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Amazon has announced the Kindle -- their new e-book reader. I'm not one of the folks they decided to let play-test the product, so anything I have to say is based entirely on reading descriptions of the device, and from the video they've posted on the site. But here's my thoughts:
This is one ugly piece of technology. Just looking at it makes me wince. It's bland, plastic-y, clunky, and looks like something that would have appeared on the original Star Trek series -- a 1970s view of what a 21st Century handheld device would look like. Who did the industrial design for this, and have they ever looked at an iPod or iPhone or some other device that people actually use and love?
This is way too expensive. By at least half if not more. $400 bucks to get a holder for your books? Amazon needs to take a cue from the computer printer manufacturers, who have figured out that if you pretty much give away your product, you lock them into buying your refill cartridges for the life of the device. At $400 bucks, if I drop it and it breaks, I'm going to be mighty pissed. (Yes, I saw the "Drop Test" video. I've also seen "Drop Test" videos of iPhones where they drop onto concrete and survive... but I've also seen iPhone screens cracked by a three-foot fall to a wood floor. If the Kindle falls screen-first onto a rock, you're going to have a cracked screen and a useless device...) If I buy a $7.99 paperback, I can drop it all I want. I can take it in the bathtub with me, too, and if I drop it there, it gets wet but I can let it dry out and probably still read it. Drop the Kindle in the bathtub (or let it get rained on, or spill a coke on it) and you're going to have a $400 paperweight.
$400 is 50 $8 paperbacks...
The Kindle can't read every e-book out there. The Kindle will read Kindle-file books. But it won't read PDFs. WTF? PDFs are the standard for fiction, for academic papers, for lots of stuff out there.
I have to pay for the internet? I can get the NY Times or my favorite blogs on this... but I have to pay a subscription fee for those -- stuff I can get for free, download, bookmark, or print on my laptop. Some of the claims amazon makes are misleading, like "No monthly wireless bills, service plans, or commitments..." Right -- as long as you only want to use the device to buy and download Kindle books. If you want to use it for other stuff, well, there are going to be charges for that.
DRM-locked, bleh... Once more, we have a proprietary device. If I buy a dead tree book and like it, I can hand it to Denise when I'm done and say "Here, you gotta read this..." If I buy a book on my Kindle and like it, I can't give it to Denise at all unless I hand her my Kindle -- which means I can't read anything else stored on the thing until she gives it back. Bleh! Heck, even iTunes allows me to share my purchased songs on up to five computers.
Royalty rates for the writers are too low. They offer writers 35% royalties -- significantly higher than the rate for dead tree books, but why should amazon take 65% of the profits when there's no overhead to this? Yeah, they have some (small) cost in pushing the book down to the Kindle, but they don't have to buy paper or print books or ship them or store them. It seems to me that a 50-50 split would be far more equitable for electronic distribution.
Gee, the amazon customers don't seem to like it... At the moment I'm writing this, the 272 customer reviews rate it at barely more than two stars. Not that I think amazon customer reviews are all that believable or trustworthy -- believe me, I've seen some customer reviews that made me wonder at the sanity of the reviewer -- but the solid negativity is interesting. Almost 40% of those reviewing the device give it one star. Mind you, I don't think many of the 'reviewers' have actually held and used the device, so their 'review' is no more valid than mine. :-) Gee, you'd think amazon would be packing the reviews with five-star raves from their employees...
My current Bottom Line: I find it difficult to get very excited about this. One day someone will come up with the perfect e-book reader. It's inevitable. But (although I reserve final judgment, since maybe, maybe if I actually played with the device I might change my mind) I don't think this is that day. Sorry, Kindle...
This is one ugly piece of technology. Just looking at it makes me wince. It's bland, plastic-y, clunky, and looks like something that would have appeared on the original Star Trek series -- a 1970s view of what a 21st Century handheld device would look like. Who did the industrial design for this, and have they ever looked at an iPod or iPhone or some other device that people actually use and love?
This is way too expensive. By at least half if not more. $400 bucks to get a holder for your books? Amazon needs to take a cue from the computer printer manufacturers, who have figured out that if you pretty much give away your product, you lock them into buying your refill cartridges for the life of the device. At $400 bucks, if I drop it and it breaks, I'm going to be mighty pissed. (Yes, I saw the "Drop Test" video. I've also seen "Drop Test" videos of iPhones where they drop onto concrete and survive... but I've also seen iPhone screens cracked by a three-foot fall to a wood floor. If the Kindle falls screen-first onto a rock, you're going to have a cracked screen and a useless device...) If I buy a $7.99 paperback, I can drop it all I want. I can take it in the bathtub with me, too, and if I drop it there, it gets wet but I can let it dry out and probably still read it. Drop the Kindle in the bathtub (or let it get rained on, or spill a coke on it) and you're going to have a $400 paperweight.
$400 is 50 $8 paperbacks...
The Kindle can't read every e-book out there. The Kindle will read Kindle-file books. But it won't read PDFs. WTF? PDFs are the standard for fiction, for academic papers, for lots of stuff out there.
I have to pay for the internet? I can get the NY Times or my favorite blogs on this... but I have to pay a subscription fee for those -- stuff I can get for free, download, bookmark, or print on my laptop. Some of the claims amazon makes are misleading, like "No monthly wireless bills, service plans, or commitments..." Right -- as long as you only want to use the device to buy and download Kindle books. If you want to use it for other stuff, well, there are going to be charges for that.
DRM-locked, bleh... Once more, we have a proprietary device. If I buy a dead tree book and like it, I can hand it to Denise when I'm done and say "Here, you gotta read this..." If I buy a book on my Kindle and like it, I can't give it to Denise at all unless I hand her my Kindle -- which means I can't read anything else stored on the thing until she gives it back. Bleh! Heck, even iTunes allows me to share my purchased songs on up to five computers.
Royalty rates for the writers are too low. They offer writers 35% royalties -- significantly higher than the rate for dead tree books, but why should amazon take 65% of the profits when there's no overhead to this? Yeah, they have some (small) cost in pushing the book down to the Kindle, but they don't have to buy paper or print books or ship them or store them. It seems to me that a 50-50 split would be far more equitable for electronic distribution.
Gee, the amazon customers don't seem to like it... At the moment I'm writing this, the 272 customer reviews rate it at barely more than two stars. Not that I think amazon customer reviews are all that believable or trustworthy -- believe me, I've seen some customer reviews that made me wonder at the sanity of the reviewer -- but the solid negativity is interesting. Almost 40% of those reviewing the device give it one star. Mind you, I don't think many of the 'reviewers' have actually held and used the device, so their 'review' is no more valid than mine. :-) Gee, you'd think amazon would be packing the reviews with five-star raves from their employees...
My current Bottom Line: I find it difficult to get very excited about this. One day someone will come up with the perfect e-book reader. It's inevitable. But (although I reserve final judgment, since maybe, maybe if I actually played with the device I might change my mind) I don't think this is that day. Sorry, Kindle...