Comments on: Kindle – Reasons for Failure

By: gary the chicano

gary the chicano — Mon, 18 May 2009 03:25:51 +0000

Serious, why buy this product?

By: P. M. Rodriguez

P. M. Rodriguez — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Does anyone here remember the Rocket e-Book? About eight years ago, a very similar device, with a very similar set of features, and hyped in almost exactly the same terms. Look up the press releases. Try substituting the product names for each other. It fell victim to a very simple vicious circle:

People won't buy an e-book reader unless they can load their own content on it.
If they can load their own content, they won't pay for your content.

The whole purpose of the Internet is to give text away for free. People value books enough to spend on them because they are physical articles. But why would they value one kind of ephemeral file over another?

By: Jess

Jess — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Personally, I use my iPod Touch for reading books and stories, my site is http://www.textonphone.com.

I’ve got an hour on the subway each day, it caches the pages so I can read offline, and it’s got a nice big screen. And it looks somewhat more elegant than an eBook reader.

By: mochant

mochant — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Are you seriously comparing the Rocket to the Kindle? No comparison whatsoever. (except that they were both designed to read from). Kindle uses pretty cutting edge technology (EVDO, e-ink, SD storage, high capacity, lightweight battery) that either did not exist or was in its infancy eight years ago.

And your argument that people don’t buy or value ephemeral files, only physical articles will probably come as a big shock to Steve Jobs. There goes the whole iTunes thing! Darn!

You’re projecting your own discomfort with a new technology and distribution model onto everyone else. I will say it again (and again) – Jeff Bezos is a very smart man. He’s invested three years and lot of intellectual capital developing Kindle. I’m much more inclined to think he knows what he’s doing than you seem to be.

–
Marc Orchant
blognation USA

By: Michael Long

Michael Long — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Misses the point. Yes, you can get the blog “free” as long as you’re at home connected to your paid DSL line (not free), or perhaps connected to the internet at a coffeeshop with free wifi… but what about elsewhere? What you’re paying for then, is not so much the blog as it is for the EVDO connectivity needed to access it from practically anywhere, at any time.

I’m also reminded of a comment CmdrTaco of Slashdot made back in 2001, “No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.” He was, of course, referring to Apple’s new 5GB iPod.

And we all know how that turned out, don’t we? I think we might do well not to make too many early predictions of doom and gloom. Nor focus too hard on what Amazon got wrong. Because Amazon managed, as did Apple, to get an amazing number of things right.

See: No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.

By: Jason Sadler

Jason Sadler — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Not too many rich people buy ugly ugly devices. The only person that the design of this product suits in my grandfather, and he loves books. He would never carry a machine around to read from.

By: Darren

Darren — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Allen, you missed a point. You have to pay to put your own documents on it. Thats right you have to email your device the document and then charged for converting it.

By: centernetworks

centernetworks — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Wow – that’s point 11! – How much does that cost?

By: evano

evano — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

It doesn’t always cost. The Kindle reads .txt, .mobi, .prc, .mp3, .aa, and its own proprietary format. It also comes with a USB cable which will let you transfer any of those filetypes to the Kindle directly from your computer with no cost.

If you want to convert a document to the Kindle’s proprietary format (.azw), from Word .doc for example, you can email it to the device and it goes through a conversion gateway, costing you $0.10.

Amazon is also pushing a self-publishing option, where anyone can convert a doc online, set a price for it, and sell it through Amazon — with Amazon taking a cut. Not sure if they allow a price of FREE, but if they did, you could convert the docs and get them to your device that way for no charge.

It accepts a bunch of formats through the gateway, but — here’s my number 11 — PDF is not one of the supported formats.

By: merrill

merrill — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Interesting post with valid points except for your claim that bloggers should be able to charge for their content much the way newspapers do. Except the NY Times and others no longer do because ad rates are higher for free content. It will be interesting to see who is willing to pay $13 to get free NY Times content on the Kindling.

By: Amit Agarwal

Amit Agarwal — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

10 cents per document or picture.

By: Shifuimam

Shifuimam — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

You’re misinformed.

It costs ten cents per file to email to the Kindle, but you can transfer them for free via USB or with an SD card.

I’m impressed at how many people are completely discounting this thing the day after it goes live.

By: Hank Williams

Hank Williams — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

If you can carry a book you can carry a kindle. If you never carry books then you might never carry a kindle. But a kindle, physically no more of a burden than a book.

Interestingly, I think people who actually *read a lot of books* are going to love this. That does not include most of the tech community that is talking about this and envisioning only convergence.

By: centernetworks

centernetworks — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Good point Hank that if you are carrying a book, a kindle is the same – but I still think there is a difference in feeling btw reading a book that you hold and reading it on a computer.

By: Marc Orchant

Marc Orchant — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hi Allen.

I think you’re way off base with your predictions (although I do agree it was an egregious oversight that neither you nor I was invited to the launch event).

I’m betting on Mr. Bezos on this one – with my checkbook. My Kindle arrives today. I had a brief chance to use the device at Gnomedex this Fall and I knew I wanted one immediately. As a card-carrying member of the “buys a lot of books” and “travels all the time” clubs, Kindle is a perfect solution for me.

So tell you what? I’ll put up a delectable sampler of the many fine New Mexico chile products (salsa, green chile sauce and red chile enchilada sauce) against whatever you care to ante up as a match and let’s have friendly wager.

You can counter on the terms but I propose we wait six months and see what sort of sales figures and adoption rates Amazon shares. We’ll revisit your dire predictions and my unbridled optimism and see if we can decide in gentlemanly fashion whether Kindle is a success or a failure.

Are you up for that?