Breaking through Physical Boundaries
The emotions about reading books in digital form and the Amazon Kindle are running high, already before the device was released. For me there are two features that sold me on the device: the networked content push and the content interaction. I have had many pda's, phones and tablets over the years that I setup to automatically pull in feeds such I could read them on the bus or plane. But none of these devices were designed for easy reading of longer articles, or if they were, like my tablet, they would be difficult to use outside and often awkward given their size. The Kindle is a very different kind of reading experience, much closer to a book than a pda. The pictures don’t do justice to its size and weight. I have had pda’s that were heavier. You do not need to connect, ever; your newspapers will show up no matter where you are. And you leave the charger at home when you travel, there is more than enough jiuce for a multi-day trip. The content interaction is interesting; dog-ears, bookmarks, annotations are easy and useful.
Technology-wise there is a nice quote in Jeff Bezos' Newsweek interview
This isn't a device, it's a service.
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I particularly like two elements.
First, that there's no network fee, as far as I can tell. (I have ordered a unit with Prime for delivery tomorrow.) The EVDO costs are built into the fee for the item.
Second, that blogs will be delivered -- at a fee. As a long-time blogger, there's never been a way to create an incentive for someone to pay for blog delivery. I'm being a little tongue-in-cheek when I say this is a feature, but it's rather interesting that 300 blogs are apparently under contract, and that they are the kind of blogs that create enough unique and timely content that people might be willing to pay for the delivery to a readable mobile device.
I can use my iPhone to read BoingBoing for "free," built into my $20 per month EDGE data fee, but the screen is small, and there's no RSS reader yet for the iPhone, so it's neither push nor perfectly conducive.
I already love the device and especially Amazon looking at it as a service and not a device.
Here are some points that come to my mind.
1. Kindle isn't crisp/cute/sleek to look at. The buttons on the top and side remind us about the 80s. I will be afraid to hold it and walk into a bar for the fear of getting beaten up (It's ugly.. get him)
2. Apple set the consumer devices bar very high with iPod and more so with iPhone. In this day, I can't believe a company like Amazon can release a device without touch sensitive screen. Having said that, I can believe that the price might shoot up if a touch screen is used.
3. The keyboard is sticking out all the time even when i'm reading a book. un-necessary. It could slide in or even be integrated into the monitor (like iPhone). The iphone's keyboard didn't win many hearts due to it's restricted size. Kindle, being bigger has a lot more real estate on screen. If this feature increases the price, at least a basic slide in keyboard could have been provided.
Dushyanth
Glenn: the way I look at the full content blog delivery as a consumer is that I am expecting that this will drive innovation in content creation and delivery by bloggers.
Dushyanth: You ask whether I think it is ugly or not. Sigh. I was looking yesterday at my collection of ipods and as I look at the first and second generation ones I am not sure whether they are ugly or not. I certainly think they are more attractive than the 3rd generation ones which I didn't like at all. Are they as cool as some of the new mobile phones (e.g. at times I prefer the samsung p700 over the iPhone. Have you seen the nokia 7900 prism?)? But I like to believe that many of those devices are part of people's identity and we show them off for that reason. I like the fact that the Kindle is low-key in that sense; that it is not the shiny object on which you read a book but that it morphs with the book/content and that it doesn't distract.
Everything I read so far about the device looks promising, with the exception of two things:
1. People are turned off from the get-go by the high price of entry: $399 ! If this is indeed a service, shouldn't it subsidize the device?
2. Paying money per each blog? It is wrong for several reasons: a) The standard fee structure can't always apply. If I want to subscribe to my sister, brother, mom, father, friend -- that's 5 blogs I have to pay. These 5 blogs combined will probably avarage 1-2 posts per week. Meanwhile, subscribing to Engadget or Slashdot will avarage 10-20 per day. How can they cost the same?
b) The blogger is not getting paid, though it may imply that they are since the charge is per blog.
I realize that push over someone else's wireless data network incurrs a cost, so why not let users decide to Only use their often available WiFi networks at home/work to avoid these fees?!
I think the register http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/19/amazon_ebook_reader_folly/ though obviously with a touch of cynicism, may have this one more accurately than newsweek.
Jason, I find the Register article an opinion, not an analysis based on facts or experiences, so it is hard to call it accurate. Granted, not many people will know how the future will look like, not even two years from now, and thus accuracy in predictions is hard to come by.
My personal experiences are close to those that Guy Kawasaki wrote up: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/11/amazon-announce.html