I won't ask for this for Christmas...this year

I visited Amazon.com last night to check out my order status and see how shipping progress is coming along. Then I remembered that it was Sunday and that I had already checked on Saturday night and probably wouldn't find any new information. Something did catch my eye, however. This product has been around for at least a short time, but I am usually too busy looking for specific items to look at what they are promoting. This time I looked, and I liked what I saw. Amazon doesn't merely sell electronics anymore, they actually make an electronic device for readers, Kindle. I find the device and what people are saying about it rather interesting. This is definitely blogging fodder!

The Device
This is a $399 item right now. It's new, not long out of beta testing. It is an electronic reading device that can hold up to 200 downloaded books. It is designed and marketed for Amazon.com customers, not surprisingly, and specifically for book readers (I make this point here; it becomes more relevant later). The idea is that you buy your books electronically and download them wirelessly to your Kindle and begin reading. The screen is flat and uses a relatively new technology of electronic ink. The screen, in other words, is actually printed. It is not back lit at all and does not apparently have glare from lights, either, so it looks as much like paper as possible. This is supposed to be easier to read than most electronic displays and I imagine it is much easier on the eyes. The downside to it is that the technology can only use black ink...for now. It is a relatively light-weight device that is still big enough to be comfortable to read from. There are page turning buttons on either side of it so you can read and hold with one hand and in any number of positions. There is a QWERTY keyboard, laid out in an ergonomic fashion of sorts. It is used for searching online for books and periodicals (yes, you can subscribe to newspapers and magazines as well and they automatically download), searching within books and annotating pages. From what I have read, it uses Sprint's wireless network and the airtime for downloading books and magazines is "free". I imagine the airtime fees are actually included in the price of the content you purchase. The price of books ranges from $9.99 to, well, a lot more, based on what you're buying. I am sure there are some available for less, as well. An important note here is that what you buy is yours and you can download again it in the future. It is USB equipped to be connected to a computer for additional content options. Things have to be in a specific file type to be read, but from what I understand there are programs that are free or cheap that can convert various electronic formats to what you need to view it on Kindle. It also allows unlimited access to Wikipedia without any airtime charges (again, guessing those fees are absorbed elsewhere; they probably assume people won't spend all day reading Wikipedia and will usually be looking at content already downloaded) and contains a dictionary. I am sure there are a lot of details that I am leaving out, but Amazon can tell you the rest!

Customer Reviews
Customer "reviews" are a bit of an interesting read. I would say that the majority of them come from people who do not own and have not used the product, making the term "review" a very loose one indeed. The best reviews are written by people who own the product, as you can imagine. People who have used it liked it. I found that most people who rated it poorly were turned off by the price tag or did not seem to understand the product or the concept that products are designed for specific kinds of people. My two cents on that: if you don't like it, don't buy it. Don't bring down the rating of a product based on you uninformed opinion. I want product ratings to tell me how owners rate the product functionality and durability. Don't discourage other people from buying something that you don't understand or wouldn't benefit from. If you don't like it, you're most likely not the person for which Kindle was designed!

Common review complaint #1 is the price. People think it is over-priced. Why should I pay $400 for the device and then have to pay for the content as well? Does a bookshelf come full of books? Do video game consoles provide free unlimited access to a library of games? Did your DVD player come with access to a lot of free movies? Did your iPod (legally) come with a drive full of your favorite music at no additional cost? This is the nature of consumer electronics. You buy a device that allows you to access content you also buy. Yes, it is more expensive than I would want it to be. It is using new technology with the screen. That right there is probably where a lot of the cost is coming from. Even so, the product is on back order. Complain all you want, but people are willing to buy at that price. Sales will weigh much more heavily than your opinion or mine in the ultimate fate of the product.

Common review complaint #2 is the nature of the content. One customer wanted something to view .pdf files and complained that he can't use this device to view those work-related files on the go. Well, sir, it wasn't designed for that. It was designed for reading e-books. There are ways to convert those .pdf files, but perhaps you should look for something designed to meet your needs. Another common complaint is paying for books that you won't be able to use in 10 years. I think we all understand the nature of this complaint. Libraries of records, cassettes, VHS tapes and floppy disks gather dust while we enjoy higher quality and capacity on our newer technologies. Yes, you run a risk of not being able to use this format in the future. However, you can download things in the future at no additional cost once you have purchased them the first time. Technology changes, but with electronic files developers do a pretty good job of making things backward compatible. You may have to replace the device with a new, more advanced model, but I really think you will still be able to use older content. Not every book is available in this format from Amazon, true. You can, however, import files of other e-book formats after converting them, so if a book is available electronically, you can probably load it on here. You know, I'm still waiting for them to make Super Mario Bros. 3 for the Wii. They have Super Mario Bros. 2, but not 3, and 3 was much more popular. I am sure it is coming in the future, but for now I won't condemn the Wii for lacking available content.

The most baffling review was one that was positive, however. It wasn't because of the product. It was because of the reviewer. She spent over $3000 in books from Amazon last year, reading 5 or 6 books per week, and always carries multiple books with her. When she's done reading she...throws the books away. Did anyone else just die a little bit inside reading that? This woman doesn't need an electronic reader. She needs a library card. I wonder if she really throws books away or has considered donating books to a library. Some books are probably worthy of a free trip to the dump, but on principle they shouldn't just be discarded after one reading. She may be the perfect candidate for Kindle. I'm going to go hug my overflowing bookshelves.

My Take on It
Real users like it. That's what matters to me. I think it is a great idea. I don't want one right now, however, for a few reasons. I think the cost will come down over time, and when the original price is a little bit lower, I might bite. Right now I am not reading often enough to justify the expense, either. I think the product will improve with later versions. I also want to know how long these things really last. That is a big one right there. If it dies after a year, I'll take my paperbacks. I want to know how easy it is to back up content and then recover it later. I don't really mind that it is only available in black ink now. I am not really looking for that chemistry textbook with the colorful graphics. I would love to be able to read lying down on my side without having to shift the book to look at the next page. Reading with one hand would be wonderful as well...someone said you can use the other hand to drink tea or pet the dog while you read - is that not wonderful? I do want to know how easy it is to accidentally turn the page or press a button while changing positions or holding it comfortably. It uses Sprint's network, which is a downside for me, since Sprint cell phones don't get reception in my apartment, but I probably won't live in this apartment forever. I want to know more about the product and let time reveal it's quality before I buy or ask someone else to buy on my behalf, but Kindle does appeal to me, and I honestly think that it will do well.