Amazon’s run at Apple
We’re starting to hear noise in the media about the next prospective iPad killer wannabe, this time it’s rumored to the Amazon tablet. There’s a busload of pundits out there predicting that Amazon will finally give Apple a run for its money, having held back long enough to see where other competitors have banged their heads or stubbed their toes in the race to enter the tablet space. The variables that they point out could give Amazon an edge include 1) form factor (smaller/thinner than an iPad, similar to the Kindle), 2) the fact that it’s Android based, 3) better embedded security, and 4) a lower price point.
All of these are viable, but they miss the key point.
The success or failure of a device is ultimately a function of how useful it is. The iPhone is incredibly useful across a wide array of functions, because the driving framework-the compelling event-is the broad availability of applications. The distinction I want to draw here is the apps framework, and more specifically the term “broad”. At this point almost no one carries one device for work and another for not-work; why inconvenience yourself with two devices when one can do the trick? But in order for the trick to occur, the device has to be not only fun (e.g. Angry Birds), but also work as a productivity tool (e.g. CRM apps, Workflow apps, etc.). I use an iPad/iPhone because it covers the entirety of use; lots of work applications, access to unlimited web content, and mucho games.
So in Amazon’s case, you need to consider their perspective. The Kindle comes with free internet access, but you can only go to Amazon.com to buy more books. Makes sense. How will they contextualize an Amazon tablet? Their framework is selling stuff-an almost infinite variety of stuff-but that is the essence of their business model, and anything they produce will reinforce their existing model (it pretty much has to). Will this become a prettier or more convenient way to shop? I can already do that on my iPad (in fact, I probably do it too much already).
I don’t need a tablet just to shop. I need a tablet that addresses my daily information needs on a transactional basis, and a big part of that now is access to business applications. So given that the Amazon tablet will be an Android play (and there’s lots of Android tablets already out there), what does Amazon do to make their tablet the compelling event? A lower price point may help, but they don’t need to race to the bottom to be successful. More embedded security is a nice feature, but there’s a whole industry full of companies constantly upgrading mobile device security already.
What they need to do is correlate their vast array of information content (books, magazines, etc.) to apps that support business productivity. They don’t necessarily need to build the apps, there’s lots of Android developers out there doing that, but what none of these developers have (nor does anyone else, compared to Amazon) is an extremely broad and deep information resource base. That is Amazon’s key competitive differentiator; of course they will use the device to sell “stuff”, but contextualizing the sale to a user’s transactional framework could actually work really well. It can’t be overt (no one likes having ads or marketing shoved down their throat), but having it as an enabling background point of reference to a business process could be an interesting mash-up for them. I don’t think this will kill the iPad, frankly at this point I don’t think anything will, but there is still more than enough room in this space for alternative approaches to mobility, and Amazon’s perspective is unique.