven’t heard much from Silicon Valley based Ingenio lately. In 2006 the company launched Ether, a service that allows people to charge people for calls. Since then, nada.
But today AT&T is announcing that they’ve acquired the company and plan to integrate it into its directory service and local search advertising portfolio (yellowpages.com, etc.). The Pay Per Call service will allow advertisers to reach potential leads.
Ingenio was founded in 1999. Terms are not being disclosed, although AT&T is saying it expects the deal to close in January 2008.
Looking for a link to the press release. A draft is below.
Press Release
AT&T Agrees to Acquire Ingenio, a Pioneer and Leading Provider of Pay Per Call Search and Directory Solutions
SAN ANTONIO, Nov. 19 — AT&T Inc. announced today that an AT&T subsidiary has agreed to acquire privately held Ingenio, a leading provider of Pay Per Call(R) technology. The transaction is expected to close in early January 2008.
AT&T plans to integrate Ingenio’s Pay Per Call solutions into its directory service and local search advertising portfolio, including the YELLOWPAGES.COM Network, AT&T Real Yellow Pages and 1-800-Yellow Pages. Ingenio’s Pay Per Call service is an advertising platform that allows businesses to manage their ad programs and generate valuable phone leads. The platform uses proprietary technology to provision unique published phone numbers to track calls to businesses generated by those ads, and advertisers’ fees are based on the volume of these leads.
Pay Per Call technology will provide another lead generation tool for advertisers to reach customers. Integrating Ingenio’s Pay Per Call technology will enable AT&T to take advantage of a growing trend toward performance-based advertising. The move also demonstrates AT&T’s commitment to providing advertisers with comprehensive solutions - the addition of Ingenio’s Pay Per Call technology will give advertisers the flexibility to purchase leads in a consistent manner across online, mobile or print media whether or not they have a Web site.
“As advertisers add performance-based advertising to their marketing mix, this investment makes sense for our business,” said Ray Wilkins, AT&T group president-Diversified Business. “Ingenio’s technology will allow AT&T to expand our robust service portfolio for print, online and mobile advertisers, and that will further differentiate us from our competitors.”
Following the closing of the acquisition, Ingenio will be integrated within AT&T’s YELLOWPAGES.COM and will be overseen by Charles Stubbs, president and CEO of YELLOWPAGES.COM. AT&T expects to retain Ingenio’s management team. The transaction is expected to have minimal impact on AT&T’s results, including earnings per share.
“As advertising options continue to evolve and businesses look to additional options, Ingenio’s technology will help us fulfill these needs,” Stubbs said. “Pay Per Call advertising will allow us to serve millions of businesses — those with and without Web sites. We can provide alternatives and additional value to advertisers by adding performance-based solutions to our suite of interactive product offerings.”
“Throughout the past few years, we have built and deployed innovative products that help the services economy flourish online,” said Mark Britto, president and CEO of Ingenio. “What we have lacked, however, is scale — the ability to bring those solutions to the market in the biggest possible way. Our merger with AT&T allows us to bring our innovations to more businesses nationwide.”
“Ingenio’s technology and products deliver an innovative approach for lead generation and help advertisers efficiently place themselves in front of consumers who are ready to act,” Britto said. “Combining Ingenio’s capabilities with AT&T’s resources and YELLOWPAGES.COM’s strong reach and brand is great news for advertisers and creates a foundation to expand this business.”
The addition of Ingenio further enhances AT&T’s portfolio of directory offerings. YELLOWPAGES.COM and AT&T Real Yellow Pages deliver unsurpassed visibility and value to advertisers. AT&T delivers print directories to more than 83 million residences and businesses in 22 states and has a premier online presence nationwide with the YELLOWPAGES.COM Network.
Together, these products receive more than 5 billion consumer searches a year for local business information and provide more than 1 million advertisers with valuable sales leads to help their businesses grow.
AT&T’s YELLOWPAGES.COM also recently expanded its mobile search products with a new Web application for iPhone users, as well as a downloadable local search application that is currently available on 20 popular AT&T handset models. These applications make it easy for consumers to find what they need, when they need it and extend YELLOWPAGES.COM advertisers’ presence to on-the- go consumers.
Note: This AT&T release and other news announcements are available as part of an RSS feed at http://www.att.com/rss.
About AT&T
AT&T Inc. is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates, AT&T operating companies, are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. Among their offerings are the world’s most advanced IP-based business communications services and the nation’s leading wireless, high speed Internet access and voice services. In domestic markets, AT&T is known for the directory publishing and advertising sales leadership of its Yellow Pages and YELLOWPAGES.COM organizations, and the AT&T brand is licensed to innovators in such fields as communications equipment. As part of its three-screen integration strategy, AT&T is expanding its TV entertainment offerings. Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at http://www.att.com/.
(C) 2007 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other marks contained herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated companies. For more information, please review this announcement in the AT&T newsroom at http://www.att.com/newsroom.
About YELLOWPAGES.COM
YELLOWPAGES.COM LLC is a subsidiary of AT&T Inc. Formed in late 2004, the company operates a leading IYP and local search site, YELLOWPAGES.COM. The YELLOWPAGES.COM Nationwide Network provides exposure to up to more than 34 million monthly unique visitors (comScore Media Metrix, September 2007).
About Ingenio
Founded in 1999, Ingenio, Inc. the leader in live-search commerce, is helping the services economy flourish online by connecting millions of buyers and sellers around the world. Ingenio applications offer sellers the tools to acquire and monetize customers while providing consumers a means to interact with sellers rather than websites. Ingenio live-search commerce applications include: Pay Per Call(R), a pay-for-performance advertising service that enables the purchase of live customer phone calls generated through Ingenio Inc’s online and mobile search advertising network. Ingenio earn per call applications, Ether(R) and Live Advice, empower live experts to sell their services to individuals seeking real-time, personal and customized answers to their questions. For more information please visit http://www.ingenio.com/.
Amazon has summoned the NY press and blogger corp to the W Hotel on Union Square to watch Jeff Bezos unveil it electronic book reader, the Kindle. We’ll see if there is anything left to learn. Peter Ha from CrunchGear is sitting right next to me bloggingand taking pics (can you say overkill?). Here we go:
9:41 AM: Jeff Bezos takes the stage: Shows a tablet, then some papyrus, then a codex, a picture of Gutenberg (”invented mass production of books,” thanks jeff). He made 180 copies of his most famous book, the Gutenberg bible.
Bezos: “This is a 500 year old technology. We forget it is a technology. As readers we don’t think about this often. You print books 16 pages at a time or 32 pages at a time, that collection is called a signature that gets folded, the edged get abraded. the printing press has definitely gotten a lot more sophisticated since Gutenberg’s time. Gutenberg would still recognize a modern-day book.”
“Why are books the last bastion of analog. they have stubbornly resisted digitization.The book is so highly evolved and suited to its tasks that it is hard to displace. the key feature of a book is that it disappears when you read it. All of us readers know that flow state when we read,we don’t think about the glue, the paper, the stitching, allof that goes away. All that remains is the author’s world, and we flow right into that.”
9:47 AM: “I am a reader. My parents had a tough time punishing me as a child because I was quite content to stay in in my room.”
“The question is can you improve on something as highly evolved and well suited to its task as the book? And how? It has to disappear. it has to get out of the way. Another thing, we knew we would never out-book the book. We would have to take the technology and do things the book could never do.”
“In the early days of Amazon, I was asked, how will you do virtual book signings. We never figured it out because you cannot duplicate the retail book store, you can be inspired by them. We do other things, we have customer reviews, customers who bought this also bought that. Things you cannot do in a physical book store.”
9:51: Shows the Kindle. 10.3 ounces, less than a paperback, and thinner too. Three years in the making.
“We studied how people hold books. You change your posture and grip on the book. It is one of the things that keeps you from getting fatigued and stay in that author’s world.”
9:53: “How do you get content on the book? Traditional answer would be a PC. We did not think that was a good answer. We decided there would be no PC, no software to install.”
“Instead of shopping on your PC, you shop on the device. The content is delivered seamlessly to the device. Normally you would do Wi-Fi. but you have to find a hotspot. We did not like this technology. decided to use EVDO. As soon as I tell you we are using EVDO that should cause a second set of concerns, because everybody knows there has to be a data plan and a monthly bill. We didn’t like that either. So we built Amazon WhisperNet. it is built on top of Sprint’s EVDO network, but we insulate you from all of those things. there is no data plan, no multi-year contract, no monthly bill. We take care of all that in the background, so you can just read.” [Sounds like an MVNO for EVDO, but Amazon pays the freight. How much is that going to cost Amazon?]
“We have 90,000 books you can buy right from the device. And these are the books people want to read. Included on are 101 of 112 New York Times best sellers. And guess what, they are all $9.99. And guess what? they all get delivered wirelessly in less than minute. You can also get newspapers delivered to the device: New York times, Wall Street Journal, San Jose Mercury News. Magazines. And blogs. This is not an RSS feed. this is the full content of the post pushed to your device. (Boing Boing, the Onion, Huffington Post, TechCrunch). Updated throughout the day.” [He stresses that this is not just the headlines and an excerpt, but he ignores blogs that publish their full content in their feeds. Is anyone really going to pay for a blog that they can get on the Web for free?].
“every Kindle comes with a customized e-mail address. You attach your personal docs, and they are delivered to the device, can do this with docs, Jpegs. A resident dictionary one very device [Oxford American Dictionary that is 10 pounds in print]. Another thing a book cannot be is a full set of encyclopedias. We all know the best encyclopedia today is Wikipedia. If you printed it you would need four miles of shelves. because this si a wireless device, you can access Wikipedia from this device.”
“So what do you get with this device? The most advanced EVDO radio in the world, the most advanced reading display technology. on sale right now for $399.”
10:04: Rolls a video.
10:15 AM: Bezos is doing a demo. Shows his magazines and blogs (hey, how did TechCrunch get on there?). Shows how you can change the font size. There is a little scroll wheel on the bottom right, can click on this “select wheel” to underline, add highlights, look up words in the dictionary, you select a line and it gives you the definition of every single word in that line. Shows the store. It is all black-and-white, can browse books, magazines, newspapers, blogs. there is a Kindle Daily Post, and “recommended for you.” Shows you National best seller lists from teh New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post [what about Amazon?]. Also can see Amazon reviews. and details you would see at the Amazon store. Clicks buy. [Interesting, my EVDO got disconnected as he was downloading—coincidence?].
“We archive your book server side on Amazon.com.. If you lose them you can download them again for no cost.”
“The most important thing about Kindle is that it does indeed disappear so you can enter the author’s world.”
