Last week, Amazon announced their wireless E-Reader, Amazon Kindle, at a cool $399. Along with the announcement came news that 80,000 books are already available, top national newspaper subscriptions are ready to download, and an entirely new system of blog syndication, one that actually involves revenue, is now a reality. It’s the most exciting news to come from Amazon since someone figured out that their logo isn’t a smiley face.

I’m not going to skip the I-told-you-so, because I enjoy the fleeting validation and pretension. I’d bet that Brian Tierney is selling his soul trying to figure out how to make Inquirer “facsimile copies” for that “electronic stone tablet” in this new “digital age.” And I’d bet that when he went to his IT department looking for a way to do it, he even used air quotes to explain it. I think it’s awesome that Tierney is simultaneously dining on his words and considering a way to publish on an E-Reader. If he isn’t, let’s just say that there’s a reason why the Inky building is up for sale.

The fascinating thing about Kindle is that Borders has already been doing the E-Reader thing for a year and no one gave a shit. Now, on top of looking really creepy, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is practically hailed as the next Gutenberg. It’s debatable that the technology used in the first Borders Reader is better, the device better-looking, and on a whole, more convenient to in-store traffic that should have theoretically driven E-Reader sales. $300 is never an impulse buy, but the ink technology, which you have to see to believe, is the real selling point.

But the bigger picture is as clear as electronic ink. Amazon’s strategy was damned smart. Let’s call it Operation SoBordersZon. Well, let’s never call it that again, but come along:

Sony makes E-Reader. Sony tries to control profits by creating an iTunes for books. People hate Sony. Borders sells Sony Reader to test the market. Borders hooks the book geeks and proves that this thing may be the real deal. Amazon finds a cheap manufacturer and ditches the awful Sony software. Amazon cuts a deal with the New York Times. Amazon kills this holiday season.

Everyone else is doing it, so why can’t we?

While Kindle may seem like the perfect holiday gift for your favorite librarian, it ain’t perfect. Like a tragic hero, it has its flaws.

What It Does Right

• Design: I gotta give it to you Kindle, you know how to play the iPod card with that white enamel paint job. You look pretty sexy. The keyboard is clutch, and we appreciate the ability to search our documents.
• Connectivity: In a city like Philadelphia where WiFi barely drizzles, providing a free EVDO cellular connection is a sell in itself. Giving away connectivity is an interesting idea, and if it works, it could change the way companies sell wireless products.
• Content: It’s no coincidence that Amazon has offered .pdf previews of all their books for the past few years—someone’s been hella busy scanning all that content, and 80,000 titles is going to keep us pretty busy.
• Storage: 256mb of internal memory promises to hold a lot of text (200 books according to the spec sheet), and the SD slot is a must. Mad props for not closing off external storage.
• Blog Syndication: You may have found a way to sell blogs. We likey.

What It Does Wrong

• Design: I hate to break it to you, but you’re awkward. You’re pretty big compared to other readers and that weird tilt thing you’ve got going on might get annoying. Books may be an old technology, but you don’t have to look like you’re from the gilded age.
• Connectivity: We wouldn’t mind being able to surf the net on this thing. Forcing a closed cellular network means a limited range of browsing, but we do like the fact that we can access Wikipedia.
• Content: It’s gonna be complicated as hell to get our own content on it. We wish that it was open to traditional file formats, and not based on that weird HTML front end.
• Storage: Considering that it plays mp3s, including more internal memory to support that technology would have been smart.
• Blog Syndication: Bloggers are small lobsters in a big pot, and we don’t like the idea of having to maintain an RSS feed and another proprietary feed. Make it easy for us to Amazonize.

Aside from that ridiculous price, the Kindle is the right fit for consumers. It’s a killer toy but a poor representation of where the mainstream market can really take E-Readers. What’s most disappointing is the industry side of the story, where Amazon has decided to plant its huge boot print. This isn’t surprising from such a customer-centric company (we’ve seen it with DRM locks from both Microsoft and Apple). I hope that in the future, retailers will come to respect giving customers choice on content. But, the fact of the matter is that I’m lusting for a Kindle. If someone buys me one, I’ll cut out all the critique in this column. Seriously. Sell me out and I’ll shut it up.

Brian James Kirk is a writer living in Fishtown, USA. His affinity for RSS feeds is equally as strong as his affinity for ladies- a subject he often covers in a sex column he writes for the Temple News.

Previously: Technologicology: Is That A Google In Your Pocket Or Are You Just Happy To Cell Me

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 at 2:39 pm.