[Web4lib] Amazon's Kindle e-book reader

[Brian Gray]

I agree with all your points. I currently have a phone and a PDA, but
on my next phone upgrade will be going to a single device. We are
seeing a combining of electronics as the tools improve in
functionality and/or size.

The dent in your comparison is the monthly service fees you have with
iPhone and other devices. I think if they can cut the price in half
for the Kindle there will be a market for it.

I wonder what problems people will experience on flights if flight
staff are not familiar with the technology, especially since it works
like a cellular for transmission.

Brian Gray
midnspiral at gmail.com

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