[Web4lib] Amazon's Kindle e-book reader

Tue Nov 20 11:11:35 EST 2007

I haven't seen a Kindle so I do not claim that it is the embodiment of the
sweet spot for the e-book.  I have bought more handheld devices than you've
bought coffee this month, and most failed to live up to the hype.  But past
performance is not necessarily an indicator of future failure.

I don't see how I could embrace the Kindle without seeing it.  Nor do I see
how you can dismiss it without seeing it.

The price, today, is virtually irrelevant.  It is common for products to
launch with prices much higher than the eventual street price.  Look at,
ahem, the iPhone, for example.  It is in Amazon's interest to practically
give the thing away since they will follow the model of HP toner and Gilette
razor blades ultimately.  (HP makes 1/3 of its revenue on ink.)  Avid
readers will make up the cost of the device by buying books at less than 1/2
the cost of print editions.

Setting aside the price, if the screen is readable and the battery life
lives up to the claims, there are a lot of people that would be THRILLED
to carry around 200 books in a 10 ounce package.

The iPhone is wonderful, marvelous, truly amazing technology.  Several
friends and colleagues swear by theirs.  Maybe younger eyes will read books
on them, but the presbyopics among us need more screen space.

/rich

PS --

Geez, Roy, if you want to debate the postscript, fine, but don't lead with
that rebuttal.    :-)

On Nov 20, 2007 10:24 AM, Roy Tennant <tennantr at oclc.org> wrote:

> 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/
>
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