Kindle – Shape of the Web to Come?

Forget the argument about whether or not you want to read books on a device instead of on comfortable paper. Forget whether you want to pay a subscription price for blogs like Fractals of Change that you can also read free in a variety of different ways. The Kindle points to a possible future for the WorldWideWeb in a way that has nothing to do with books.

Kindle comes with free browsing! Free! You pay once to buy the device and then you browse free anywhere that Sprint EVDO reaches, apparently for as long as you have the Kindle. Remember all that stuff I blogged about buy vs. rent? Here’s a chance to BUY your roaming Internet access for a onetime fee.

After the mandatory questions about e-books and e-book readers that we’ve agreed to ignore in today’s post, David Pogue gives some attention to the importance of free browsing albeit buried well down in his piece in The New York Times:

“But the part that will really rock your world is the Kindle’s free wireless cellular broadband service.

“Now, if you just splurted your coffee, you’re forgiven; “free” and “wireless broadband” have rarely been used in the same sentence before. The Kindle goes online using Sprint’s 3G cellular data network — the same service that costs $60 a month for corporate laptop luggers. The Kindle’s price tag stings less when you realize that Amazon is going to pay your entire wireless tab.

“So the Kindle can get online almost anywhere — not just in little coffee-shop hot spots, but in cabs, in lines, in doctor’s offices.

“There’s even a crude Web browser. It’s fine for text and graphics, lousy for Web layouts and useless for streaming audio or video. But with some effort, you can use it to get news, rebook a flight, monitor blogs and even check Web e-mail (like Gmail).”

In a previous post I glibly said the Kindle couldn’t be used for email. That’s because I use Outlook, which doesn’t run on Kindle, as a client and forgot how many people use a web interface to read their mail. Duh!

Now, as David says, this is hardly the be all and end all in browsing. It’s not good for porn videos and doesn’t even do color. The browser is “clunky” and should at least work sideways, which it doesn’t, for good web viewing. But the browsing is free!

Will this model spread? That’s the important question. There’s actually a good chance that it will.

Don’t know what the deal is between Amazon and Sprint which supplies the underlying network. Sprint has had a disappointing experience recruiting and keeping customers lately so probably had network assets to spare. But, once a network is built, extra bits don’t cost anything substantial until you have to buy more network.

If a part of the sales price of each device provides capital for network expansion, that’s a scalable model. (Don’t worry about depreciation; the device’ll get obsolete at least as fast as the network assets and have to be replaced so more capital’ll come in). If Amazon pays Sprint on a per use basis instead of a per device basis, that pays the debt on network expansion; the model works either way (or both).

And what about Amazon? Well, they sell the device and presumably make money on that; they’re sold out at the moment. But they also “sponsor” the access. They chose the bookmarks for the browser. The device comes linked to the Amazon account you bought it through. With this device, it is even easier to buy real books from Amazon. In fact, you can download the first chapter free and then decide whether you want the paper or electronic edition. They’ll have a recurring revenue stream as well as the initial sale – and can help pay for the cost of network operation of that’s part of the deal.

Kimble may well be the crude leading edge for “free” sponsored web access. If so, there are profound implications for web development (hint: develop apps that run in a browser), the Internet access business, and even Net Neutrality. There may even be a tie in with Amazon’s hosting business for such apps. Hmmm…

My prediction: we’ll see “free” sponsored access on car GPSes before another year has passed: the opportunity for roadside advertising is huge and the screen is already paid for.

Full disclosure: Both this blog, Fractals of Change, and my novel hackoff.com: an historic murder mystery set in the Internet bubble and rubble are available for Kindle. You can pay to download them from Amazon OR you can use the browser to read them free online. Choice is good.

Comments

[Frank V. Arcilesi]

I like the Kindle concept and especially the newer model they've just come out with. It's a good way for new authors to get to readers directly. Although my book is on Amazon, I've opted to put it in Kindle format also and have even posted some short stories there. I like this idea.

[Molly]

Thank you- I'm borrowing a friend's Kindle while he is away, and I was worried about the internet costing an arm and a leg. Now I have my answer! And to anyone who might be curious, the reception that I have gotten has almost always been good. I highly recommend it(The Kindle)!

[Tom Evslin]

Aswath, ellen, Dylan, Marc, Terry:

I quoted and responded to you all in today's post http://blog.tomevslin.com/2007/11/kindle-reader-q.html. Thanks for adding to the conversation.

[Terry Gold]

Hi Tom,

I've had a Kindle all weekend, and I'm already planning on how I can get rid of most of my paper books. I'll keep the ones that mean the most to me, but for everything else, this is the way to read. I just had Amazon send me a sample of your book even though I have the hard copy and I can read it on the web. The Kindle changes reading for me.

Terry
http://www.terrygold.com

[Marc Orchant]

Tom:

You're both quite welcome (although I suspect the only recognition I'm likely to get from Mr. Bezos is the "personalized" note pre-loaded onto my Kindle).

hackoff.com looks great on the Kindle. The formatting is clean (e.g. Q&A in the first chapter) and I'm looking forward to reading it as I count myself among the survivors of those perilous bubble days.

--Marc

[Tom Evslin]

Marc:

Jeff Bezos thanks you for buying the Kindle and I thank you for buying hackoff.com. Would very much like to hear about your experience with it on Kindle.

[Marc Orchant]

Tom - great post. I couldn't agree more. The Whispernet (love that name) connection was one of the deal closers that led me to immediately order a Kindle as soon as they were launched on Monday. And I've just purchased hackoff.com for the Kindle (my choice, right?) even though I can get it free on the web. Call me a conspicuous consumer I guess.

[Dylan Salisbury]

This doesn't really feel like a buy vs. rent decision. It's more like entering into a long-term contract.

What happens after someone hacks into a Kindle and tethers their PC to the internet connection? If they had really "bought" that internet connection, it wouldn't be a problem (you can run any traffic you want over your own connection, right?) -- but I have a feeling such uses will be shut down or denied.

[ellen]

The free internet service after the $400 buy price sounds too good to be true. I would certainly buy one for that reason alone.
I am going to ask a really dumb question. Does getting wireless access to the internet mean every time you are near any wireless you will be able to log on or does it mean you have to go through the same towers as cell phone access? Having had so much trouble with at and t cellular for my phone would sprint have to be well covered in my state? No one around here uses sprint for cell access. Everyone uses verizon, because for some reason it is best in my area of massachusetts. After many years and 4000 leftover rollover minutes I a dumping at and t for verizon.

[Aswath]

I am a bit confused about the "free" access to the Internet. If I am right in interpreting this, then why do I have to pay a monthly fee to read FOC? That is why I thought that I could access only those sites to which I have subscribed (signified by a bookmark in the browser?). But then both you and Pogue say it differently. Hence the confusion.