kindle hype

Posted by jerry as kindle

I’ve been bombarded with kindle news everywhere I go today.  “It’s going to revolutionize the e-reading market”.  Really?  How big is the e-reading market?  Amazon seems to have really made the device as integrated and friendly as possible, but the reality is that you’re still stuck reading on a small screen.  I don’t like reading emails on my blackberry.  I hate web surfing on it, but I will in a pinch.  I cannot see myself “curling up” with a PDA-sized device to read a book.  It’s just not going to happen.  The really goes back to the days of the palm pilot.  I remember downloading ebooks to it, thinking to myself how cool it will be to have all these books with me wherever I go.  But, I never read one of them.  It was just not comfortable.  I have a hard time reading a book on a 19″ LCD monitor. 

The price is pretty steep as well.  Buying the box for $399, then needing to spend $10 to $20 per book just doesn’t seem likely.  I like gadgets as much as the next guy, but I do not see myself spending money on this.  In fact, I’ve been in a mode of device contraction.  I had a phone, a pocket PC, and an ipod.  Now, I’m down to a blackberry and a ipod, and if I could get rid of the ipod, I would.

Having said all of that, the EVDO access to content is pretty slick.