The Kindle Is This Year’s Zunetanic
Nov 29th, 2007 | By James Lewin | Category: Internet TV, Podcasting Hardware 
Independent reviews are starting to come in on the Amazon Kindle, and it looks like the ebook reader is going to be this year’s Zunetanic, an over-hyped iPod-wannabee.
While mainstream fluffer reviews, like Steven Levy’s Newsweek article on the new gadget, make the Kindle out to be the iPod of ebook readers, you can’t sneak a proprietary, closed system and Commodore 64-era hardware design past end users.
Here’s what people are saying about the Kindle after a week:
- “I can’t really recommend this,” says tech blogger Robert Scoble. “Whoever designed this should be fired and the team should start over.”
- WSJ’s Walt Mossberg says “I’ve been testing the Kindle for about a week, and I love the shopping and downloading experience. But the Kindle device itself is just mediocre.”
- “It’s just too damn expensive,” says Boing Boing, “Worse, the $400 premium just to get the Kindle reader isn’t the last fee you’ll pay.”
- “Don’t let some of the hype fool you though: this is not the iPod of books, and e-books are not the equivalent of a book,” says Ars Technica. “Anyone who is considering the Kindle in part due to its ability to handle content aside from books should spend some time pondering how much they’d enjoy reading that material within the device’s limitations.”
While most many reviewers are disappointed with the Kindle hardware and its usability, there’s a more basic problem with the device: it doesn’t embrace the world of Internet media.
Internet media, in all its random, open, messy glory, is where people’s attention is moving to. It’s where it’s at, in both technology and media.
The Kindle doesn’t make it easy for you to get Internet content; it isn’t a new platform that you can easily publish content for; and it doesn’t play well with the Web.
It looks like the iPod of ebooks may have to come from Apple.
Well, I’ll hold out hope that, like last year’s Zune, the next generation of Kindle will be much improved. You know that I love Apple products, but I don’t love that they have the monopoly on cool gadgets. Monopolies are bad. Competition and innovation is good…. right?
[…] And from Podcasting News found the ultimate polar portion of the debate: […]
>While most many reviewers are disappointed with the Kindle hardware and its usability, there’s a more basic problem with the >device: it doesn’t embrace the world of Internet media.
>Internet media, in all its random, open, messy glory, is where people’s attention is moving to. It’s where it’s at, in both >technology and media.
>The Kindle doesn’t make it easy for you to get Internet content; it isn’t a new platform that you can easily publish content for; >and it doesn’t play well with the Web.
For a lot of people this is a plus. Books are not interactive, I don’t care what anyone else says about the characters of a novel while I’m reading the novel, I want to see what the author does with them.
Once the price goes down, and Amazon drops the DRM that ties the ebooks to its own system the Kindle will be seen in a more favourable light.
Mark
Thanks for your comments.
I love to read a good book as much as anyone – but the Kindle doesn’t make it easy for me to load up and read a novel you or billions of other people on the Internet might write; it isn’t a platform for reading your local newspaper or indie publisher; and it’s not even a good tool for companies to use to distribute training materials onto.
The Kindle doesn’t embrace the Internet, and that’s a mistake; the Internet is where people’s creative energy is focused, and it’s where distribution is moving for digital materials.
I think you’re right, though, about the pricing. Once they get this down to $100-200, people will be willing to look past its limitations. At $400, though, people are comparing it to slick gadgets like the iPhone, which are much more polished, have broader functionality, and embrace the Internet.