Amazon Kindle- Show me some numbers!
Posted by gasusan2005 on 12/4/07 in Amazon, Kindle
“The Amazon Kindle is too expensive” seems to be one of the biggest complaints. But is it really? Cell phones, music players, and cameras cost anywhere from $0 to $1000.
Is $399 for a Kindle too much? If you “need” the device and will use it for its purpose, then the answer is purely a subjective one. Let’s look at some numbers!!
First, let’s look at the cost of reading an actual (purchased) book:
Here are some prices for some of the current bestsellers at different locations: (tax and shipping not included):
| Book | List Price | Barnes&Noble | Amazon.com | Borders.com |
| The Daring Book for Girls by Andrea Buchanan | $ 24.95 | $ 17.46 | $ 14.97 | $ 17.46 |
| The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett | $ 24.95 | $ 17.46 | $ 14.97 | $ 19.96 |
| An Inconvenient Book: Real Solutions to the World’s Biggest Problems by Glenn Beck | $ 26.00 | $ 18.20 | $ 15.60 | $ 18.20 |
| The Darkest Evening of the Year by Dean Koontz | $ 27.00 | $ 16.20 | $ 16.20 | $ 18.90 |
| Stone Cold by David Baldacci | $ 26.99 | $ 18.89 | $ 16.19 | $ 18.89 |
| Double Cross by James Patterson | $ 27.99 | $ 19.59 | $ 16.79 | $ 19.59 |
| I am America (and So Can You) by Stephen Colbert | $ 26.99 | $ 18.89 | $ 16.19 | $ 18.89 |
| A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini | $ 25.95 | $ 18.16 | $ 14.97 | $ 18.16 |
| Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld | $ 24.95 | $ 17.46 | $ 14.97 | $ 17.46 |
| Rescuing Sprite: A Dog Lover’s Story of Joy and Anguish by Mark R Levin | $ 22.00 | $ 15.40 | $ 13.20 | $ 15.40 |
| World Without End by Ken Follett | $ 35.00 | $ 24.50 | $ 19.25 | $ 24.50 |
| Born Standing Up by Steve Martin | $ 25.00 | $ 17.50 | $ 14.99 | $ 17.50 |
| Cost for twelve books | $ 317.77 | $ 219.71 | $ 188.29 | $ 224.91 |
| Average cost/book (price/# books) | $ 26.48 | $ 18.31 | $ 15.69 | $ 18.74 |
| Total Cost/year (50 books/year x average cost/book) | $ 1,324.04 | $ 915.46 | $ 784.54 | $ 937.13 |
If you purchased all twelve books you would spend anywhere from $188.29 (Amazon) to $317.77 (list price). The average list price for a book was $26.48 and the average cost per book among the stores ranged from $15.69 (Amazon) to $18.74 (Borders). For someone who reads 50 books a year, they could spend anywhere from $784.54 (Amazon) to $1,324.04 (list price) or more!
No one claimed reading was an inexpensive hobby!
People will continue to buy books. I ran out of space for books year ago, and found ebooks to be an alternative I could learn to live with. They take up little/no space and many can be carried with ease!
So what about ebooks? Here are the same books, offered as ebooks at the Kindle store, Sony Connect, Mobipocket, Fictionwise and ebooks.com:
| ebook | Amazon | Sony | Mobipocket | Fictionwise | ebooks.com |
| Kindle | Connect | store | store | ||
| The Daring Book for Girls by Andrea Buchanan | $ 9.99 | $ 11.97 | $ 19.95 | 19.95 | $ 19.95 |
| The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett | $ 6.39 | $ 6.39 | $ 7.99 | 7.99 | $ 22.50 |
| An Inconvenient Book: Real Solutions to the World’s Biggest Problems by Glenn Beck | $ 9.99 | $ 13.59 | $ 16.99 | 16.99 | $ 16.99 |
| The Darkest Evening of the Year by Dean Koontz | $ 9.99 | $ 12.57 | $ 20.95 | 20.95 | $ 20.95 |
| Stone Cold by David Baldacci | $ 9.99 | $ 11.39 | $ 18.99 | 18.99 | $ 17.09 |
| Double Cross by James Patterson | $ 9.99 | $ 11.99 | $ 19.99 | 19.99 | $ 17.99 |
| I am America (and So Can You) by Stephen Colbert | $ 9.99 | $ 10.79 | $ 18.99 | 18.99 | $ 17.09 |
| A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini | $ 9.99 | $ 12.99 | $ 25.95 | 25.95 | $ 23.35 |
| Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld | $ 9.99 | $ 11.97 | $ 19.95 | 19.95 | $ 17.95 |
| Rescuing Sprite: A Dog Lover’s Story of Joy and Anguish by Mark R Levin | $ 9.99 | $ 10.19 | $ 16.99 | 16.99 | $ 16.99 |
| World Without End by Ken Follett | $ 9.99 | $ 12.99 | $ 35.00 | 35 | $ 31.50 |
| Born Standing Up by Steve Martin | $ 9.99 | $ 10.19 | $ 16.99 | 16.99 | $ 16.99 |
| Cost for twelve books | $ 116.28 | $ 137.02 | $ 238.73 | $ 238.73 | $ 239.34 |
| Average cost/book (price/# books) | $ 9.69 | $ 11.42 | $ 19.89 | $ 19.89 | $ 19.95 |
| Total Cost/year (50 books/year x average cost/book) | $ 484.50 | $ 570.92 | $ 994.71 | $ 994.71 | $ 997.25 |
(Note: Online prices, not club member discounts were used)
In this situation, if you purchased all twelve ebooks you would spend anywhere from $116.28 (Kindle store) to $239.34 (ebooks.com). The average cost per book among the stores ranged from $9.69 (Kindle store) to $19.95 (ebooks.com). For someone who reads 50 books a year, they could spend anywhere from $484.50 (Kindle store) to $997.25 (ebooks.com).
The ebooks purchased at Kindle store can only be read on the Kindle. To read the actual book or ebook on your computer (AND another device- phone, PDA, etc) you will pay almost twice as much!
The ebooks for the Kindle can be purchased with or without the use of a computer (an added convenience) and all purchases are saved by Amazon in your media library online. All of the others require downloading and saving to the computer.
I have been purchasing books from Mobipocket and Fictionwise for years for reading on my personal computer, Dell Axim x51v (pocket pc) and AT&T Tilt (pocket pc phone) using Mobipocket software. It’s okay, but I don’t usually read sitting at the computer, and reading on a small screen tends to “get old”. I have always wanted “more”.
Looking at the numbers, the purchase of a Kindle, would “pay for itself” (for me) before 50 books were purchased from the Kindle store!
So, THERE are some numbers…… to make you THINK!
[Editor’s Note: My Kindle is “supposed” to be a Christmas gift from my husband to me, wrapped and under the tree. It will get there eventually, but I will be using it during the day while everyone is gone (at school and work). Let’s hope no one asks or figures out that it has arrived!]
You can also participate in other conversation in our active forums with 200,000 other Members. It only takes 2 minutes to 
It would be interesting to see some discussion of the cost structure as well as the comparison of costs. How much does it actually cost to distribute these eBooks?
You are assuming the Amazon pricing will be like this forever. It most likely will not be. These are equivalent to those low “teaser” rates that banks give you on new credit cards. Presumably Amazon realized that bloggers all over the world would start writing articles like this one doing calculations to “prove” the kindle is really not expensive by making the same unproven assumption you are making.
The original wording on the Amazon site, for the first 2 days after kindle was released, implied that NY Times best sellers were “always” $9.99. When articles appeared in their own forums questioning this, they changed it on about day 3 to say “unless otherwise posted”.
The “always” languaged lasted exactly 48 hours.
And this only applies to about 100 NY Times best sellers, a tiny fraction of the entire catalog.
In addition, I was unable to find any guarantee anywhere that says the EVDO is free forever. Eventually whatever deal Amazon struck with sprint will expire and will be renegotiated. There is no guarantee that monthly fees won’t be added later for this service. If you recall, this is how cable TV started: basic service was free, with no commercials at first. Once lots of people bought into it, everything started getting fees attached. Oh, and they added commercials too!
The fact that you “don’t need a contract” for EVDO is actually a double-edged sword. No contract also applies to Amazon. They can change the deal at any time because there is no contract.
In fact, even their “free” web browsing is clearly not going to stay free. The wording in the kindle manual has wording to the effect that “it’s free for the time being.”
There may be some serious surprises in store for Kindle owners in the future regarding fees.
In my opinion, devices must stand on their own merits unless there are guarantees about how long special pricing on content will last. And devices that are open and do not lock you into a single vendor are preferable.
Interesting comparison between ebooks. Having read some of the comments it appears that some readers think the problem is the ebook reader being expensive. I think content and the device are both expensive for what they are, but if you had a choice you would rather pay for the Kindle and get the content cheaper. Kindle is a one-of purchase. Books are not. If I know that I have to pay $400 to get the device but each book will cost me only $1, then I know the more I use it the more I will save. In fact it may even change my reading habits. I will explore more books that I normally don’t.
On the other side of the scale, if Kindle is given for $50, then its very tempting to buy it because its cheap, and since ebooks are generally cheaper I can see that at some point in the future it may even out.
So it seems that the current pricing is still a bit balanced in the middle and doesn’t encourage paying for the device for almost free books, or get an almost free reader to read digital books.
Of course Amazon can easily change its pricing model in the future. It all depends on competition now …
—–
Future Converged
http://www.futureconverged.com