Amazon has just released a new product of their own called the Kindle, an ebook reader. David Pogue has a great review at the New York Times, so I won't go into great detail about here. However, I will say that I think this ebook reader has a chance. Numerous readers have come and gone in the past. At $399 it is still too much money. It is a $100 more than the Sony reader which is similar. It uses the same e-ink technology, has long battery life and fits easily in the hand. It is about the size of a DVD case.
What sets the Kindle apart is that it features free wireless connectivity and it is not WiFi. Instead, Amazon has teamed up with Sprint and is using Sprint's 3G data service that Kindle customers do NOT have to pay for. Instead it allows you to shop for books from Amazon without ever connecting to a computer. You can be wherever you can use your cell phone and download a new book in less than a minute - in a cab, waiting in line at the bank or sitting in the doctors office. You also have free access to Wikipedia and can subscribe to daily newspapers, magazines and blogs that are automatically delivered to you. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal arrive at 3 AM ready and waiting you in the morning.
So far Amazon has 90,000 books - over four times more than Sony has and Amazon plans on making every book they carry available for the Kindle. The Kindle store is similar to Amazon's online store. You can read a chapter of the book and read reviews from other customers. With the built in keyboard you can take notes, bookmark pages and search for books. The average price of books is $9.99 for best sellers - more than a paperback, but less than trade cover or hard cover. Finally, someone who understands that ebooks should cost less and has the weight t convince others of that fact.
As a student, this would be a great alternative to lugging around numerous books in a back pack. If you are a avid reader of newspapers and magazines, the Kindle would help keep your recycling bins from getting full.
Amazon is trying to to make it's Kindle the iPod of books and hopefully it will catch on and they will come out with cheaper models. They sold out of their initial stock. I do not know how many they had to begin with.
25 November 2007, 19:51
I agree that this is a great idea, especially in the age of “going green”. There is no better way to stop using so much paper than making books “paperless”. I am also a student, and it would be incredible to only have to carry one device around in place of all my heavy textbooks. It seems possible that it could also cut the astronomical costs of books each semester as well. I read somewhere else that Amazon sold out of the Kindle in preorder, it never even got a chance to go on sale at launch, which is incredible.