Amazon Kindle

Many people have written to me to ask what I think about Amazon’s new eBook reader, the Kindle.  Much has been written about it in the popular and technology news media—in fact, Newsweek did a substantial feature article on the metamorphosis of the written word using the Kindle as a jumping off point for the story.  If you are generally interested in why Amazon has released the Kindle, how it works precisely, its features, and its flaws—then I suggest you read one of those many articles.  Without having actually seen or touched a Kindle, I can’t comment on its usability or touchability.  But, from everything I have read, there are a few things that stand out in my mind:

 

• The device is small—the size of a medium-sized paperback—and relatively lightweight.  I think that its touchability, or sensation, will have a lot to do with its success or failure.
• The ability to buy eBooks directly from the device—eliminating the need to download the book to a “real” computer, then transfer it to the device—makes this device stronger than any other eBook reader to date.  Amazon is following the sacred library rule to save the time of the reader.
• The “previous” and “next” page buttons are located on the left of the device and are quite huge.  Some reviewers state that this makes it difficult to pick up the device initially without accidentally moving forward or backward.
• The use of eInk in the device’s display creates a high quality screen, with good resolution, but still not anything approximating the clarity of a quality printed page.
• The ability to view documents sent to your special “Amazon” email address is wonderful—turning it into a document reader as well as a true eBook reader.
• The ability to go online to do web searches, follow links, and move from book to other tasks makes the device more flexible—and since when reading people often have questions best answered online, the ability to do so from the same device is a definite plus.

I will be interested to see how sales do.  At nearly $400 a pop this is not a casual purchase and, at least initially, I don’t expect them to be flying off of the shelves.  Early adopters will latch on to the device, iron some things out, and who knows?  In a few years we might get a full color, half-as-expensive version!  I wish Amazon luck with this endeavor.