Amazon launched new e-book reader

On Monday, Nov 19, 2007, Amazon finally released its own e-book reader, called the Kindle. It comes with a price tag of $400 and not including reading material. You can get the specs and see a video of it here.

More than just an e-book reader, the concept of buying your book at any place at any time is quite an attractive one. Although I don't know if I would want to give up totally on going to a book store to browse books on the shelves, something that I am so used to. There is just something about that activity I enjoy that makes it more than just browsing a book in a book store. I guess partly it is the atmosphere. But I can see the advantages of being able to buy your book and read it immediately, without having to wait for it to ship to you. Amazon says that each book generally takes less than a minute to download.

There are quite a few e-book reader already available on the market, and so what makes the Kindle different from the others? I believe it is the concept of convenience, of being able to browse and buy at any place at any time. And also the convenience of downloading the book straight to your kindle, without the need of a computer nor is the syncing necessary for the transfer. To me, that is a plus.

As for the hardware, can't say that it is gorgeous or anything. Practical would be more the word for it. Although I have to say that if they could have incorporated the touch screen function, much like the iPhone, that would be a killer. After having viewed the iPhone user interface, all those buttons and scroll on the Kindle just look somewhat cumbersome. I have yet to actually try it out to know how well it really work.

With a price tag of $400, it looks rather pricey for a e-book reader. Say a normal paper back cost between $15-20, that is equivalent to 20-26 books. And that doesn't include any reading material, which you still have to pay more for. One good thing at least, you don't have to pay any monthly wireless bills, service plans, or commitments. We hate monthly wireless bills, don't we? Well, in reality, we are paying for those, even though it may seem free.

In conclusion, I think the Kindle is a radical change in the way we shop, buy and read books. But it may take a while to change the traditional way that we are so accustomed to. I'm speaking from my perspective. Nevertheless for the younger generation, which is a connected generation, this new concept would go rather well with them.