Kindle is winning with an Integrated solution - Latest win in Japan

I have used the Kindle since the 1 and i am getting ready to upgrade my 2-3 year old devices to the latest that will get announced this month. I use Kindle on Android more often than the Kindle devices, but that may change with the new devices.  I used to buy lots of kindle books.  But, recently have switched to just checking out kindle books from the King County Library System for free.  Well it is not free as my property taxes support the library.  I don't have to pay per book to rent the Kindle e-books, and if I can't read it in 21 days, there is a good chance I wasn't going to read it.

Om Malik has a post on the success of the Kindle in Japan.

Kindle is big in Japan — some lessons for hardware’s future

by Om Malik

12 HOURS AGO

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SUMMARY:

The future of hardware is a tight symbiosis of hardware, software and connectivity and content as a service. Whether it is apps, books, movies or anything else — the more you engage with a platform, the more likely it will beat rivals. Amazon is a good example.

Jeff Bezos had a vision to change book purchasing and he is succeeding.

Their ongoing battle, as highlighted by the New York Times story, reminded me of an essay I wrote in March 2011: Why the future of hardware is services.

Back then, I pointed that the future of hardware was a tight symbiosis of hardware, software and connectivity and content as a service. It was vital to ensure that we are constantly engaging with the devices. For instance, there’s Sonos, a wireless audio system that allows you to listen to Spotify and other music services and as a result finds constant usage. Without those services, the hardware becomes just dumb hardware and ends up in the back of the drawer.

The reason why Amazon wins is because it has coupled a service (books/content) to the device and made it dead simple to buy. There is a network connection built into the service as well and to purchase a book is simply a click because it has a pre-existing commercial relationship with customers. I for certain am not going to sign up for Kobo or Barnes & Noble — and I think this is the crucial difference. Amazon has a much deeper (and longer) relationship with consumers who use it to shop for more than just books.

Amazon has won the ebook reader battle.  Microsoft threw in the towel in 2012 after 12 years of attempting to participate with its  Reader Technology.

In August 2011, Microsoft announced they were discontinuing both Microsoft Reader and the use of the .lit format for ebooks at the end of August 2012, and ending sales of the format on November 8, 2011.^[2]

Amazon won this battle vs. competition based on its integrated solution and its business model of giving away readers for other platforms and selling the Kindle hardware for as low as they could justify to gain market share.  I have ordered the latest 2nd gen paper white device.

What is the next kindle device?  They were smart enough to get in early enough with the Kindle Fire.  Phones?  You know there are dozens if not hundreds of people along with Bezos dreaming of what could be the next hardware. watches, phones, cars.  What is the Amazon brand going after next?

Critique of the Microsoft-Nokia deal

GigaOm's Om Malik has a post on the Microsoft-Nokia deal that will give you a critical view.  One nugget that Om has dug up is what some of the Nokia insiders think.

In theory, Microsoft is getting a great engineering team, a great product design team and a great brand (well, better than Windows Phone). However in reality what it is not getting are the intangibles. In the course of my seven odd years of reporting on Nokia, I have met many talented people and many of them had a lot of pride in working for the company. It was the shining achievement of Nokia and its engineering culture. Even when things got bad over past few years, many believed that Nokia had the talent to help things around. I made a few phone calls this evening, and all I hear is a sense of quiet despondency and loss of hope. Working for Microsoft isn’t working for Nokia, is a common refrain.

The zinger comment is referencing Google's Vic Gundotra.

Vic Gundotra, Google’s sharp-elbowed senior executive who, like Android co-creator Andy Rubin, wanted to win over Nokia and bring it into the Android camp about two years ago, put it best when he tweeted: “Two turkeys don’t make an Eagle.” And while he might have ruffled some feathers in Microsoft and Nokia offices, his observation wasn’t that off the mark. Microsoft makes a mobile OS, that the market doesn’t seem to want. Nokia smartphones sales make drying paint seem like a John Woo thriller. It doesn’t matter from which angle you look, the combination of these two companies into a single entity doesn’t add up.

Om finishes with an upside to the deal.

If there is one upside, then I do believe that this just might be the best thing to happen to Finland and the Finnish startup scene. A lot of the talent draining out of Nokia will look for new opportunities in their areas of expertise — radio engineering, manipulating sensors and embedded systems. If anything, this is Finland’s big opportunity to become the epicenter of the Internet of Things.

Disclosure: I work part-time as an analyst for GigaOm and have watched Om in action first hand.  He knows what he is talking about.

Whoa, Microsoft follows Google's playbook for mobile, buys Nokia Phone unit

WSJ covers Microsoft's move buying Nokia.

Microsoft in $7.17 Billion Deal for Nokia Cellphone Business

Microsoft Corp., MSFT -0.45% on the heels of announcing the planned retirement of Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, has agreed to buy most of Nokia Corp.'sNOK1V.HE +1.30% devices and services business and bring aboard several executives who could be contenders for Mr. Ballmer's job.

The companies said Monday that Microsoft will pay €3.79 billion ($5 billion) to buy "substantially all" of the Nokia business, which includes its smartphone operations. The Redmond, Wash., company will pay €1.65 billion to license Nokia's patents, the companies said.

Stephen Elop, Nokia's CEO, and several other executives are joining Microsoft as part of the deal. Mr. Elop, a former Microsoft executive, is among the names being circulated as Mr. Ballmer's successor. Microsoft recently announced that Mr. Ballmer will retire from his post within a year, or when the next CEO is chosen.

Google bought Motorola.  Microsoft buys Nokia.  Mobile has changed dramatically with Apple, Google, and Microsoft competing to sell smartphones.

Ericsson launches 3 Greener Data Centers, 2 Sweden, 1 Montreal

Here is a video of Ericsson's press release for its new data centers.  This increases the chance of future services from Ericsson to optimize services from data centers to the mobile user.

And another video of the CEO talking about the data centers.

The data center has green features.

The data centers will be coming on line in 2014 and 2015.  Note vendors, it looks like Ericsson is well on the way so they already have made their vendor choices.

Here is the press release for the three data centers.  And the one that is specific for Canada.

An example of a future service from Ericsson is SDN described here.

A skeptical view of Zynga's new CEO, Om Malik explains

Om Malik posts on GigaOm on his views of Zynga's move to add a new CEO to solve its problems.  Om explains his logic and starts off questioning the PR spin.

SUMMARY:

Zynga has hired Don Mattrick as its new CEO, replacing founder Mark Pincus. The stock has jumped almost 20 percent in two days. Everyone believes that things will get better — that is, everyone except me. Let me explain why I don’t buy the PR spin.

Om throws some zingers like the new CEO doesn't know mobile.

The glowing press releases not withstanding, Zynga isn’t any step closer to solving its number one challenge — mobile. The company’s business tactics, which worked dramatically well on the Facebook platform, don’t work as well on mobile. And frankly, what does Mattrick really know about mobile? For God’s sake, the guy ran Xbox for six years.

Zynga was built on the Facebook ecosystem which limits its ability to grow beyond.

From the very beginning Zynga has been a company optimized for short-term gains. It used the well-established pattern of super fast release, iterate, re-release to grow its games. That pattern of developing and releasing games works well on the web. Of course, that means sub-par creativity and leads to the short shelf life of a game. Of course, this resulted in a business logic — user acquisition channels, game development methods and technology stack — were optimized for one platform: Facebook. The company rewarded teams that build Facebook hits.

We'll see what Zynga looks like in a year, but that is an eternity in the game business.

It is so pervasive and embedded that unless Mattrick undertakes a company wide apheresis he is destined to fail. And with Pincus still as the chairman and chief product officer, you know nothing really has changed.