Comments on: The Hearst electronic reader: Brilliant stroke or gasping for air http://www.thecatalystcode.com/theconversation/blog/2009/03/01/the-hearst-electronic-reader-brilliant-stroke-or-gasping-for-air/ The Catalyst Code Thu, 09 Sep 2010 08:43:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.11 by: Dave Sikora http://www.thecatalystcode.com/theconversation/blog/2009/03/01/the-hearst-electronic-reader-brilliant-stroke-or-gasping-for-air/#comment-7455 Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:39:09 +0000 http://www.thecatalystcode.com/theconversation/blog/2009/03/01/the-hearst-electronic-reader-brilliant-stroke-or-gasping-for-air/#comment-7455 Hi David - I agree with you that this is just too stupid for words. With an iPod and a mobile phone (unless you have an iPhone) most folks already have one too many devices and are looking to consolidate. Specialized devices such as the Kindle can survive for a while by being spectacular at one thing. Taking a specialized device down to the level of market segment granularity proposed by Hearst is guaranteed to fail. Bet on it. Here's a broader question related to the Kindle and mobile devices. Now that "perfectly adequate" e-book readers are available on mobile devices, what is Amazon's next strategic move in mobility? Does the Kindle become a family of mobile devices with the core competency of e-book reading, commoditizing everything else by "throwing it in"? RIM executed this strategy, but some would say they haven't really made it past the e-mail core competency yet. Our prediction is that the major "smart device" vendors will be Apple, RIM, and Amazon. All of these players have a unique, highly horizontal core competency they bring to their devices (RIM - e-mail; Apple - media and 3rd party apps; Amazon - e-books). All three enjoy tremendous brand loyalty and distribution advantages over everyone else, and most importantly they all control the "whole product", creating a highly integrated unit between the OS and the device. The bifurcated OS/device model worked for Microsoft in the PC industry but smartphones are just too complex, with too many variables to manage. Adding persistent voice and data connectivity to a "mobile computer" prohibits any other approach but the "whole product" (will be very interesting to watch Android - Windows Mobile is stuck in the mud). Back to media companies. Net net, this is a very big, complex sandbox and arguably the big trains have already left the station. Hearst has no business trying to play in it. Hi David - I agree with you that this is just too stupid for words. With an iPod and a mobile phone (unless you have an iPhone) most folks already have one too many devices and are looking to consolidate. Specialized devices such as the Kindle can survive for a while by being spectacular at one thing. Taking a specialized device down to the level of market segment granularity proposed by Hearst is guaranteed to fail. Bet on it.

Here’s a broader question related to the Kindle and mobile devices. Now that “perfectly adequate” e-book readers are available on mobile devices, what is Amazon’s next strategic move in mobility? Does the Kindle become a family of mobile devices with the core competency of e-book reading, commoditizing everything else by “throwing it in”? RIM executed this strategy, but some would say they haven’t really made it past the e-mail core competency yet.

Our prediction is that the major “smart device” vendors will be Apple, RIM, and Amazon. All of these players have a unique, highly horizontal core competency they bring to their devices (RIM - e-mail; Apple - media and 3rd party apps; Amazon - e-books). All three enjoy tremendous brand loyalty and distribution advantages over everyone else, and most importantly they all control the “whole product”, creating a highly integrated unit between the OS and the device. The bifurcated OS/device model worked for Microsoft in the PC industry but smartphones are just too complex, with too many variables to manage. Adding persistent voice and data connectivity to a “mobile computer” prohibits any other approach but the “whole product” (will be very interesting to watch Android - Windows Mobile is stuck in the mud).

Back to media companies. Net net, this is a very big, complex sandbox and arguably the big trains have already left the station. Hearst has no business trying to play in it.

]]>