Comments on: Amazon debuts Kindle e-book reader

The retail giant forays into gadgetry with the launch of its electronic-book reader, hoping to succeed where hardware companies have failed.

[pugster]

Didn't Sony do the same the same thing for less?

I recall Sony is also selling some kind of e-book device for about $250. Why would some idiot buy Amazon's Kindle for $400? This device would never fly.

[twolf2919]

No - Sony's was more than $200

I believe the original Sony was around $399 too - while the newer one is around $300. But it doesn't have Kindle's wireless capability.

But even with the wireless capability - I am very disappointed that wi-fi doesn't seem to be included (or did I misread the feature description?) and the thing doesn't even let you surf the web? How lame is that! $399 for a book/magazine/handicapped-blog-reader - and butt ugly on top of that!

I guess I'll have to wait until Apple comes up with a good looking e-reader with wi-fi and, optionally, with a phone....oh, wait! They already did! And It's $300 ($399 with phone), has an awesome interface, and....has color.

I'm being a little sarcastic - the iTouch/iPhone is probably not that great an e-reader due to its dimension and technology (and may not handle PDF/other file formats as well yet), but it sure seems to be alot more versatile than the Kindle.

[Alphaman63]

Repeating history's mistakes

I've got a dusty Rocket eBook somewhere that did 90% of what this thing does, and did it years ago. It cost half as much, plus had a backlight. They went out of business because even $100 is too much to spend for such a dedicated ebook device. I now use MobiPocket on my PDA -- sure, the small screen sucks, but the ubiquitous nature of content and free price of the software more than makes up for that. You can do the same on a $99 PDA, so there's a solution for 1/4 the price of this overpriced Kindle. At that price, you also get a free organizer and RSS feed reader thrown in. Who needs to pay for newspaper subscriptions?

Sorry, Jeff, this will die like all the other overpriced ebook readers have in the past. And I'm an ebook reader fan!

(Wow, this is comment board is beginning to look like that for the Palm Foleo after it was announced!)

[chisaiboo]

not supposed to have a backlight

it's not SUPPOSED to be backlit, so that it is easy on the eyes, unlie a computer screen. it really does look like paper, thereby not causing the eyestrain and eventual eyesight loss caused by countless hours staring at computer screens.

[bobby_brady]

DRM-DRM-DRM-DRM is the issue!

Besides being overpriced, why would anyone buy "ebooks"? It's the same thing as trying to buy music with DRM restrictions. At least with a physical book, you can resell it, give it to a friend or family member to read, or keep it. With ebooks, none of that is an option, except for the last one. In addition, who is to say what the DRM restrictions will be in the future? The publishers might very well decide to limit the number of times you can read a book, insert a time frame (I can also see ad banners coming into play).

Ebooks are a joke, and this "reader" which is highly overpriced will only re-enforce my conclusion of ebooks.

[empeck]

If survival is important...

...bookstores like Amazon and Co., would do well to give away
e-book readers. Otherwise, they can flush their $400 readers
down the tubes, along with their bookstores. I was disappointed
at Sony's $300 stab at this market and am 33% more
disappointed in Amazon. In truth, I haven't purchased anything
from Amazon since they pulled that stunt with their privacy
policy, and I probably never will buy anything from them again.
(Yes, I AM still mad about that.)

To Amazon, Sony and any other fools who want to manufacture
e-book readers: IF YOU WANT PEOPLE TO BUY YOUR BOOKS,
GIVE AWAY THE E-BOOK READERS.

(Is it really that hard for the average MBA to figure this stuff out?
)

[itango]

I have some reasons why I

would not buy one (although I have a huge library at home):

1. Price of Kindle, and price of e-books (way too high, especially for older titles).

2. DRM content

3. Once e-books begin to take off, is there anyone that doubts that marketers will be far behind with obnoxious pop ups?

4. Just like with CDs and movies, people that like specialty content (such as foreign films)will find it difficult to purchase the books they want, and unlike physical books, there will be no "used bookstores" to search.

[Penguinisto]

Yes, No, and Maybe.

[u]Yes:[/u] Nice idea - you can store a lot of stuff in one. If you have a pile of reference books that you use in your work (e.g. programming books, I.C. Master for electronics types, things like that), this thing is golden.

[u]No:[/u] Compatibility ("...no PDF? izzat true?"), Interoperability ("whaddya mean I gotta have Windows Vista Whiz-Bang Ultra-Pro 5000 just to sync this thing?"), DRM, and the pricetag are severe limiting factors. (The first two are slightly exaggerated, but still valid points). I don't need a license to read a book. I don't have to plug it in anywhere. Unless it's a very rare book, it won't cost me ~$400 just to open it.

[u]Maybe:[/u] If some corp can make one of these things cheap(er) and somewhat universal, I think they'd become very wealthy. Put the pricetag at no more than $100-$125 and recoup your money off of volume, FFS. Make them as universally portable as a real book (no DRM, no tie-in to any OS, etc), and it would be twice as attractive.


Then again, I kinda like the fact that I have a big bookshelf at home with a ton of rare books in it. I also don't think I could get the autographs of Tom Clancy or Paul Tibbetts (yes, I have both) into their respective e-books and have it be nearly as authentic or cool, you know?

/P

[Tui Pohutukawa]

Expensive, useless toy

These readers are going to sit on the warehouse shelves like
bricks.

For that kind of money, you can buy a fully functional laptop with a
colour screen, view news sites and blogs for free, download and
*keep* all kinds of books (including PDF files), listen to music, look
at pictures, watch video, write and receive e-mails, burn DVDs...

[Alex Alexzander]

How many of you even tried this?

I don't think most, if any of you actually own a Kindle. A PDA is not at all like a Kindle in terms of the screen. I own the best PDA on the planet, which is a BlackBerry. And the backlight of the screen alone makes it not a great eBook reader for any duration of time. The point of the reader device is to be as close to the comfort of reading an actual book as possible.

I own a Kindle and the device can be read easily with the sun shining directly upon the screen. The screen is easy to read because there is no backlight. It doesn't tire your eyes. The device is also for those of us who carry more than a book or a newspaper. It saves us weight, and makes reading more convenient.

If you're looking for cheap, join the library. If you're looking for a great experience in reading with great convenience, buy a Kindle. If you don't own one; kind of hard to take your ignorant comment with more than a grain of salt.

[Understarsidream]

No thanks...

I'm an avid reader and have thought about the e-readers I've
seen over the years and remain unimpressed for a few reasons.

For the cost of the reader I can wander down to my favorite
used bookstore and get probably 200 paperbacks for that price.
And then another 75 when I turn those in. I can also keep the
ones I really like or give them to friends. With E-readers.. you
have a finite amount of space and they are locked to the reader.

The limited title selection titles just doesn't interest me. There
are tens of thousands of books from the last hundred years...
mysteries from the 40's, classic sci-fi from the 60s, historical
fiction from the 70s, and more. The stuff they release for e-
readers are limited to best sellers and public domain "classics".

I'm sorry but it's a lot of money to lock yourself into a format
that may not be good in a few years (just look at what happened
to the people who found out Microsoft changed formats when
they went to zune... all the people who had purchased music
previously were locked out).

[plee9]

3 words: get a laptop

why would anyone buy something that is like a handicapped version of laptop?

[KazeWolf]

Ok...after a year this thing's been out, I feel I should address my own concerns and why I'm not buying a Kindle (just yet)
-No color. All that technology and outrageous pricing and you can't give me COLOR?!
-No way (that I know of) to somehow put real books you've already purchased onto the Kindle at no charge.
-Unable to read mp4 files. Sorry. I'm a mac user and occasionally buy from iTunes store. The music feature for the Kindle is useless to me if it won't read mp4's.
-Can only read txt files. Word is a no go with this baby.
-Lackluster. For something so expensive, it should simply do more. Again, color. iPod Touch's can do every bit the Kindle can do and make it better looking. It would be nice to put photos or comics on the Kindle, since it has a nice big screen, but with no color, there's hardly a point. This also, in my opinion makes magazine reading and Wikipedia browsing on the Kindle a joke.

Now, I'm a huge reader. I LOVE books and I love comics, and while I can puff out my chest in pride at the amount of books I've accumulated over the years, they are heavy and a bit of a burden because of this. I'm moving soon, and all I can think of is the headache that will come with packaging my books. E Readers are a great concept (to have your entire library at your fingertips) but far too expensive and doesn't offer enough to totally captivate me.

Kindle's going to have to do some serious updating, become more flexible, and less expensive before I even go near it. Better luck next year, Amazon. Ya dumb *****.