Kindle Watch
The media has been abuzz this past week over reports (not from Amazon) that about 240,000 Kindles have been sold in the US. Portfolio Magazine does the math and wonders if the target audience for the devices has already been reached:
The Kindle is not going to make a reader out of a nonreader. Few will say, “Gee, reading books and magazines was prohibitively difficult before, but now that there’s a $359 electronic reader available, I’m going to start!”
Tags: Amazon Kindle, Kindle
August 6, 2008 8:12 am 3 Comments
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By Connie, August 6, 2008 @ 4:00 pm
If the price were $159 instead of $359, I would buy one. I don’t believe I am alone.
By Kevin, August 6, 2008 @ 7:05 pm
The Wired article is a very short sited one, and doesn’t factor in corporate or educational establishes using the Kindle.
Eventually the price will drop to about ~$150, but that will be in a couple of years time – remember this is a new technology and a first generation device.
When the price get lower, the Kindle will truly take off.
By Tim, August 7, 2008 @ 10:02 am
I know that various e-readers are popular with people who actually read (manuscripts and the like for a living). The article also mentions the potential use at colleges as a replacement for huge textbooks. It’s an interesting idea.
For me, it is the DRM that is still a deal breaker. For example, you can’t loan your book (at least those purchased from Amazon) to someone else, even though you “own” it. Nor can you read books bought for use on other readers (like Sony’s) due to their proprietary software.
That stuff may get sorted out, and the price may well drop.
I agree that the article may be oversimplifying things, but it is an interesting place to start the conversation.