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Mike Elgan

The World Is My Office

Amazon buys Audible (Too bad it wasn't Apple)

11 comments

TAGS:Amazon, Apple, Audible
IT TOPICS:Emerging Technology, Mobile & Wireless, Personal Technology

SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. -- Amazon.com plans to buy Audible Inc. in an all-cash purchase for about $300 million. Darn it. I wish Apple had done this.

Amazon, of course, is the world's largest bookseller -- and probably the top seller of e-book readers.

Audible is the leading seller of audio books -- what we used to call "books on tape."

A little known fact about the Kindle: Since the first day it shipped in November, the Kindle enabled you to download a special application that gives you access to the Audible store exactly like you get access to the Amazon store, for buying and downloading audio books.

Unfortunately, the Kindle is a lousy player for audio books. I've got one, and I love it for reading the New York Times and books, but I don't think I'll ever sit there and listen to anything on it. It's way too big for a pocket. It's awkward even to carry around.

While the Kindle sucks for spoken-word books, iPods are ideal. And, in fact, Apple supports audio books purchased through Audible.com. Like you can with a Kindle, you can download an application called the AudibleManager, which facilitates the purchase of Audible content for listening on an iPod or iPhone.

Unfortunately, Amazon is aggressively competing with Apple in the downloadable music business, and it seems likely to me that one of the companies or both of them will wreck Apple's support of Audible-on-iPods.

I wish Apple would have either acquired Audible instead of Amazon -- or at least brazenly start competing with Amazon's Audible offerings with an audio books section on iTunes (the same way Amazon launched into the downloadable music business).

I wish that selfishly -- it would have been convenient for me, personally -- and also for the benefit of mankind. Only Apple is in a position to reverse the civilization-killing decline of literary interest among young people -- the "Twilight of the Books," as The New Yorker called it.

Imagine if Apple promoted audio books as heavily as it does TV shows and music?

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Status Quo

Submitted by Michael Long on February 1, 2008 - 6:09 P.M.

I doubt either side is anxious to wreck things, as both have a clear interest in maintaining the status quo and since unilateral moves by either one will do little more than cost both of them money.

Amazon/Audible wants to sell books, Apple wants to sell iPods and iPhones, and needs content to do it. Where's the conflict again?

See: http://www.isights.org/2008/02/amazon-audible.html

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Benefit mankind!? What the...!?

Submitted by Matt on January 31, 2008 - 8:58 P.M.

Please look up the word "literate" in the dictionary Mike (uh, use your Kindle if you must...)

Listening to someone read a book to you is what the preliterate and illiterate HAVE to do. The rest of us may do it for convenience while doing something else or when there isn't a real book handy, but it's NOT a direct substitute.

So PLEASE don't compare superficial experience of listening to a book with the deep engagement you get when reading one. God forbid we give kids the idea that listening to their iPod is equivalent to the intellectual process of literacy!

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Thank goodness it isn't Apple

Submitted by JeffGr on January 31, 2008 - 5:29 P.M.

I, for one, am extremely pleased that the buyer for Audible was not Apple. In fact, I can think of few companies that would be worse choices than Apple. In case you haven't noticed, Apple has a pretty strict policy of, as much as practical, making sure that their content only works on Apple devices.

Audible, on the other hand, has reached a rather extraordinary reach for DRM-encoded content. In fact, there are not too many significant portable music players out there that won't play Audible content. Go out to their site and look at their "device support" pages.

They support iPods (I believe the only non-Apple DRM content provider that does), but they also support devices from Creative, iRiver, Sandisk, and numerous other brands (Zune is one notable absence...) If you look at mobile phones, they do support the iPhone, but they also have Windows Mobile, Palm OS, and Java players, not to mention a number of custom solutions for other phones. In addition to all those, they even support a large percentage of portable GPS units, from pretty much every major brand.

Amazon seems to be pretty committed to interoperability, as shown by their strictly DRM-free music store. With that in mind, I think it is a safe bet that they will strive to continue the widespread compatibility with the Audible format. Do you honestly believe Amazon would have done the same?

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Thank goodness somebody

Submitted by stefn on January 31, 2008 - 2:10 P.M.

Thank goodness somebody bought Audible. Note to Amazon: Do something with the gawdawful website. Note to Apple: Stop selling Audible titles. Who wants them at full price?

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iTunes & Audible.com

Submitted by Anonymous on January 31, 2008 - 1:06 P.M.

I can't see Amazon crippling the iPod audiobook market: it's too big.

You can purchase Audible books a la cart through iTunes or cheaper via subscription at Audible.com. Either way, you don't need AudibleManager to upload Audible.com books to your iPod/iPhone. iTunes does just fine for both.

My fellow anonymous poster who complained about Audible's sound quality doesn't know what (s)he's talking about. You can safely ignore the "advice" from the man behind the virtual curtain and enjoy having someone read bedtime stories to your heart's content.

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Audible and Apple

Submitted by Anonymous on January 31, 2008 - 11:47 A.M.

"No Problemo"; one presumes Audible content will STILL to available to the iTunes Music story, and if AMZN raises the cost, they may tread in thin ice anti-trust-wise.

The iPod Touch continues to be a hugely superior choice than the Kindle: full color; does text and sound and pictures and movies well; more portable.

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Audible audiobooks suck.

Submitted by Anonymous on January 31, 2008 - 11:22 A.M.

Audible audiobooks suck. They sound tinny like AM radio from the 70s. Just go to a library and check out the real book on audio CD, see how much better it sounds. Or buy it on Amazon Marketplace, use it for a month, and sell it again on Marketplace when you are done with it. Audible customers may love audiobooks but they haven't got a clue how bad the audio sounds. They just get used to Audible and think this is how audiobooks should sound.

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You don't know what you talking about

Submitted by Kitty on April 19, 2008 - 9:49 P.M.

Hey YOU,

I an avid reader and recently been listening to audiobooks to help me stay alert on the road especially when I had to drive over an hour. I think you must been listening to voices that aren't good for audiobooks. I listen to a few and couldn't understand them. Or using a device that is not suitable to listening. For the books I do listen to the quality of the voice and who produces them does a excellent job conveying the stories. I think it depends on who produces the audiobooks. Audible is just a seller like amazon.com -- don't blame the quality on audible - but do complain to the producers/manufactors of the audiobooks!

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Ah someone who hasn't tried

Submitted by Anonymous on February 1, 2008 - 10:52 A.M.

Ah someone who hasn't tried them in a few years. Audio format 1 and 2 suck, but 3 and 4 are perfectly acceptable. The only issue is that they are in mono not stereo, though that doesn't make much difference for most books, it does make a difference for dramatised books. I also have a bunch of audio books on both CD and tape, and after ripping for play on my WM phone (even at 128k) other than the mono issue I would challenge most people to tell the difference, Considering the amount of background noise on the subway, which is where I listen, I couldn't be happier.

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Sorry, but if they promoted

Submitted by Adam on January 31, 2008 - 10:46 A.M.

Sorry, but if they promoted Audio Books as heavily as they promoted TV/Movies, they wouldn't make any money! Sure it's something they could do more of and books are better for your brain but they don't make as much money.

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