(This is one of an irregular series of posts entitled “Stupid Geek Tricks”. The complete collection of Stupid Geek Tricks posts is available on a single page, or via a special RSS feed.)
I’ve seen some noise over the past few days regarding the release of Amazon’s Kindle
Much of the reaction is skeptical, in part due to the expense ($399 + $10 per book…), in part due to the perception that a hardcopy book is something special, and in part due to expectations that Amazon could be squashed by either Google or Apple.
For example, Jeremy Toeman at LIVEdigitally comments:
In my eyes this is one of those technologies that is still searching for a problem. At $399 + $9.99 per book, it’s certainly not a cost-competitive solution to purchasing books, unless you are comparing solely against new, hardcover prints. Further, it’s not exactly a challenge to find and buy books, whether online or offline, new or used. In fact, it’s pretty hard to argue that an electronic reader will vastly improve the book discovery, purchase, and consumption experience (unlike how much an MP3 player was able to do that exact thing). The only really viable argument against physical books is they are bigger and bulkier, but that really only applies to hardcover books.
Rex Hammock observes:
Okay, I’ll admit it: I’ll buy and review a Amazon Kindle, but what I really want my eBook reader to be is a Kindle-size iPod Touchbook (or what we call around here, Rumor #3). I guess since Apple doesn’t blog — they advertise and publicize and present and pronounce — I guess I am wasting my time blogging about this. Perhaps I should be sending this message to Apple in a way they might understand (Books are my girl frend…):
Scoble takes a more pragmatic view:
[E]ven if Jeff Bezos turns out to be a failure here this device will push the market simply by getting you all to consider a world where you read your books off of a screen rather than off of paper. To me that’s interesting.
Now, I am one of the small minority of folks who prefers to read books in electronic, rather than dead-tree format. For the past half-decade-or-so, much of my recreational offline reading has been various utilities on my PDAs (first Palm, now Windows Mobile), and I’m usually walking around with a small library in my shirt pocket.
The downsides with this mode of reading include a relative lack of titles in my preferred .pdb format, and the fact that reading on a relatively small PDA screen can get tiring.
On the other hand, having several books always available is danged nice. When I take a business trip, I can easily go through 3 or 4 paperbacks on the plane, and I like to travel light. Also my wife and I have completely different shopping styles…so when she wants me to stay with her in store X, while she goes through the store in her excruciatingly slow, detailed manner…well, I can always break out a book to amuse myself while waiting for her to request my opinion on whatever she’s looking at.
Plus, I’m going to carry a PDA around anyway—it’s the only way I can keep my and my wife’s very dynamic schedule straight, and keep up with my to-do list—so there’s no additional space occupied or mass borne.
Looking at the Kindle, I have to admit that it’s an intriguing gadget. The expected increased availability of etexts, the ability to buy new books wirelessly and instantly, and access to newspapers and magazines offline but still electronically are all extremely appealing features to me.
The idea of a lightweight gadget with a larger screen but is still presumably a hand-held gadget is also interesting to me. However, it’s another gadget at a time where I already carry plenty thankyouverymuch.
If the Kindle has a failing, at first glance, it is that it appears to be a single-function device. If it had a calendar and task app, a note-taking utility, and maybe audio/video functionality, I’d seriously consider adding it to the list I’m sending Santa.
However, I’ll have to agree with Scoble… if the Kindle succeeds in getting the idea of ebooks into the mainstream…or at least out of its current tiny niche… it’ll be a Good Thing. (And maybe I won’t get as many strange looks when folks see me reading books on my PDA on the plane.)
