Is the Kindle still alive?
When for the first time I had seen the photos of the Kindle, Amazon “revolutionary”(!) ebook reader, I felt sick. I did not throw out, though, until someone compared that “thing” to the iPhone. I mean, have you seen it? When I think to the reader of the future I can think to the Rex Iliad, not the Kindle. The designer probably had the idea back in the ‘70, and it was delivered to us with all its splendour(!) just when the world was admiring Apple for its design.
I have to admit that it is a step forward, but still it is not enough to make the ebook market to become something more than the ghost it is right now… Do I? No, really, have anything changed since the introduction of that ebook reader?
Changes are slow, I know, especially in the book market. You have to educate the reader, move away from the paper is a big jump. So the education start from a $400 hardware, with a rubbish design and the incapacity to read outside the DRM world. I do not think this is the breaking device that will change the market.
To be honest I think that the Kindle has been an own goal. The design is something aberrant! The functionality are limited and tied to Amazon. The price is ridiculously high.
If you want to give some life to the ebook market target the young generations. Give the reader away for few bucks, allow the contents to be in every form, change the idea of a book, dividing it from the paper.
Otherwise avoid such things as the Kindle.
IMHO
PS: in order to save your sanity, the violent images of the Kindle have been omitted in this article. Refer to a google image search if you think it would not compromise your mental sanity!
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