Comments on: The Amazon Kindle could enjoy iPod-like success

Kindle has been an unbridled success, and making its software available to competitors should help. How does its e-book strategy compare with iTunes strategy?

[Hep Cat]

I read nothing in the article you wrote about how the Kindle is an unqualified success.

Based on what? Compared to what?

[jbcahill]

Gee...the fact that the Kindle is ridiculously over priced and yet they can still sell every one they make and have a waiting list of people begging for them to hurry up and make more..sounds pretty successful to me.

[slapppy]

Nope. iPhone/iPod Touch is all you need. NO need to lug around another large/oversized device with very little functionality to justify the cost.

Kindle? What's that?
Oh right... some electronic device that's only available in the US.
Yawn.

[norbert6464]

Please don't neglect the fact that Steve Jobs posted an article online prior to any DRM free store that apple would embrace a DRM-free music store as soon as the record companies would allow it. Going DRM-free had nothing to do with Amazon.

[baconstang]

Oh sure! I can see all the kids walking down the street or riding the bus reading their Kindle...... NO.

[cash_7]

This is one of the first articles that Don has written in a while that actually makes good sense and that I agree with. Most of the time I'll read his articles for a good laugh on his takes that are just flat out off... but this is actually good. I wasn't a user of the Kindle store until I got my iphone... I don't own a Kindle, and don't know that I will any time soon, but I do buy Kindle books for my iPhone. I think there's no where to go but up for Kindle on the media side... on the hardware side, I'm sure it will just keep getting better and better, and eventually, I'm sure I'll break down and buy a Kindle reader.

Way to go Don... good take.

[TV James]

The minute I can check out books from my local library, I will buy a Kindle. Even if it then later means turning the receipt into my wife who I've made take over the financials in our house to curb unnecessary spending.

[Sonnyjoon]

The Amazon Kindle is nothing amazing. Just another smart way to get people with a lot of money to spend it...and I'd think the illuminated screen would hurt your eyes after a while, don't you think? Traditional, physical books are much better, and I don't see anything wrong with the way they are now. Seriously, does everybody need to include technology in every corner of their lifestyle? People have iPhones that have some of the abilities as a computer (making it something like a pocket laptop) and are stuffed with so many things, iPods play music wherever you go (and also let you view videos and pictures), and now you're gonna tell me we need a digital, techno way to read our books? I think we have enough pocket technology to fuel us, don't you think? I mean, I use an iPod and I think it's already equipped with enough mind-boggling technology...can't anybody invent some sort of new technology (that word again...) that will aid in, for example, dialysis, the filtering of a faulty kidney?
Allow me to say one more time...THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE CURRENT TRADITIONAL INK AND PAPER BOOKS! And though someone might say, 'well, what happens if you want to travel with an ultra-heavy book in your backpack?', well, I don't think anybody's going to ever lug around ten dictionaries in their backpack, wouldn't you think? The Kindle is just another money-wasting, time-consuming tool. I don't think I need to ever recharge my books in order to continue reading them, or having to scroll down the pages...but sorry, I've babbled enough...Sorry...

[coreylarue]

"I'd think the illuminated screen would hurt your eyes after a while, don't you think?"

someone obviously has NEVER seen e-ink technology. There is not a bright light behind the text...it looks exactly like a sheet of paper. someone also has obviously never been asked to print out a 70 page PDF file and read over it for a class...reading that on a computer screen is about as comfortable as looking at the sun for an hour (not to mention the cost of printing, paper, etc.).

Before you knock "people with a lot of money"...maybe you could consider students actually finding the kindle an easy way to save a dime in the long term?

[bettb]

The kindle sounds cool but I don't have that kind of money to burn for a unifunctional device like this. When the price gets reasonable or I graduate and start making money I may buy one.

When the books get less expensive I will read them on my iphone. But for now they are stupidly expensive, as are all paperbacks. (Not to mention textbooks, don't even get me started.)

Support local libraries!

[d4nowar]

Situation 1: Oops I dropped my book in the sand at the beach, I'll just shake it off and it's good as new.

Situation 2: Oops I dropped my kindle in the sand at the beach, I shall now enjoy the irremovable tiny grains of sand stuck in every moving part of my machine.

I'll stick to ink+paper. And don't even get me started on post apocalyptic humanity. Try keeping warm with a kindle!! Doubt you could, but my well stocked shelves of flammable paper should do the trick.