Kickass Matchbook Project, and Kindle Big Data

Two sub-boxes in this post box; one is the Matchbook project and second is the personal experience of reading half of "Don Quixote" on the Kindle Paperwhite. 

Amazon vs Brick and Mortar: Game Set Matchbook

The Matchbook project from Amazon's perspective is a brilliant idea- stock up 3% that day- and puts clear daylight between the book offerings of Amazon vs that of your Crossword or Landmark. Earlier, the "points of difference" for Amazon vs Brick and Mortar were price, convenience and availability. Now, under the Matchbook project, they are giving you the ebooks for free when you buy print editions. Yet another telling blow to brick and mortar. In 2011, Borders, the second-largest US brick and mortar store, filed for bankruptcy, while the largest, Barnes and Noble, is probably only surviving because it sells the ebook reader Nook, which enables it to do some of the print-book:ebook jugglery. 

So will Crossword and Landmark die, or will they become another Indian contradiction to global trends- newspapers dying everywhere but thriving in India, same case with books? If Kindle goes to retail stores like Chroma et al, and demonstrates on paper the superior economy of Kindle over lifetime, then the slow burning Indian Kindle sales become a conflagration. 

Big Data @ Ebook/Kindle Paperwhite is nifty

E-readers allow the companies do build up stockpiles of data that could prove to be immensely useful. Two reasons; 

1. Book trends. Based on data aggregated from all its Nook readers, B&N realized that people on average tend to dump big non fiction reads halfway through. So, they created "Nook shorts" (or some name like that) to appeal to such readers. The ebook reader guys could sell all these insights to publishers for a handsome buck. 

2. Social reading: When I was reading Don Quixote yesterday, Kindle told me 222 users had highlighted one particular section. This social experience makes reading enjoyable- imagine if you could actually see notes made by your Kindle friends appear on the margins. You could actually have a discussion around the book as you read. 

The Kindle Paperwhite is a nifty device. Only complaint is that the screen could have been a wee bit bigger- one diagonal inch more. So now, I have bought a Nook (3 years ago) and a Kindle Paperwhite. But Amazon should make its new version release dates clearer- the day after I placed purchase, Amazon announces a new version of the Kindle! Just have one big Apple-like gala man which everyone knows about!

Nexus buyers and iPad users

Interesting chart in SAI today, and accompanying text mentions Tim Cook saying "I don't know what [Android tablets] are being used for because that’s a pretty, the basic function is web browser " in reaction to the fact that  latest data shows the iPad has 84% of web browser usage in North America.  Android reportedly has 63% of the tablet market, but only 16% of the web traffic.

Good tidings to hear on the day Amazon "Delivery tracker" tells me my ipad is "Out for delivery" (yohoo!). So here's my take:

I've observed this buy vs use myself- I bought the Nook, an android ebook reader. Now the product experience was unsatisfactory, and I've read in total 4 books in 3 years, on it. In fact, I bought a flurry of hard copy books just a month after I bought the Nook, mainly in exasperation when I realized that the Nook is going to do me no good.

When people buy an Apple product, there's initially high usage because;
1. There is much positivity around the product leading to the buy, and this positivity spills over to the first few months of ownership.
2. Comsumer has paid much more for the product than for an equivalent Android device, so the consumer tells himself to get good value for money by using the device.

On a longer term, usage might be high because the product itself might be designed well, so as to encourage usage.

This also means that Apple on its Safari gets much more data to play with than Google on its Chrome. And data is king innit. 

No one's getting Drilly on Dilli

http://www.business-standard.com/article/international/warburg-pincus-to-fund-600-mn-to-rahul-dhir-s-delonex-energy-113061700619_1.html

Rahul Dhir, CEO of Cairn Energy and a man with stellar pedigree, had to run away to Africa to start his own O&G company- the state of the nation, when it comes to OG drilling, is so bad!

-If Rahul Dhir cannot attract funds or does not see the opportunity in India O&G, who will?

-The US O&G industry is thriving because of all the small independents (mkt cap <$2 Bn; example: PETD) who push the frontiers in terms of both geography and technology. Does India have any small independents- no sir no.  

-One important factor is land laws- In USA, the landowner owns the sub-surface resources, while in India the government owns the subsurface resources. Therefore, subsurface resources are a free market in the US, while in India its effectively a state controlled market. And we all know which of these two markets gets the job done.