This does not look half bad. Certainly better than Sony’s eBook. And from Amazon.  Nice going Jeff Bezos. Now do you think Apple’s purported slim light UMPC rumoured to be unveiled at MWSF has any connection? I do and I think maybe Amazon wanted to beat Apple to this feature. The Apple product will do what ‘‘Kindle’’ can do and more IMO. What do you think

http://www.macrumors.com/2007/11/19/amazon-enters-gadget-market-with-kindle-an-ebook-device/

I am sure Apple will have something in this area, but probably not very soon, and possibly not so dedicated to books. Apple’s market position and momentum with existing products is such that Sony and Amazon represent valuable market research, and entering the market now would be a significant risk. Apple would want to know the device could be supported for 5-7 years. I doubt if Amazon have even thought about that. We’ve seen everyone but Apple dumping on subscribers to services which they have discontinued.

Living with a book fiend, I am also suspicious that electronic devices won’t satisfy them. This device is more for ordinary book readers. In turn, I suspect they may not spring for a dedicated device. All sorts of problems - take a $400 device down to the beach or pool? Lend a book to a friend? Colour? How not to lose all your books when you lose the device?

These are things Apple has resolved for music. They will want to resolve them in principle before launching a bookreader product. But for sure, this the long term future for book publishing.

SG I agree and think a dedicated electronic book reader is a non starter but as I understand this product it is able to read blogs, websites, online newspaper etc. Old media still has not grasped the internet fully. I think a light 13inch flat panel that does nothing but grab and download information off the internet could catch on. I think this product is an attempt to do that. It has limited indoor use of course. Just reading this forum on a device described would be easier than a macbook or an iTouch.

I “read” while doing other activities (working out, driving, shopping), using my iPod and audible books. I see little advantage of holding an electronic device in my hand rather than a real book. A $400 price tag is a lot, considering that you still need to buy the books in electronic format.

You can read all about Kindle at Amazon   and watch a video here.

Personally I think its an ugly, overpriced POS. $400 for a book reader? You gotta be kidding… and you have to pay to access email and blogs from it although you get “free” wireless/ EV-DO access.

It doesn’t allow you to browse the web either. (edit: it does, but the most basic-only of functionality).

Horribly crippled IMO. I am very unimpressed.

Excuse me, but why the hell would I want to buy an eBook reader from AMZN, when I already have an iPod touch with a PDF reader installed? And when I get tired of reading my eBook, I can watch a film or TV show, listen to music, browse the web, send some emails or chat to someone over AIM.

Forbes has an opinion on Kindle:

Apple’s iPhone may have already rendered Amazon’s new Kindle eBook reader obsolete

I am just so tempted to refer to Amazon’s eBook reader as “Kindling”, but I know that unlike a good book it probably doesn’t even do that well.

[quote author=“wheeles”]I am just so tempted to refer to Amazon’s eBook reader as “Kindling”, but I know that unlike a good book it probably doesn’t even do that well.

In a confidential Greenpeace report that is being “discussed by trading desks I speak to,” if you take a cheese grater to your Kindle and eat the shavings, you could seriously damage your health.

Another First Look at Kindle

PaidContent.org has a First Look at Kindle. They also have an article on the Kindle business model .

Two comments in the video from TheStreet.com struck me:

- Amazon missed the boat by not highlighting the Kindle as a browser.

Well, the PaidContent article shows why they may not have emphasized that. The Kindle browser doesn’t work all that well (lots of error messages) and the Kindle has a 4-level greyscale screen—i.e., what PowerBooks had in 1992. You can’t scale the screen like with the iPhone or iPod Touch.

- The price is ridiculous. Bestseller and new release eBooks will be $9.99. Amazon makes a big deal of how much of a discount this is. Let’s take one example, Stephen Colbert’s I Am America (And So Can You!). The Kindle eBook is $9.99. Amazon says that this is a $17.00 discount. Yes, from the list price of $26.99. However, Amazon sells the physical book for $16.19, with free shipping if you spend at least $25. Thus, the eBook is really only at a $6.20 discount.  I checked the first ten $9.99 books on the Kindle product page. The average discount from the Amazon price for the physical book for the new books was $6.05. It would take 66 books before one would “pay for” the Kindle.

Who the hell is going to want to “curl up with a Kindle,” anyway? I can see it being a decent means of browsing news headlines - but I can do that on an iPhone anyway.

I cannot possibly even begin to imagine settling down with one of these ugly monstrosities to “get into” a good book.

Amazon just outdid Microsoft in the most ill-conceived device since the Mira. Truly pathetic.

[quote author=“Tommo_UK”]

Amazon just outdid Microsoft in the most ill-conceived device since the Mira. Truly pathetic.

What about the Foleo from Palm? It was so ill-conceived that Palm dropped it, entirely, after announcing it and, apparently, making a bunch of them. Palm announced the Foleo on May 30, 2007 and killed it on September 9 .

The more I think about it, the more I believe that there is a market for Kindle. If this thing is genuinely kind on the eyes and easy to read in bright sunshine, then it could have some longevity. They’ve really trimmed down on the power hungry elements of Kindle, and even though it has wireless cell connectivity, that’s not going to be used a huge amount unless you go mad with blogs etc.

The biggest stumbling block is the price. At $400 it’s only going to appeal to the geeks. This thing really needs to come down to around $150 to achieve a widespread appeal.

I’d like to try one for a while just to see whether I would want to read a novel on it. If it feels more like reading off paper than a screen, then they would have overcome one of the biggest obstacles to the adoption of eBook readers.

This isn’t a competitor to the iPhone, Blackberry or iPod touch. While you could do what you do on a Kindle on an iPhone or iPod touch, I’m not sure I would want to read pages and pages on my iPod touch. There could well be room in the marketplace for Kindle, but only at the right price.

It’s actually a cellphone, with no voice capability, and the service charges hidden in the content charges. I suspect, if it catches on, the equilibrium will be a subsidised device with service contract (packaged as content subscription) commitment, just like regular cellphones. But I also suspect it’s a transitional product. (Note: it costs 10c for each incoming email - don’t go giving out your Kindle email address on the web). It’s quite possible it is already slightly subsidized.

What Amazon has spotted is that text files with limited formatting are small enough to transfer cheaply at cellular data speeds, and hence an apparently “free” network service is a possibility.

Just as iPhone begins to merge the functions of multiple devices, further applications, slightly outside its current range, appear. Amazon’s problem is that they do not provide all content, and they do not support the diverse applications the hardware is in principle capable of.

I’d like to know what the service life of e-paper displays is today (years / power-on hours / page changes). Very difficult to find out.

[quote author=“artman1033”]Kindle: Amazon’s New Wireless Reading Device is the number one bestseller in electronics this morning at amazon. I think this is may be a conspiracy   [url=http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/electronics/ref=pd_ts_c_th_head/103-9031322-6988615?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=gp-right-4&pf_rd_r=175Q6V1VBAPKKQ82AHZC&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=302884501&pf_rd_i=172282]http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/electronics/ref=pd_ts_c_th_head/103-9031322-6988615?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=gp-right-4&pf_rd_r=175Q6V1VBAPKKQ82AHZC&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=302884501&pf_rd_i=172282  [/url]

I heard that they had sold out.

Carl Howe tells it like it is .