Kindle: Putting the match to paper books?
Amazon’s study of book-buying habits appears to have convinced founder Jeff Bezos that The Time is Now.
Time, that is, for an update in the fundamentals of how people read. The dead tree is under attack as never before. Trees that live are coming back into style.
There have been other ebook readers, but none combining e-ink and wireless technology, and none with the market-awareness of Amazon.
I’ve heralded e-ink as the savior of designers who might otherwise be relegated to nothing but graphics and animations, the art of heterogeneous page layout gone forever in a sea of templates.
Amazon’s Kindle may be a key step away from our paper addiction. Sure, I already read the New York Times on a Treo, but this gadget is for normal people.
It’s potent enough as a serious play for a historically hard-to-sell form-factor even without the works-everywhere (in the US) connectivity. This device generates and bundles services and opportunities together in a new way… a “doh!” way. I’m thinking it’s going to fly.
But - and I’m far from the first to say this - perhaps THE major failing in this iteration of Kindle is (drumroll please), the lack of support for PDF. What’s up with that!
3rd party software developers (Adobe included) will likely watch the reaction to this device for a month or three before finalizing their own plans. If the love-fest continues much past the initial splash, I suspect we’d see Kindle supporting PDF one way or another sometime in the not too-distant future.
In reading the user comments (no, I certainly haven’t seen one in the flesh), I’m noticing that many of those with positive comments either are or anticipate spending a lot for their content.
Hmm. What’s all this I hear about consumers expecting content for free? Turn the page, people!
Amazon may have come up with a license to print money (using e-ink). This bears watching.
January 20th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Kindle - yes, like Apple iTunes - why buy a CD or DVD or physical book anymore - when i can get it RIGHT NOW and read it RIGHT NOW ?
But - here is why “not PDF” - do you not remember Adobe Digital Editions ? DRM with PDF went badly, many people bought books that one day they could not open - it was a mess. People remember that, and lets face it, why would Amazon need it anyway ? Most books I buy are text only - Why do I need PDF for just text ? Chapter starts and begins and a TOC can be MUCH lighter and thereby faster to download - PDF can’t help this sort of thing at all. In the full streaming world and ‘future’ better gadget, maybe PDF.
Right now the big issue is this device is ugly, and sons generation can’t be bothered with books anyway.
January 30th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Michael,
Who said anything about DRM? Kindle should support PDFs w/o DRM.
PDF can absolutely do the things you mention, including reflow et. al. All the file needs is structure and some well-chosen tags.
Duff.
June 11th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Take a look at the Bookeen Cybook - it includes support for Palm PDB and PRC, and HTML, TXT and PDF (without DRM or forms - but for reading that should be fine).
Also, it seems to have the same screen and resolution, but a smaller and lighter form factor, and twice the internal memory storage - but no wireless.
Add in the Sony, and we’ve got a competitive e-ink e-book device market, with different approaches from various manufacturers.
Noah Katz