On Amazon's Kindle

There have always been a few "Holy Grails" in consumer technology that seem around the corner, but never actually materialize. Things like 10 GHz processors, speech recognition that actually works, and, yes, you probably guessed, eBooks. The allure of a tablet that can hold a library is a strong one.

While there have been a few attempts through the years, none have ever really taken flight. The most useful surrogate is having a book as a PDF on a notebook computer, but this was hardly what anyone really envisioned when they thought about the eBook.

I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Amazon was releasing one, called the Kindle, and equally surprised to hear that technology pundit, Jeremy of Live Digitally, thought it was a lousy idea. After delving into this further, I think it's a great idea, and it's even better that it's from the online bookseller powerhouse. Apparently, at least a few folks bought one, and it sold out pretty quickly.

Going through the Kindle device, I can see that a lot of thought went into it. The use of eInk, to provide a crisp display that also has a long battery life is a key technology. I also like that it can download new content from the cellular EVDO network (they're dubbing it "Whispernet," but it's the Sprint network without the monthly fees), and not rely on hit-or-miss WiFi coverage (not all of us live at Starbucks).

Cost is the main issue in my mind at this juncture. While the $399 price tag is too high of an admission price, it apparently hasn't been for others as the unit has already sold out of the first run. The books can be downloaded for $9.99 which is a savings off of the $20-plus hard cover price that most of them go for, and no much above a soft cover price. Reportedly, you can download the first chapter for free to decide if the rest is worth the cost. There is also an option to read newspapers (the Wall Street Journal for $9.99/month sounds like a good deal), magazines (Time for $1.99 is ok), or even a blog (TechCrunch for 99 cents anyone?). For the frugal, you can also search the Wikipedia for free right from the device.

Overall, I'm pretty impressed with the offerings, although I think the real market could be with textbooks. For the college student, especially the way that books go out of date every other semester in some subjects, if they could download their books to this device at a discount, the four Franklin acquisition fee would be worth it over four years- not to mention to lighten the backpack considerably.

For me, there's around a dozen or so textbooks I use professionally at this point, and they take up an entire bookshelf. I would love to see a subscription model on the Kindle that I could get those books on this device, fully searchable, and always up to date when a new edition comes out. I'm not sure what that would be worth to me, but it would be a heck of a lot easier to move between work and home, not to mention anywhere else I might want to use it. In fact, the Kindle would be well suited to a variety of professional editions: Kindle Law, Kindle Pharmacy, Kindle Talmud could all be possibilities.

In summary, Amazon's Kindle is the first eBook that looks like it's gonna be a hit. While it may take a generation or two before it takes off into the land of mass adoption, with the marketing power of Amazon and crew behind it, I think that the Kindle is here to stay.

--Jonas

More info here.