I was an early Kindle customer — ordering one in August 2008 when I returned from Beijing as a form of gadget valium to sooth my soul after the enervation of the whole Olympic experience. I took to it instantly, a perfect customer candidate given my travel habits and obsession with lightening my backpack of multiple five pound hardcover best selling door stops. I read a lot. Like two to three books a week on average, and the Kindle was instant gratification. I’d think of a book, read a review, or get a recommendation from a friend and I could flip on the wireless Whispernet switch and I was loaded nearly instantly with new reading material for the long haul to Bangalore or the short trip between Boston and Raleigh.
All was well with the Kindle and me. The eInk screen was perfectly readable, the matte screen easy on the eyes with no back splatter reflection. The books were cheap. My beefs came down to terrible hardware design — the page forward and page back pages simply suck — especially for a left-handed person like myself; and the other main beef was the utter antisocial aspect of not being to share books with family or friends. That remains, to me, to be the biggest crime of a digital book. It can’t be pressed fervently into someone’s hands — you have to read this, trust me — and then there’s the whole bibliophile loss of not having a tangible object in one of my many groaning bookshelves.
In April I went for the iPad. I told myself not to do it. It was irresponsible to piss away $500 on a 16GB piece of glass and aluminum, but what the heck, I needed some more gadget valium and I had a professional interest in the device to boot — having come off of the Skylight Smartbook project at Lenovo and being obsessed with all things consumer/content-consumption oriented.
Three months later and I don’t use the Kindle very much any more. And here’s why.
- The iPad does more stuff than the Kindle and therefore has more utility
- Amazon wisely released an iPad app which is every bit as good if not better than the Kindle 1.0 software
- Even though the iPad is a self-regarding narcissist’s dream device — one could spend hours gazing on one’s own reflection — the lack of matte finish doesn’t annoy me
- The brilliance of the iPad is the same brilliance behind the original Mac. Where as Jobs first had the insight that people rather not type commands, but would prefer to point and click with a mouse; he scored again with the simple insight that a finger is better than a mouse. Besides, it is so much more physically intimate to idly read on the iPad and move a page back and forth with one’s fingers and not curse, curse, curse at the dumbness of the Kindle’s forward and back paddles.
I haven’t tried any other readers. iPad sort of takes the curiosity out of me. But if I were Amazon I’d zero-price the things and give them away.
Amazon should get out of the hardware industry as fast as it can. They should stick at what they are best: eCommerce and content. End of story.
I despise apple, but I wouldn’t compete against them today for all the gold in the world.
David,
How do you feel about reading eBooks on the active, backlit iPad screen compared with the passive screen of the Kindle? Do you find yourself reading as much as with the Kindle and do you find that your eyes are more fatigued because of the active display?
Esteban – agreed Amazon should exit, but offer the device for free as a “razor/blade” incentive. Apple’s book software sucks in comparison.
David – no fatigue (which concerned me). I am able to put in the same time, but in the end, yes, the Kindle without backlighting is much easier on the eyes in the long run.
I figured the Kindle was in trouble when the best TV ad they could come up with a desperate “… it works better in the sun …”
Moreover, I knew the game was up when a 50 something friend of mine whose avoided being online for years finally dove in with both feet with a iPad his daughter bought him.
Proving once again, though content is king, the user experience to deliver said content its queen.
The iPad looks great but as with iPhone, Apple is filtering content. It does not seem right especially after hearing this show http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2010/06/18/05
Point taken. But Apple is not filtering Amazon — at least to my knowledge. I do not like Apple’s approach to eBooks and won’t purchase from them. I remain loyal to Amazon but prefer Apple’s hardware.
The first question in my mind is ‘will Apple succeed in re-factoring the book publishing industry the same way the turned over the proverbial cart for the recording industry?’
The second question is how quickly can Amazon sweeten the pot to continue consuming content for the Kindle?
On an interesting side note, I noted another “read on the beach” ad – this time for the Nook. Lazy flattery or yet more desperation this time on the part of B&N?