Is it Time to Buy Amazon's Kindle?

This blog is not established to promote any equipment but I guess that there are exceptions that are of consequence. One of those is that I have been prompted by this and this article to present my views on the Kindle in addition to my expectations of its market performance judging from my own reading.

First, I considered purchasing the Kindle during the last couple of months and found that it was out of stock at the Amazon web store. Having read some of the reviews on the site and on other technology discussion groups, I became convinced that it would not only do well, but that it clearly is the one to beat in spite of competition from similar and dissimilar devices from Sony's e-book reader to the iPhone. Having added seven times as much memory to the Kindle 2 implies that it can now hold more than the two hundred books that the first one could and that makes it capable of holding most people's libraries very easily.

Both stories state that the price has remained the same at US$ 359 but this is only in nominal terms as they have failed to account for inflation and the fact that the Kindle 2 has added features in addition to being lighter. Therefore, in spite of the serious financial situation, it is clear that the Kindle 2 is a real bargain, as compared to its predecessor.

I am also convinced that the Kindle will have significant share in the market for e-books from now onwards based on the added features and especially its suitability for the purpose of reading. While I think that Apple has a very well-developed gadget in the name of the iPhone, I have retained the view that smart phones remain particularly unsuited for reading books over a long time. To my mind, it is far easier to imagine reading a book on Kindle over a flight or other journey than to stay on a smart phone for that purpose and for an equivalent time period. To insist that smart phones will provide this is to fail to accept the fact that cell phones have limits imposed by their increased miniaturization. The mobile phone revolution has allowed people to play games, watch news and do some other tasks but it cannot do everything that one will require. Perhaps the way out is for Apple to design an e-book reader to compete with Amazon.

It is also unsurprising and even laudable that the Kindle's continuing success will disrupt the economics of the book publishing and distribution business. Among other things, the price for a digital book is now at US$ 9.99 per title and this will cut into the profitability of the publishers. As CE of a major publisher, Carolyn K. Reidy's argument that the prices for electronic titles should be the same as that of paper copies is a manifestation of this failure to see the facts as they are. There's no way that the processes and materials used in producing the paper version should be charged to a person merely seeking to read in digital format. That claim is clearly absurd and the market will prove it so when the Kindle and other gadgets roll off the plants because consumers will not take that.