[Web4lib] Amazon's Kindle e-book reader

[Roy Tennant]

It's nice that Jeff Bezos is such a nice guy. That and $3.40 (in California,
at least) will buy him a cup of coffee. The question is whether the Kindle
has a life. I still think it doesn't.

It gets kudos for the display that can be seen in sunlight and long battery
life. But I don't think those qualities are enough to overcome that you've
just spent $400 on something that only reads books. The device to which I
was alluding earlier was not a PC of any kind, but the iPhone. The iPhone
makes the Kindle look like last century's technology in a couple key ways.
One is simply the "wow" factor. I'm sorry, but I think the Kindle looks
dorky. If I'm not the only one, then who is going to want to be seen
carrying it around?

The other reason is more substantive. First Blackberries and now the iPhone
have demonstrated the kind of unification of functions that has been
predicted for many years -- you will no longer have a PDA and a phone and a
music player and perhaps even a laptop as separate devices -- they would be
all one. And the fact that the same amount of money will buy you either a
book reading device or a phone and a music player and a web browser and a
...makes the Kindle a complete non-starter in my book (sorry for the pun).
And to think folks were complaining about the price of the iPhone.
Roy


On 11/20/07 6:49 AM, "Richard Wiggins" <richard.wiggins at gmail.com> wrote:

> Did anyone listen to Jeff Bezos pitch the product on All Things Considered
> last night?  The npr.org Web site is undergoing a serious meltdown right
> now, serving up broken links and content from 2005, but it's worth a
> listen.  Bezos gently chided a blogger who dismissed the new device based on
> a fuzzy photo in an FCC filing.
> 
> One of the key points he made was that the display technology is a kind of
> electronic ink, not like the backlit LCD displays on the $400 laptops that
> Roy alludes to.  It uses very little power; it can last a week without
> recharge if you're not downloading using the Wi-Fi.
> 
> I think it's useful to think of the history of the PDA.  The Newton was a
> disaster; Doonesbury even made fun of its handwriting recognition.  Millions
> of us actually tried to learn another form of handwriting when wrestling
> with our Palm Pilots.  It took Treos, Blackberries, and now iPhones for the
> PDA to really come into its own.  But it eventually did.
> 
> I think there is no doubt that the purpose-specific e-book will come into
> its own as well, and I think people who nay-say it without seeing it,
> touching it, feeling it, and using it will someday look foolish.  They may
> not look foolish with this attempt, but someday they will.
> 
> The only development that I see derailing that possibility is a Star Trek:
> Next Generation level of tablet, weighing the same as the Amazon device,
> using equivalent display technology, costing no more, and as easy to use for
> the purpose of reading books.
> 
> /rich
> 
> PS -- I am biased here because in 1997 when SLA was in Seattle, Jeff Bezos
> spoke at the conference.  A room of 200 librarians interacted with him, and
> gave him suggestions.  Unfailingly he said "that's a great idea, let me take
> that back" and he seemed to mean it.  Afterwards he consented to an
> interview with me.  He spent much more time than a guy who'd already been on
> the cover of national magazines needed to, and he arranged for a separate
> visit for my wife and me to Amazon HQ.  He is truly a nice guy, probably the
> nicest CEO you'll ever encounter.  I wish him the best.  See:
> http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_5/wiggins/