As an update to an earlier post on the Amazon Kindle’s marketing strategy, Jeff Bezos did an interview on Charlie Rose (watch the video here).  Amazon is well known for its patience and Bezos offers a few clues on how the company plans to compete.

• There is an avalanche of iPad fast-followers coming. Look for this space to get quite crowded but competition should help lower the price.  As a result, Kindle will not become another me-too device.  Bezos is firm in his commitment that the device will only be used for reading.
• Lowering the price point. $139 gets you the basic reader with WiFi ability.

Here’s how Amazon is differentiating it based on product features:

• e-ink display and the ability to closely mimic the experience of reading a physical book
• Very long battery life
• Smaller form factor

The Kindle is poised to take advantage of the ADD that we all have for using electronic devices.  The New York Times is running an on-going series around this called “Your Brain on Computers“.  Potentially shutting off Twitter, Facebook, and the Angry Birds game to focus on reading might prove to help those who struggle with staying on task.

Amazon is clearly aiming at only the serious reader who happens to be an early adopter.  Given the psychographics of such, these folks do have a fondness for gadgets and might be willing to tote an iPhone, a Blackberry, an iPad, and a Kindle for good measure.  The challenge will be hitting the Early Majority of customers who are pensive about shying away from physical books but realize that they’ll have to use a digital reader at some point.  The low price of the basic Kindle reader could help and lessen the fear of being burned but the lack of convergence poses a big problem.

Game time: For Amazon to succeed, they absolutely have to deliver a brilliant customer experience for reading.  Going head to head with Apple on product design is not an enviable challenge.  However, if the company can build an experience and kick off a word of mouth among bookworms, it could carve out a nice niche.

Bonus: At around 37:00 minutes, Bezos gives his take on the future of marketing with social media.  In short, conversations happen faster and we’re relying on our network to recommend us products and services.  Bezos says to look for R&D budgets to grow and marketing budgets to shrink as companies realize it’s too expensive to market junk.