PK+-+Amazon+Kindle

Amazon is releasing their new Kindle into the market today, called the Kindle 2. For those that don't know, Kindle is Amazon's e-book reader, and some consider it revolutionary in the same way that the iPod was. Rather than carrying hundreds of CDs around, you carry it all in your pocket. Likewise on the Kindle, rather than carry a ton of heavy books around with you, you can store it digitally in the Kindle. The Kindle is lighter and thinner than even one small paperback book, yet it can store hundreds of books. The Kindle has a monochrome LCD, which isn't always ideal for reading. Most people these days would rather have a black on white display. In my opinion, the Amazon Kindle isn't worth as much as they are selling it for. After all, the feature set is pretty limited. If you wanted, you can invest in an iPod touch for $229, plus the e-book reading application, and it would still be less than the Kindle. And, the iPod touch does have a lot more features and more portability anyway. So, there are better deals for e-book reading than the Kindle. I'm not saying Amazon needs to add touch screens and other features that the iPod touch has. I'm just saying that if they wish to have a sucessful product, they should sell it at a lower price. The Kindle could revolutionize education in many ways. Students who are tired of taking textbooks with them all over the place can now just bring them all on a Kindle. One little weightless device, compared to lifting 25 pounds worth of books. Also, students wouldn't have to deal with the expense of replacing damaged books throughout the school year. For now, though, the prime audience of the Kindle are heavy book readers. Those folks have a LOT of books, and it would be easier to bring all their books into one device than carrying dozens of books. Heavy readers will consider this device a bargain. The Kindle will benefit the most from stories, rather than blogs and newspapers because blogs and newspapers can be accessed from the Internet. The major advantage that the Kindle has is that it was designed for e-book reading. The Kindle is a great idea in concept, but getting an iPod touch for $229 with an e-book application would seem like a better deal. But if you are the kind of person who would just reads books, and nothing else, then the Kindle will save people hundreds of dollars from investing books. If I were interested, Amazon would have to make a color screen in order to make it more fit for the future. Black on white would be a much better display than monochrome. Monochrome is so 2001. The overall bulky design (length and width, not thickness) would keep me away because it wouldn't fit into most pockets. But overall, the concept is good.