It is not the best format for staying connected (lap top, I phone). But when I am using my Kindle I am usually glad to be avoiding the usual chat screens, texts, phone calls etc….

[...] I’ve argued before, I think the Kindle’s success will be in providing a format and momentum for distributing [...]

Second, you are dead wrong, in my opinion, about the target market. It is precisely NOT the tech savvy. As said so well by an earlier commenter: “Bibliophiles are the target demographic, not technophiles.” I happen to be an anomaly: I am run a 150 person software company, I program, I love gadgets (of course I have an iPhone); but I am also a hard-core Bibliophile. I have 3,000 book library with collections ranging from 1550 to 1850 plus many thousand more moderns.

Until the Sony or the Kindle, I didn’t bother reading on electronic devices. If you are a dedicated reader you know what it means to “get lost in the book”. That simply doesn’t happen with LCD or CRT screens. Period. E-books will NEVER be widely popular on phones, computers, or TV’s. That is why I think you are missing the point. The electronic ink innovation changed all that. The Kindle is the first electronic device I’ve every had where I could “get lost in the book.” I’ve read many, many full-length books.

Is it perfect? No, of course not. But it’s in a completely different world from cell phone or computer screens. If one thinks this is a “gadget” marketed to “technophiles” that happen to read, one is waaaay off base. Technophiles love the sleek look of the iPhone; the Kindle 1 is ugly. That is almost completely irrelevant to the bibliophile. I don’t know that the Kindle will be the #1 e-reader forever, but they currently have a enormous advantage in content over everyone else.

I do know this – the future of eReaders will NOT be on a device that is “a little easier for reading”. It simply won’t happen. It hurts your eyes way too much after more than 30 minutes of reading. I challenge you to read a full-length novel on a cell phone or computer screen AND on an e-Ink screen. Most people can’t do the first one at all.

I would ask how many technophiles will pull out a book and read for 4 hours straight. Being one, I know many, and most of them won’t. That’s why you aren’t the target market. The target market are people who buy a book or more a week. Who can’t go on a trip without bringing 10 books because they don’t know what they might read. People who have long ago run out of space for their books. Those are the target for first adoption. If it takes hold there, I assume Amazon is hoping they can expand the market from there.

Anyway, that’s my $0.02! Opening my Kindle 2 box right now!

[...] that doesn’t look like the makings of a breakout hit on the scale that the oft-repeated phrase “the iPod of books” implies. After all, the Kindle audience demographically looks an awful lot like the print newspaper [...]

[...] caught some flak a couple months back for questioning the potential success of the Kindle by noting that at a [...]

I’m surprised more hasn’t been said regarding the delivery of school textbooks to eReaders. That seems like an exciting, obvious development — one that would end up being extremely useful and, I dare say, profitable for the schools/teachers who get behind the technology.

That said, I am posting just to be the first to point out (here, anyway) that the Kindle is not just an ordinary eBook reader…

It is the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy!

I do not have a blackberry or an iphone, yet I’m 29 years old and have three computers in use at my desk. I am a small business owner, to boot. I’m sure I’m part of an attractive demographic for a smart phone… but… they are not for me.

The Kindle is apparently not for the publishing world itself, either (as evidenced by the iphone to kindle ratio at your conference), but is rather intended for the consumers of the content they distribute.

When it comes to smart phones I am a hold-out, and fast becoming practically anachronistic amongst my friends. I totally empathize with the poster who described their incongruous budgeting (expensive shoes without a second thought, but serious pause at the $3.50 vs $9.99 issue). I simply do not want to pay a premium for a data plan on a phone that will most likely be used for a CLOCK APP 95% of the time. My Nokia 5190 10 years ago had what I needed in a phone.

iPhones are NOT the ideal place for book distribution, despite the saturation of the device. For a lateral example of the social reasoning behind that statement, read the article on this blog “He’s a PC, but he prefers small niches”.

Back to the Kindle, and to the reason I wanted to post in the first place.

Free access to wikipedia and wikitravel? A huge supply of books and PDFs at my fingertips?

It’s the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy!

Jeff Bezos certainly makes for an odd Ford Prefect, but there it is.

Will the Kindle fail?

Don’t Panic.

I also wonder whether color is going to turn out to be as important in a $10 digital version as it is in a $200 hard cover paper version.

It will be interesting to watch.

I would probably buy one if it were under $200. For $350 I’d rather buy a netbook.

I also think piracy will be an issue. Most popular books are already online in pdf on various sites. And they are often packaged in huge blocks (1000 best novels, 1000 best mysteries, 1000 best SF novels, etc).

The awkwardness of reading on a laptop limits this activity. But when eink readers are cheap and widespread then piracy will grow.

The counter-argument is that the minority of the population that reads is upper income, so it’s not worth it to them to pirate to save $10-$20 for a book.

We’ll see, people under 35 or so have been well trained to find all forms of media they want for free.

The textbook market is safe until color eink becomes practical. And that is many years out still.

[...] reading Why The Kindle Will Fail over at the Neiman Journalism Lab (yay new find) I came up with my own conclusion: it’s butt [...]

[...] while my fellow Niemanite Josh Benton, a Kindle naysayer, may may be correct in the sense that Kindle could prove to be an evolutionary dead end, similar to [...]

What is the equal experience when it comes to reading? Maybe we dip into magazines & newspapers, and we can even have several books on the go at once. But if I buy a book & keep a book, it’s because I know I’ll want to read it again some day, or lend to someone else to enjoy. When I reread it, I will start at the beginning & read it through. I won’t want to just read a few paragraphs in the middle, or a single chapter halfway through, in the same way that I may just want to hear one song from an album.

Will people store books on a device in the event that they may wish to read it again in the future – maybe years away? I’m not sure they will. At least, not in the same way that they will store an album on their iPod when in fact there’s only a couple of songs they regularly listen to on it.

The iPod is more than a listening device – it’s a storage device. You can store your entire music library on it and listen at will. eReaders are a reading device, but I don’t see them becoming anything more.

I also find it odd that so many people reject reading devices because they like hard-copy books. It’s not like I have to give up hard-copy books just because I’m going with a Kindle. I can have both. Gasp!

The Kindle (and Sony ebook reader, and all future players in the space) change the publishing business forever. Say goodbye to the midsize and small publisher and the big bookstore (as currently configured).

I’m a frequent business traveller and love the tactile feel of books, but I like the convenience of carrying hundreds simultaneously on my Kindle more. I like having someone recommend a book to me via email and owning it 30 seconds later. I like paying about half price for everything. I like saving trees. Look, the Kindle is far from perfect, but I’d be shocked if the volume of printed books doesn’t mirror or approximate the decline of the music CD in ten years or less. (I know, this is a category statement and the post is about the Kindle, but right now Kindle is the category.)

Anyone care to wager?