I Have Seen The Future, Its Called the Kindle

[thebobman]

Amazon.com's Kindle


Amazon launched its eInk-based Electronic book a few days back. It sold its entire launch inventory in 5.5 hours. The device is aesthetically ugly, blandly colored and (currently) horribly overpriced compared to the existing Electronic Book competition. But it had an edge: it links up with Sprint's 3G network to allow for free wireless access to blogs, RSS even wikipedia. There's even a rumored email client for it. Combine that with the ability to purchase books & magazines from a library of over 80,000 items with pricing that actually makes sense; any of the current NYT best-sellers are $9.99 for the ebook, vs $30-$45 for their hardcover equivalents. The revenue model is solid, ensuring that the services that are free via the 3G network won't disappear but where this device really shines is in its positioning in the market. The Kindle is perfectly posed to bring the true dawn of the age of electronic print.

Just imagine:
-Text books on bleeding edge technology that can be revised in real-time, better yet, a whole book back of text books on one device.
- Direct author to public book releases, use your blog and nearly totally eliminate the middle man

I haven't seen something this cool with such immense potential since I saw my first Blackberry back in 2001

[decypher]

I thought that it cost a certain dollar fee to access blogs/rss which was one of the drawbacks on the review i read.

[Disco_Whore]

Amazing gadget for students who have to lug around immense text books, yet I would still prefer to collect actual books for my pleasure reads!

[rawb]

ZZZZZZZZZZZ o

[-evil-duerr-]

rocket boots or a cure for cancer would've been dope.

but I guess a big ipod that cant play music is just as cool...

[NinjaBoy]

I used to read ebooks on my PDA. Half the price, more functions.

$400? Plus you're severely limited to what you can load on. Good idea, band execution.

[cubed]

Originally Posted by NinjaBoy

$400? Plus you're severely limited to what you can load on. Good idea, band execution.

Freudian slip.

I think you need to play more Rock Band.

[wishbone]

e-readers were never much more than a niche market......while i admire amazon's attempts here, sticking 3G into one isn't going to make a life changing invention.

The inventory sold out, sure. It's amazon's first electronics device surrounded by a bunch of hype. But in terms of market growth.....the paperback book will remain in book form, RSS feeds can always be grabbed by your current or next generation cell.