There is a new technology in our midst, and once again old-school thinking is about to get a serious shake-up.
Kindle is a new gadget, available from Amazon.com, that allows digital books to be downloaded and read on the go. The device is sexy, smart and intuitive. It also apparently offers a very good reading experience, due to special technology in the screen that does not require back lighting. In other words, it is nothing like looking at your monitor for the whole day.
Here is how the process works: You buy the Kindle ($400) and you set up your account. You browse the Amazon/Kindle bookstore using the device, and choose which books you want to download onto the Kindle. Books cost about $10 each, almost all the New York Times bestsellers are available and the Kindle can store approximately 200 books. Once you have chosen which books you want to buy (newspapers, blogs and magazines are also available), they are delivered effortlessly to the Kindle. You do not pay connectivity charges, and there are no contracts.
So here is where the shake-up happens. Suddenly, everybody can be their own book publisher, easily. This is not new, but it is nevertheless revolutionary. Just as anybody, in theory, could have spent the last 10 years providing online content via their own website, one-to-many online publishing did not really take off until technologies such as WordPress made blogging popular and easy, and RSS feeds made them easier to access.
Similarly, the Kindle offers both vital ingredients to relative instant success: it offers a sexy, intuitive device together with the opportunity of using it to read virtually thousands of books. The real clinch is that it is offered by Amazon. Sony already have their own digital reader, but books need to be specially formatted to be readable, and often cost more than $20 each. We know that we are unlikely to encounter that problem with Amazon. Since it is primarily a bookseller (despite offering over 30 other categories of products), we can be pretty confident that it will protect its own interest by making as many books available in the Kindle format as possible.
The price, despite being about R3 000, is also not bad. I bought two books at Exclusive Books this past weekend, and I spent over R350. If I was able to buy them with instant download from Amazon for $20, I would have saved myself about R200. It wouldn’t take many weekends like that for the device to pay for itself.
Of course, of course, I know. You want to have a tangible, real book on your bookshelf. But do you really? I love books, and I have an extensive library, and I do not think that will ever stop. But there are many books I buy, read in a day or two, and never, ever, look at again. The Kindle would be perfect for these. And it saves trees? Travelling will be lighter, students will not have to carry heavy textbooks around and since first chapters can be read for free, you will always know you are buying a worthwhile read.
But let me get back to the industry shake-up. An author no longer needs to beg and plead for agent representation, or the backing of a publisher. An author can simply sell their book through Kindle, and watch what happens. If it sells well (word of mouse, and all that good stuff), publishers will be falling over themselves to publish the book in print. The power roles will suddenly switch. It is also possible that a publisher will agree to market the e-book, in return for the rights to publish it should it prove successful. Now, not only power roles shift, but the roles of the players themselves begin to change.
I anticipate that just as there are a prolific number of blogs, there will be a prolific number of Kindle books. After all, all these writers who find time to write everyday will be very excited by the opportunity to write and make money as well. It will be up to the crowd to find the gems.
Of course, the Kindle is only available in the United States, and I am not quite sure when, or how, that could ever change. Right now, the downloading of books happens wirelessly, and I do not know how that could be adapted to our internet climate.
I do, however, know that I want one of these goodies ASAP. The Kindle was launched in the last week or so, and is already sold out. Christmas delivery looks unlikely. But I am scheming and plotting, and should have one in my hand within a month or so.
@ $400 a pop the kindle will never be anything but a novelty toy for the rich (It costs more than an Iphone)… A 2000 page book to download is about 10 meg at most, you could even get that on dial-up in 15 minutes, so South African Internet could even handle it..The wireless connection works with your cell phone as well, which is a bonus… what I would really like to know is how are they able to buy the rights to these books for $10 there must be at least $4 profit for amazon in that, thats the kicker why can we not get the same rights to print the books on paper here at that price ?? Easy we are getting ripped off is South Africa…not that book printing would be such a great racket to get into in a country where the future generation is placed 150th in literacy world wide.. STOP THE HIGH PRICES FOR BOOKS maybe the kids will learn to read…BOOKS ARE NOT A LUXURY AND SHOULD NOT BE TAXED AS ONE
@me: 1)I don’t think it is the size of the file that is at issue, it is more the technology used to instantly download the book without you having to connect/dial up etc. Kindle uses a high-speed data network (EVDO). I am not sure if it is available in this country.
2)Allowing the printing of books on paper here is a completely separate and mutually exclusive issue.
3) If you have a problem with the price of books (which I do as well) then this is a step in the right direction. Yes, $400 is a lot, but the price will come down. And there is a huge demand for it already, although I do agree that it is not for the masses.
4) Kids do NOT not learn to read because the price of books is high. If that were true, no kids would play computer games, since they go for about R500 a pop. Kids don’t read for a multitude of other reasons. However, I will acknowledge that the Kindle was not introduced by Amazon to deal with illiteracy.
I totally agree with your point. The eBook has been a long time in coming. But it is here to stay.
As with all tech gadgets, the price of the Kindle will come down. Amazon has already sold out of existing stock.
And yeah, save the trees. We might not have a choice soon.
This product has been slashed by alot of people who know alot about technology and techno gadgets.
Check out Engadget, Techmeme, Gizmodo and others.
Ebooks are cool – and the concept has been launched many times over the years without success. I doubt Amazon are going to get any fires burning with this product.
I was read Arrington review at TechCruch and He sentiments are the opposite of yours. There is the fact that the device’s connectivity is a bit sluggish. The issue of that the price high to me isn’t that much of an issue as there always will be those who will pay premium price for a good thing.
As things stand i think I’ll just sit out the store for the time being i think till a second version is released.
Yes Eve, I also looked at this device with considerable interest. I saw a similar device in the late 80’s. The problems then were rights to the content and memory.
I would also truly miss my overloaded book cases and the smell of books. Mind you, I think it’d be a lot like the Internet and I’m crazy about information so I’d be truly torn between the two systems. I am a late adopter so it may be a while yet though.
The only things we can be certain about are that the technology is here to stay and it and will get dramatically cheaper in the future. Someone will hack the rights issue (if they haven’t already). I’d guess that it will soon be connected directly to the net and we’ll find ways to download the content quicker. Remember how “Photogaphers” trashed digital 5 years ago…
What I find interesting is that each technological leap is much bigger than the last yet somehow, it has less impact on our lives. Maybe this is because the new technology has to compete on a wider front, fighting for our attention with more and more gadgets.
@martim I agree with you that the second version should be much better, and I too will probably wait for that one.
But Arrington complained about the Kindle’s ability to browse the web, which by his own admission, is not the Kindle’s core function. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, Arrington does not even own a Kindle yet. I value Arrington’s opinion very highly, and I will be eager to hear what he says about the Kindle once he played with it for a few days. But personally, I would want the Kindle for one thing only: to read books. If I want to browse the web, I can use my cell.
(Although it would be GREAT if somebody could come up with an all-in-one device)
@John Ahh, the futurist vs traditionalist dilemma. Let me know if you find a solution. In the meantime, I am going to be giving your profound observation about bigger technological leaps having less impact on our lives some serious thought. I think you may be onto something …
Getting onto the web is kind of core to me as you need to get to Amazon’s online store to purchase the books in the first place same as with suscribing to the blogs and newspapers.
John has a point there.
I found this on diveintomark.org. Thanks to WaffleReader for pointing it out:
“When someone buys a book, they are also buying the right to resell that book, to loan it out, or to even give it away if they want. Everyone understands this.”
Jeff Bezos, Open letter to Author’s Guild, 2002
“You may not sell, rent, lease, distribute, broadcast, sublicense or otherwise assign any rights to the Digital Content or any portion of it to any third party, and you may not remove any proprietary notices or labels on the Digital Content. In addition, you may not, and you will not encourage, assist or authorize any other person to, bypass, modify, defeat or circumvent security features that protect the Digital Content.”
Amazon, Kindle Terms of Service, 2007
Sigh.
Well Oprah is gaga about it…. so there aint no stoppin it now!