What Kindle can learn from the video game market

by phil on Friday May 8, 2009 6:48 PM
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In video game parlance, a "console seller" is a video game that people want so badly that they'll buy a $200-$500 system just to get it. This is why console manufacturers clamor so much for exclusives. Rock Band, Gears of War, and Halo are all console sellers.

But what would be a "console seller" for Amazon's Kindle?

For me, I would fork the $489 to purchase a Kindle DX if they could give me a digital subscription to The New Yorker delivered right at midnight on Sundays. As it stands now, I get it in the mail three and a half days later at 1pm on Wednesday. Uncool. In the mean time, I hear the blogosphere abuzz with this article or that, and while I can read a third to half of the articles for free online, I refuse to subscribe to the RSS feeds or visit the home page, simply because I want to savor the magazine and have it exist in its own stream.

If Amazon made a deal with Conde Nast, that would change everything for me.

Then again, Amazon is in some ways already thinking about "console sellers." Actually, in computer electronics parlance, the term would be "killer app." Amazon made a deal with major textbook publishers to get their books on the Kindle DX. If I was still a student, I'd be begging my parents for this. The backpack load of an AP student in High School is ridiculous.