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The Amazon Kindle
January 17th, 2008 by Kate
There had been a lot of talk in my household, especially in the weeks leading up to the holidays, about the potential merits and downfalls of the new Amazon Kindle. For those of you who haven’t heard, this is the most recent wireless reading device to hit the streets. You know, a way to read all of your books without having to carry all of your books around. My Cousin Adam had been seriously contemplating the purchasing said device, but didn’t know if it would be $400 well spent. So we looked into it some, and I’m here to let you know what we came up with.
First off, doesn’t the name “Kindle” seem to encourage an old-fashioned book burning? Like “buy our product and then throw all of your books in the fire?” Anyway, that was my first thought. Apparently the name was supposed to bring up connotations of sparking your imagination and mind with information and a love of learning. Either way, Kindle=Start a Fire. Anyway, it’s certainly a good idea: At just over 11 ounces, you could have a world of books at your fingertips. The battery on it lasts a LONG time (I’ve heard rumors of up to 1000 hours if you take it off “wireless” mode and you’re just minding your own and reading your book,) so you don’t really have to worry about being in a coverage area or around a wi-fi network. You can even read your electronic copy of “Persuasion” in the technological wasteland that is the D.C. Metro. This ability to travel without having to pack a bunch of books was the main appeal to my cousin, who’s been known to board an airplane for a cross-country flight having packed nothing beyond the book in his hand. It would be nice to be able to have a couple of things to read without having to pack a carry-on. For this same reason, it’s also the perfect gift for the about-to-go-to-college types. Once you’ve purchased the Kindle, all newer books (including New York Times best sellers) are 10 bucks, with all of the classics you need for your English class at just 99 cents.
I think the thing that makes the Kindle stand out from previous failed efforts at portable bookery is that it really is quite a bit like reading an actual book. It has the feel of a light novel, and electronic ink to keep you from having that feeling of staring at a computer screen for hours. I don’t understand how electronic ink works (or technology as a whole, for that matter,) but I can tell you that it gives the look of a grown-up Etch-A-Sketch, except that you can’t shake it away.
Cousin Adam did end up purchasing one, and he’s very pleased for the reasons stated above. Personally, I like the idea, but plan on waiting for either the next generation or for someone to outdo Amazon. The cost, for me, is a consideration. If you read enough, and enough of what you read are expensive, hardcover best sellers, then I could see the Kindle eventually paying for itself. This does not describe me, as the books I buy average about $8.00. I also make a lot of notes in my books, which you can apparently do with the Kindle as well, but you will only keep those notes, and those books, until your Kindle becomes obsolete or breaks, and you get a new one.
The Kindle will also tell you proudly that you can access Wikipedia for free! And that blogs and magazines and newspapers are available as well! Yay! So yes, it’s nice that there’s Wikipedia. But everything else is pay-per-month, and necessarily at a good price. Blogs start at 99 cents per month (which is low, but will add up if you subscribe to all of the things you normally read,) and New York Times, for example, is $14 per month. It’s nice to have the option, but there’s not a compelling argument to choose to view these items through Kindle rather than in hardcopy or on, say, your computer for free.
Also, design-wise, it looks like someone build a jewelry box out of the outdated Macintosh computers from my high school’s keyboard classroom. Not sleek. Not sleek at all. I wonder about how successful there will be. There’s certainly a market, but it’s a niche market. It’s been sold out/on backorder at Amazon… since always really. When my cousin ordered his, he was told to expect it to ship about three weeks before humans reached the next plane of evolution. About three days later, he got the “Congratulations! After your exhaustive wait, you should expect to receive your new Kindle within one business day!” email, and this was taking into consideration that he purchased it the week before Christmas. I’m not saying that Amazon’s creating a false shortage, but… I don’t have a way to end this sentence. The potential buyers would have to fall into the narrow category of people who still read books, and people who are not “book lovers.” Because a lot of us are fond of the actual books themselves. They smell good, and they make us look classy if we have a lot of them on our bookshelves.
In conclusion: We’ll see. I predict that the Amazon Kindle 2.0 (or whoever does the next version) will cost less and appeal to a wider audience, and be prettier. The technology exists to make something really swell, but I don’t find the Kindle to be fully realized. So, for me and my people, for the time being, the combination of actual books and a computer will suit my needs (and wallet) better than a Kindle. But I’m open to seeing what’s next.
