Amazon's Kindle Released

Amazon announced what it considers to be the re-invention of the book called Kindle (pics). The book is slightly larger but thinner (7.5" x 5.3" x 0.7") then your average paperback (6.9" x 4.2" x 1.2") and comes with a lot of bells and whistles that books don’t have like wireless access to new content via Whispernet (similar to a cell phone network), storage of over 200 books (thousands available, around $9.99 per), and ability to download newspapers and blogs (pricing varies), view email attachments and light web surfing (How to Video). All of this in a $399 device. Compared to most other eBook readers, the Kindle stands on its own.

Does the book need to be reinvented? Sure, why not if it’s an improvement. Based on this first version I don’t think the book has anything to fear. The eBook model doesn’t yet duplicate the feel of getting into a novel and reading faster and faster to get through the exciting story as times passes unnoticed by you. The theory is there with the “E Ink” display, but when you have to wait a second for a page to load, the momentum can shift. Time suddenly gets noticed and suddenly finishing the chapter may not be so important.

Then there is the cost. $400 dollars for the electronics that display the books contents (assuming no pics). Even with the discount of only $10 per new novel (versus $20-$30 it usually costs) that is a lot of book buying to recoup the “savings”. Then there is notion of convienance. I just don’t see people tossing this into a backpack the same way we do books. There is something to be said about the ease of being worried about your book breaking. Sure you will have hundreds of possible books at your fingertips but really how often is that really needed?

The screen is currently black and white, to mimic reading a book, but is that necessary in the digital age? Why not a color screen that can display pictures and content, with it switching to black and white as the books need it? Also why no backlight? One annoying aspect of the book is needing a lot of light to enjoy it (to avoid headaches) so why not make it easy to literally read a book in most conditions such as long car trips or say a wait outside on Black Friday?

All these quibbles aside the Kindle is a good first step in the reinvention of the book. The potential is there, whether its books that get corrected and updated on the fly, the ability to access information anytime, anywhere, or even a college student that has all their books for class literally in the palm of their hand. I could be wrong as don’t have $400 to find out first hand, but on the surface it seems this first attempt at the book 2.0 doesn’t seem worth it, not yet anyway. I will let the early adopters work out the kinks and look forward to Kindle 2.0 (which would benefit greatly from iTouch technology).