November 19, 2007

The future of the book: How does Amazon's Kindle affect it?

The future of the book conversation continues...

I imagine most of you have heard about Amazon's new e-reader, Kindle. Steven Levy wrote it up in the latest Newsweek. Of course, it spurred conversations here. Some of us admittedly curious about the newfangled gadget that can hold 200 books; others, swearing off e-books altogether.

At $399, it's the first e-reader with internet access (and free wireless, at that). Add books in a minute's notice. Download your Word documents and pictures; take it on the go. Blogs, newspapers, books and wikipedia, all available at your fingertips. It sounds just about perfect.

As with everything, there's the other side. Seth points out, "The beauty of real books is that they don't require a reader, which means that millions of people are eligible members of the market. Even if you only have .0001% market share, you can still get your book read."

I can't help but wonder when (if not already) the e-reader gains a following like the iPod. It will certainly happen; it's just a matter of time. Is Amazon's Kindle the answer to digital books?

Maybe the question is, will you buy one?

Posted by Kate at November 19, 2007 3:37 PM | TrackBack
Comments

And the beauty of a real book is that it doesn't have DRM and a format that forbids you to transfer it from device to device. I really don't need another format that I need to re-buy, like music and movies, everytime that someone comes up with something better.

And charging for blogs? What's up with that? Are they going to be splitting the profits with the people who's intellectual property they're vending? Shades of the WGA!

Posted by: Cathy at November 20, 2007 8:18 AM

Kate - I purchased one yesterday, which should arrive today. I'm planning to do a thorough review of the tool for business book readers on the Personal MBA blog as soon as possible. Stay tuned!

Posted by: Josh Kaufman at November 20, 2007 8:35 AM

Musing about my personal list of needs/ uses concerning media portability:

* I need an audio-carrying device, as I fill a 4-hour train commute or a 15-minute walk with MANY snippets of music and spoken-word podcasts (iPod). I need a syncing mechanism with my home-base (iTunes on desktop computer) or with my multi-purpose device I carry around anyhow (iTunes on laptop). I would need an online audio backup service (?).

* I need my portable multi-purpose device mentioned (Toshiba) to accomplish the MANY tasks of business and personal digital life.

* I need a mobile high quality camera (Nikon) to take MANY pictures. I need a syncing mechanism (Adobe Lightroom), and I need an online backup/ publishing service (flickr).

* I need a mobile phone to take MANY calls a day which additionally serves as a low-quality camera and recorder (Sony Ericsson). I need a syncing mechanism (Windows Explorer).

* I need a text display device to read say a MAX of 100 pages a day from a RESTRICTED number of sources (one or two books and two magazines/ newspapers) when not at home. Let it be 1000 pages for a holiday. But nevertheless: I concentrate on/ dive into ONE or TWO books then, reading sequentially. Concerning the magazines and newspapers: I browse them - which is different from searching. Paper is fine for that. The use case of researching (full-text search) is so tightly coupled to re-using the found text snippets instead of just reading them that I would use my laptop anyhow.

Is the Amazon Kindle the future of the book? No, definitely not. But ...

... it might be the future of a completely new need/ usage scenario.

Tell me how!

Posted by: Harald Felgner at November 21, 2007 3:47 AM
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