Amazon's Corporate Headquarters

Having spent some time recently praising Seth Godin’s writing, I’ll take a moment to jump on the other side of the fence.  Today, he takes a moment to hold accountable Nick Bilton for a New York Times blog post about the Kindle.  Seth rightly points out several issues with the author’s charts and underlying assumptions.

Bilton’s point is that through time, the number of customers who express dissatisfaction with the newer Kindles sold by Amazon is growing larger.  Seth’s perspective is that the market served by each Kindle has changed through time, progressing from technology early adopters to a more general market consumer.

I would argue that Bilton’s point is valid.  As Amazon attempts to grow the market served by the Kindle, they are struggling to maintain the customer satisfaction ratings they received with the early models (and original market).  Put another way, there is a mismatch between the Kindle DX and the market it is serving.

I’m speculating, but I would guess that Apple’s products do not receive a similarly large number of negative customer satisfaction responses.  Their products are well designed for the target market and the disconnect between what is delivered and what is expected is smaller than what we see with the Kindle DX.  Apple is the common exception to many rules, but it is possible to design a mass market product that appeals to both the technologists and the mass market.

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For example, The Trends page lists how I consume feeds – and how I do not.  The smart feed reader should include this page in their weekly review.  You can keep yourself productive by following these simple steps:

1.  Unsubscribe from feeds that have not been updated in x months.  I am settling on nine months.  After that point, it’s safe to say the author has moved on.

2.  Unsubscribe from feeds I can’t keep up with.  The New York Times is a fire hose that I can not keep up with.  There are many news outlets that can filter that to the news items I value and I should focus my attention there.

3.  Investigate the obscure.  This is the real long tail.  If I want to present a unique perspective on the world then I should find the niche no one else serves (or subscribes to).