Geekfoolery

Amazon announced their Kindle eBook reader this week, joining Sony’s Reader in the relatively uncrowded market for electronic book devices. Sony’s latest is a slicker 2.0 version of its first offering from a couple years ago. Kindle is Amazon’s baby, what I assume they are hoping will be a killer app, the iPod of the book world.

Here’s what both of them can do:

• Hold a reasonable largish number of eBooks in onboard memory, expandable with SD cards. The typical eBook runs about a meg or so, which means a $50 4 gig SD card should hold more books than many people have read in a lifetime.
• Read both proprietary DRMed eBooks that you purchase, as well as other files you may already have on your computer, such as PDFs, Word Docs, JPEGs, and other files–even MP3s. I don’t think these devices will replace your iPod, but if you like a little music while you’re reading, it can be done.
• Display text on an “electronic ink” screen that’s relatively easy to read, and does’t use battery power except to turn the page. Text is quite clear and readable, font sizes are adjustable.

At this point, Amazon’s Kindle adds a few features that Sony does not have:

• A QWERTY keyboard for searching and other minor text entry
• A larger catalog on the bookstore–more than four times the number of titles in Sony’s bookstore

  and finally… and this is huge…

• Wireless and computerless access to both the Amazon Kindle bookstore and blogs and RSS newsfeeds. Using the EVDO cellphone network, you can browse the Amazon bookstore anywhere there is cell coverage, buy books, and your blogs and feeds will automatically update throughout the day. One major point that Amazon got right is that you don’t pay a separate monthly fee for access to the wireless network; the fees are included in your purchases.

  You can also email docs to your Kindle, though Amazon says they will charge a small fee for converting them.

Clearly, Amazon has raised the bar considerably, possibly enough to make an eBook reader a compelling item to have. But are eBook readers compelling enough to justify Sony’s $300 and Amazon’s $400 price tag?

The price for both readers is high enough that most people need to think before making the purchase. The math we all need to do spreading out the cost of the device over how often we’re going to use it, how many books we’re going to buy for it, are we going to be literate enough to justify a $0.4K purchase.

The second question is don’t we already have devices that cover much of this function already? I mean, I have a laptop. I have an iPod. I’ve read eBooks on my PDA, and the screen on my iPhone is pretty damn clear, and I wll always have that with me–aren’t these functions covered already by gadgets I already have?

Is it easy enough to use that I will use it, beyond the first day when I rip off the shrink wrap and plug it in?

And finally, is the content there to support the eBook reader market?

My verdict: Sony’s latest eBook reader takes a fairly straightforward approach to device that’s been tried at least a couple times and makes a damn nice device. Make it Mac compatible, and drop the price to $100–maybe $150–and I’d own one by now. The problem is that $300 is just too much money, and the Sony library too limited to make it compelling purchase. If your taste in books runs to to Bestsellers and the new arrivals stacks at Borders, you might have more luck finding what you want online.
Kindle, on the other hand, even with the higher $400 price tag, is a more compelling offering. The killer app is the wireless access to the Amazon network, download of book purchases, and this is important: Free download of my blogs and rss feeds. Just like I can be happy iPod owner and never spend a dime at the iTunes music store, Kindle users can fill their devices with blogs and other disposable media that constantly updates. And taking the killer app to the next level is the wireless access; you can get full enjoyment from a Kindle without ever plugging it in to your PC.

I was wondering today if eBook readers are still ahead of their time. I’ve seen them in stores, but I don’t know anyone who owns one, and I haven’t seen anyone using one, until today. I saw a woman reading her eBook reader, complete with LED reading light. The only problem, as I see it, was where she was reading–which was in her car, at a red light.

It’s LA, of course. Where else do we have time to read our books, if not in traffic?

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