Comments on: Amazon Kindle: Flop

Amazon is excited about the prospects for its Kindle e-book reader. But Don Reisinger has some news for them: it'll be a flop.

[mrfbaggins]

SO you don't like e-books eh?

You know it is one thing to offer a balanced opinion on a product, quite another to trash the entire concept. You may not like the idea of electronic books, but many of us do. What an unhelpful rant you served us up.
The problem is not the concept but the maturity of the technology. It is only with the advent of E ink that we have the ability to read of a screen without burning our eyes out. Music went digital, what do you have against books going the same way?
Not mentioned anywhere in CNET, but by far the most amazing ebook reader, and of course the most expensive is the Irex Iliad. It opens umpteen different formats, has wifi, lets you write on it, and looks cool. There is an emerging market for these thinks (the airline industry swears by them, when the engineering is right and the price drops so will the consumer.
Open your mind and close your mouth!!

[popvoid]

Not a flop, but not quite there

As the owner of a Sony Reader, I can say that an ereader is a pretty great device. It has saved me a lot of backaches over the past year (I don't think I would have made it through Cryptonomicon if I had to carry that huge tome), and I never have to carry more than this one device when I am reading more than one book. That said, I absolutely agree that the price point for these devices is still too high. At $299, I was just barely convinced to buy the Reader. When it was $399, I wouldn't even look at it. If they can get the price down to $99, they will start selling, but not before. Once people start using them, they'll stop comparing them to LCD displays (like cell phones) and realize they are a far better way to read books electronically. The Kindle is an interesting device, but at $399, without the ability to link to your computer, or read PDF files, I think it's dead in the water.

[kenpodude]

What a useless rant

Come on, just because you don't like moving forward doesn't mean there aren't a legion of us who do. I have been using the Sony ereader for about a year and I love it. The Kindle with its ability to search all of my content is an incredibly useful device. I am a police officer and having instant access to all the Penal Codes, Transportation Codes and Health Codes is a great asset. I love being able to download a book on the fly while on vacation and having access to Wikipedia is truly amazing. Sure, the design takes a little getting used to but maybe thats part of what makes it unique and enjoyable. Sometimes beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[youdumbcat]

Kindle = FAIL

You are right in so many ways, it hurts.

I first saw this device and was like, "FTW???" Literally.

It looks dated, there is no market for these types of devices, and its friggin' expensive.

Just sell me books, CDs, and DVDs, Amazon. That's all I need from you, and all I will ever need from you.

[mrfbaggins]

I mean really

If there were no market for it, these multi-million dollar companies would not have developed and launched them. It's called Market Research.
I agree the Kindle has it's faults but come on man, you may not like the idea, which is fine, but thousands of others do. Of course there is a market.
Would you have said the same about CDs when you had vinyl? DVDs when you had VHS?

[bgavinw]

All good points!

I agree almost exactly. The look of the thing alone is enough to discourage high sales! It looks like it would hurt worse than a papercut if you scratched yourself with it. I've seen bad design where the device is trying to be too cute, but this device certainly looks like it belongs pre-2000. That being said, I just don't see the demand for something like this when paperbacks are cheap and widely available (especially at airports!). Music is one thing as you can listen while you do many other things, but books are not multi-tasking items, therefore having a slick device to read them on seems to make little sense. Add to that the lack of a universal and open format for reading (like MP3 for music), and you have a recipe for disaster. When (not if) Amazon gives up on this, all those books you bought are toast! Try building a library around that.

[bahoyle]

RIM already makes a good eReader

People keep trying to reinvent the wheel on this one. I currently use my Blackberry to read books using the MobiPocket software. It?s great! I do like to have several books with me at once (I?m a little ADD) and it?s always nice to have a book with me when waiting in lines and such. It has a back light and adjustable text color, font, and font size. Also, I don?t want to have to carry a separate reader, when I am already carrying a phone and mp3 player. MobiPocket also works on many other smart phones and PDA's but their screens may not be as good.
My 2 cents.

Later
Brad

[worldisflat]

Fast to market or perfect?

This review is not very forward looking. Perhaps the hardware isn't the most elegant, etc. etc. That does not mean that it will stay that way. What's really important, is the deals with content suppliers and a dedication to improve the product and service quickly, including its usability. If Amazon follows a good path, it will be a new and welcome category in the market. Already I see happy reviewers in vertical markets where users need huge amounts of reference information. How about legions of schoolchildren who are hurting their backs by carrying heavy loads of textbooks?

There were plenty of naysayers when the iPod first showed up; new things make people uncomfortable at first. Will traditional books disappear? I doubt it. When digital watches first came out, it was a common idea that analog watches would disappear. Now both have a place in the market since there are aesthetic values that analog watches provide.

Amazon has a unique position in book distribution and is making a valiant effort to move to the electronic age before physical book distribution declines.

This book format will ultimately provide new audiences for books and magazines that have worldwide appeal.

Finally, is it better to be fast or perfect to establish a new product category? I say it is better to provide something reasonably good quickly with a commitment to improve it than to seek perfection and miss the opportunity. I'm part of www.ventimar.com

[imitrovic]

iPhone with textonphone.com

Perfect ebook reader...

[ssratt]

Bad Design + excorbatent price

A 20 year old design, at least twice the price it ever should be is what will kill this (eventually)
At launch they had sold out of their initial stock, and C. Rose had a good interview.

What IS good about it is the overall size/weight. But thanks to the tech it uses you can't read it in low light/dark

As for the author, I don't know what to say. Thrash the product fine, but first say let us know you don't like the idea of e-books period.

Think of it this way, I can have ALL the ST/SW books ALL of the Books by R Heinlein,Anne Mccaffery, Asimov Dickens and hundreds more stored on a SINGLE DVD.
How many trees would that take, and aside from that how much SPACE would it fill?
Not all of us are able to have a room just for our books, even the weight of that many books alone is hard to move (let alone having a moving company do it)

Right now I use a PPC and Ubook to read what I carry with me, (multiple txt's in a RAR) highly compressed, I like the overall size but it needs a cover, and a different OPEN system so you can read all the major format

[pkscout]

You Forgot Two More Reasons

Content Price
$9.99 for a book? You have got to be kidding. I can buy a paperback for less than that. Books should have been more like $5 or even less, and since there is no production cost for the publishers that would have been very nearly 100% profit.

YADRM
Yup. Kindle uses it's own format and it's own DRM. Not like there are 5 other good eBook standards or anything. So when this fails I once again own nothing for my $400 plus $10 a book costs.

I still think a device like this would be great in education where students need pounds and pounds of books for a short period of time. If a student could rent a book for the semester with an option to buy it at the end it really could work.

[longtermsolutions]

What an awful review

What a lousy review. You glossed over anything good about it; if I read a
good review, it gives a balanced opinion, not a total slam.

Although the keyboard does look pretty cheesy, the device is only 10-11
ounces, and is really slim; I don't mind its look at all.

I haven't bought one, and prefer a good hardback book, but if I traveled or
commuted every day I would have one. The idea of having several
newspapers, blogs, etc. downloaded every night sounds really appealing to
me.

In addition, there is no Internet connection fee associated with the Kindle,
although the price certainly covers a lot of online time.

If I were riding a train every morning, I wouldn't want to pull my laptop out
just to read a book or a newspaper or a blog; this sounds ideal for frequent
travelers.

Also, when I did travel all the time, I used to pack around a half-dozen
books to make it through the trip; this sounds much better.

Your review is awful and you'll be proven wrong on this device.

[plee9]

Wow, amazon screwed up this time.

that thing looks like my sketch toy from 80's.

[gefitz]

Clue in, folks...

A) Books are not the only products the Kindle provides access to. Apparently CNET readers are not avid periodical readers. How many magazines, newspapers, white papers, etc, do I have to throw away every month? TONS! This device provides a delivery format that solves my problem while providing me a way to carry them all with me to read at my leisure without using a laptop.

B) Lots of people don't actually own laptops. Sure, these things are expensive now, but will come down in price as more content providers clue in to the fact that many many many people don't want to lug around a laptop on the train.

C) Lots of people aren't Apple users who require that their function be accompanied by empty prettyness. WHO THE HELL CARES WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE if it provides you with what you need? What are we all in junior high?

D) You mean, I can get my newspaper delivered in digital format every day, WITHOUT having to pay for expensive cellular data service??!?!?! Where can I get one?!!!

[robpaulg]

You said it was a FLOP on November 21.

It was SOLD OUT on November 22. That just has to make you smile.

You forgot to mention the FREE wireless downloading of books from anywhere that comes with Kindle. That is kind of an important point. Duh.

[plg6]

A solution in search of a problem

There seems to be some overwhelming need for technorati to supplant the time-honored book with some supposedly better gizmo. Some digital this is supposed to be better than analog that. I'll admit this Kindle thing may, as other electronic book readers, find some niche market. For a mechanic or some service technician, for example, being able to hold 200 manuals in a single device might have some benefit.

But for the general reader? I don't think so. How many people fall asleep at night reading? You don't mind if you drop a book as you nod off, it will usually land undamaged, save for a bent page or two. But drop this thing? Ouch!

Further, one can trade in a huge aftermarket of used books - plus at a booksale or used book store one can look through a book to see if it's something one wants - rather than spending $9.99 on a whim. If I can get a used book sometimes for pennies on the dollar, where's the incentive for this thing?

We're victims with these gizmos of too much 20th century sci-fi speculation. The basic book design works and has worked well for centuries. It will continue to do so, despite all these promises of gizmos. As a history professor once intoned, "this too, shall pass."

[karenthelibrarian]

it is 9 am, and i already know that my day has been made. i love pre-release product reviews.