Sony: To Beat Amazon, Look To Android-Like Open Platform
Joe Wikert asked How Can Sony Compete? on his Kindleville blog yesterday. I tried to post a comment with some suggestions on what Sony could do with their e-reader program. The gremlins in my computer didn’t like what I said. The comment deleted itself. Here are my thoughts…
I think the achilles heel for the Kindle is that it too is a closed system. To compete, Sony could open their platform, drop their price, tweak the devices’ design, then lobby publishers like mad.
- Amazon went DRM-free with their Mp3 store and immediately got traction against iTunes. Sony could take the same tact by bringing down the walls around their ebook store — allowing any and all content onto the device. A developer’s kit. Wifi. EVDO. A web browser. No email tether. No DRM. Even license the platform to other manufacturers.
- Sony makes quality products and it would be easy for them to out-design Amazon to capitalize on the criticisms about the Kindle’s interface and Fischer-Price-style form factor. The iPod wasn’t the first or cheapest MP3 player on the market. It won the day partially because of its great usability. This is an opportunity for Sony.
- Lastly, both the Kindle and the Sony e-Reader are too expensive for the casual consumer. Yes Apple subsidizes iTunes to sell iPods — the money is clearly in the hardware — but if Sony gave away more of their profit they could drive adoption. A large enough customer base could be monetized in other ways. I am thinking of the nascent Zune social community as a model. There is value in encouraging — on your platform — readers to share their enthusiasm for books.
The open-source approach isn’t exactly in Sony’s corporate DNA and they would have to massage publishers’ fears of piracy but without an analog to Amazon’s killer whispernet technology, Sony has to go open to facilitate users’ (not their own) end-run around the Kindle’s proprietary connectivity.
That is a lot of “ifs” but Sony is best positioned to make this happen. Why? Making content easy to get on and off a user-friendly device is only part of the story. A large and powerful entity still needs to coax publishers to the well. IRex doesn’t have the clout and just any old manufacturer of an open source device couldn’t get their phone calls returned. Essentially, Sony could do as Google has done with Android. In the face of growing iPhone ubiquity and lagging Symbian development, Google is acting as industry benefactor. There is room in the content space for Sony to do the same.
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