The Amazon Kindle
I know this has been out for a while and this is the first time I have mentioned it, but I guess I missed it. It seems a lot of people did. About a year ago, Amazon.com released the Kindle, an electronic book reader. This seems to be their response to the IPod. You buy the gear from them and they get return business from downloads. Unfortunately for Amazon, the Kindle didn’t seem to get much traction.
Let me offer some suggestions as to why.
First, the target market is small. I read. A lot. Recently, I saw a cracked.com video joking the Amazon Kindle (more specifically, those who would find it useful) because few people struggle with how handle all the books they are currently reading. Sure, this device can store 200 books/newspapers/blogs, but who is carrying around that much reading material? Personally, I would love to cut back on the amount of books I am toting around, but not many people suffer my affliction.
Second, the price point is too high. Amazon recently dropped the price to $359. What a steal. The 32 gig iTouch is only $399. Did I mention that the Kindle is an electronic book and not a multi-media device? Plus, you’re paying $10+ a pop for the books.
Third, most people would rather listen than read. We seem to be post-literate in many ways. (Maybe I should cut back on the words myself…oh well). Why download a readable version when I can grab it from iTunes and listen to it?
So, does the Kindle have a place in the market? I don’t know. I haven’t taken one out for a spin yet. I could see how this would be useful to me, but I’m not ready to drop that much just yet. Maybe the second release will be a little sleeker and be a little more affordable. One thing the Kindle does have working in its favor, you don’t need to subscribe to a service to use the Wi-Fi.
If anyone out there has any hands on experience with the Kindle, I’d love to hear from you.
I don’t understand why they thought anybody’d buy it. It not that innovative; RCA had already made the eBook Reader, which was cheaper (the device itself and the books). I kept thinking, “There has to be more to it than that,” but I never cared enough to check it out–at least not after I saw the price.
I read a little on the eBook, but it was a friend’s. I didn’t use it enough to form an opinion. It included some neat features (e.g., highlighting and a dictionary for immediate definitions, both activated by a stylus). While it was not as advanced as the Kindle (you definitely knew you weren’t reading paper), if one is still able to purchase books for it, I’d recommend it over the Kindle. Of course, it doesn’t have the support of Amazon.com. If I were you, I think I’d wait for it to become more affordable, or buy a used one off eBay.