[Web4lib] Amazon's Kindle e-book reader

[Tom Keays]

On 11/20/07, Andrew Mutch <amutch at waterford.lib.mi.us> wrote:
>E-book readers keep coming up short both as technology and as a business model
>because they are trying to replace a product that works with one that
doesn't work as
>well. We all know that the best product doesn't always win out. But outside of
>technophiles who want to digitize their entire libraries and carry
them around with
>them wherever they go, how many users in the consumer market will
this appeal to? I'm
>not going to say that there's no place for something like the Kindle
Reader. But as
>it has been, I think it's a very niche product.

Just as you wouldn't buy an iPod and compare it with a 45-rpm record,
you can't buy an e-book reader (Kindle or otherwise) and compare it to
a book. You compare it, instead, to your collection.

What makes e-book readers attractive (besides the pure geekiness of
them) is the fact that I can carry 200 books as easily as one, Heck,
why stop there... with SD cards, I can carry thousands of e-books with
me. And I do.*

Also, referring back the to idea of a common e-book format. I call it "html".

Tom

* Palm Tungsten T3, at least for now. With its rapidly diminishing
battery life, I need to either upgrade or replace the battery pack.
That, far more than its limited readability in sunlight, has been the
real annoyance I've had with it as an e-book reader.