Will e-books and readers become commodities?

I noticed that Amazon developed a free app last year that makes it easy for people to read e-publications purchased from the Kindle store on their iPhones. However, they still require you to own a Kindle before buying Kindle books.

Amazon would clearly like to control the platform for e-publications, especially since they make a nice profit margin on each Kindle they sell. The free app attempts to create "coopetition" with Apple, giving Kindle users added value by allowing them to access their content through the iPhone, but still requiring they have a Kindle as their primary reader. The iPhone is probably fine for reading for ten minutes on the subway, the Kindle better for curling up with a novel on a Sunday afternoon. So the devices seem complementary, helping Amazon establish the Kindle format as a standard.

But I wonder what will happen as people devise ways to port content to the iPad and other devices. Is it possible to maintain closed standards for very long? As a consumer, I'd love to be able to access my purchased content on a Kindle, an iPad, a PC, a cheap Kindle knock-off, or any device I choose. And I'd be thrilled if there were dozens of discount e-publication sites all achieving parity in terms of selection and ease-of-use, and competing mostly on price.

Know who else would be happy with this situation? Google. If I'm buying from multiple sites, I'd want a centralized place to access my content. I'm sure Google would be happy to host it in the cloud. They would see all my reading preferences and could send me targeted advertising from the various e-book sites clamoring to attract my business.

I guess that's why Google tends to promote open standards and to be so popular with consumers and so disruptive to companies trying to dominate particular markets.

Rivalry in the eBooks (iBooks!) market

There has been a lot of debate over where Apple ipad fits in. However the publishers surely know where it fits in as implied by revolt of Macmillan. Excerpts from the article:

Just days after the wraps were taken off the iPad, Macmillan informed Amazon it wanted to begin charging between 12.99 and 14.99 dollars for e-book versions of most hardcover new releases and bestsellers.

Some interesting points worth debating:

1. Apple complained about Google entering its core market with Android. Google CEO Eric Schmidt's resignation from Apple board and Steve Jobs statement elucidates increase in rivalry. It seems with iBooks from Apple, Google vs Apple rivalry will dominate the Google vs Microsoft rivalry.

2. It remains to be seen if Google and Amazon will partner forgetting earlier rivalry considering Apple is attracting a lot of publishers.

3. Last but not the least, in a two sided network, there is a subsidy side. With the publishers like Macmillan revolting and demanding higher price for their titles, it remains to be seen how Amazon walks the tightrope of not annoying Kindle users (A reader will not like to pay $14.99 when he is used to pay $9.99 for an ebook).