Amazon’s Next of Kindle: new eBook device debuts
Long discussed and eagerly anticipated by those in the eBook community, Amazon today launched its Kindle eBook reading device, which is now available for $399. Considering that this is Amazon’s first bit of major merchandise it has produced and sold under its own name, I think it’s a pretty big development. After all, it was years before Microsoft starting producing consumer electronic goods with the Xbox and now the Zune. And yet, even though Amazon’s road (or should we say river?) has been a little longer and winding than Microsoft’s, this decision makes perfect sense. Because even though today Amazon can sell you everything from a humidifier to plate stands (two recent purchases of mine, actually), where it all began — back in 1995 —- was with books. Books were the item that Jeff Bezos finally decided upon after driving to Washington with the idea to start an online business. And now, after the huge and explosive growth of the Internet, it’s to books that Bezos is once again looking in terms of Amazon’s next big development.
And while this will no doubt cause the usual hand-wringing amongst the literati and bibliophiles, it really shouldn’t. That Amazon is making available electronic books is not much different than when they made books available online over a decade ago. Back then the idea was selection and customer service. The same is true today, except instead of the convenience of overnight shipping, Amazon will be offering instantaneous download and delivery. Works of great literature will now never be more than a mouseclick away.
In terms of the device itself, I’ve seen it and think it’s pretty nice. In terms of layout and feel, the closest thing to compare it to (mainly because its screen uses the same eInk technology) is the line of Sony eReaders. However, the big (and, I think, crucial) difference is that the Kindle is wireless and has a web browser along with a small keyboard. So while most other eBook devices insist on you being at home, and online, with your device hooked up to your desktop or laptop computer before you can buy and download a book, with the Kindle you can be just about anywhere in the world and have access to a great bookstore. For instance, if you’re in the middle of Central Park and a friend says you just have to read The Kite Runner, you can pull out the Kindle and access the Amazon eBook store, and seconds later it’s yours. You can then start reading it on the subway ride home. And so while I won’t at all declare that the Kindle represents the “iPod moment” for eBooks, with its web integration it is indeed a step in the right direction. It is also yet another evolution in the dissemination of ideas, continuing in the long line that began with the written word, passed through the era of Gutenberg, and continues today with advances (like this) in digital delivery and consumption.
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e-Book Reader in the news…
Slightly delayed (just to keep us guessing!), but now on nearly every blog, Amazon’s offering - the Kindle…
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Meh. It might have been great, but it’s another in a long line of overly restrictive devices, introducing yet another file format that cannot be read by anything else, not even one’s own computer. You can’t print, you can’t copy, and you can’t share, not even among members of your own family, unless you all use the same Amazon account.
As someone once wrote: “Many users of eBooks found the various levels of DRM too constrictive. After all, if you buy a print book with no restrictions as to where you can take it and read it, why should eBooks be any different? Many consumers who purchased eBooks wanted to be able to read the file on a variety of machines or devices in different locations, or else wanted to send it to their friends the same way paperback books get passed on from person to person. But the technology companies – at the behest of the publishers who were afraid of the Napsterization of publishing, fearing that pirated books would be the downfall of their industry – insisted on draconian DRM measures that left early adopters of eBooks feeling shortchanged. In the end, there more things their eBook couldn’t do than things they could do.”
The only appreciable advance is the ability to purchase titles via the device itself — which I will admit is very appealing — but this is a classic example of one step forward and three steps back. Given the restrictions, I’d rather finish the conversation with my friend, then route myself past a bookstore on the way to the subway and buy a physical copy of “The Kite Runner” there, assuming that he hasn’t simply lent me his copy. I’ve cost myself a few minutes, but if the book is that good, I’ll still be able to pull it off my a shelf a decade from now and read it again, long after these .azw files join my Google Video and Virgin Digital files, taking up space on a hard drive and utterly useless.
Gerard, I tend to agree with you on the “meh” front. After all of this time, and all of the delays, you’d think they’d be shooting for Apple “insanely great” rather than just trying to improve a little on the Sony device (which I’m also very meh on).
It has a browser. People will use it more as a portable browser than a book reader, in my opinion. It is easy to order a book from my desk, and have it delivered to my office or home. The one advantage of having the content of a book instantly delivered to a digital device can’t cope with the disadvantages, as mentioned by Gerard.
[…] We can’t get past it this week. Amazon launched its own digital book reader. The question that some of us ask is if this will be the end of (book) print. What do you think? Will you consider buying one? Do you see yourselve reading a book on this device? Will this be the end of print? […]
[…] Amazon’s Next of Kindle: new eBook device debuts by Jeff Gomez at Print Is Dead […]
It has a browser. People will use it more as a portable browser than a book reader, in my opinion
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