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Just got a Kindle.

I have an iPad, so I can't really justify a Kindle, but with these prices I'm very tempted to pick one up. Most likely the touch, definitely an e-ink one, cause that screen is simply gorgeous for reading. Battery life is also something that suits me.

But:

PRO: E-ink screen works beautifully and better in sunlight than backlighted screen.

CON: E-ink screen does not have backlighting. I would need an extra light for reading in bed, where I do a lot more reading than in sunlight.

It's a most delicious quandary.
 
There's another reason I have not yet picked up a Kindle. I could be totally wrong on this, and would appreciate comments.

It seems that Amazon is seriously underpricing the Kindle, with very little or no profit on them. Which means that Amazon sells them to push other profitable products, which would be the content -- ebooks, music, videos, you name it (and advertisements).

Apple's strategy seems the opposite: They make a nice and sizable profit on the devices themselves, and can push content for less.

It's my gut feeling that Apple's strategy, in the long run, would be more advantageous for us consumers
 
elgarak said:
There's another reason I have not yet picked up a Kindle. I could be totally wrong on this, and would appreciate comments.

It seems that Amazon is seriously underpricing the Kindle, with very little or no profit on them. Which means that Amazon sells them to push other profitable products, which would be the content -- ebooks, music, videos, you name it (and advertisements).

Apple's strategy seems the opposite: They make a nice and sizable profit on the devices themselves, and can push content for less.

...snip...
Click to expand...

Out of curiosity what are the price comparisons say between a recently released best-seller e-book at B&N, Amazon and Apple? ETA: To not be quite so lazy, using the due to published next week latest Terry Prachett, Snuff:

Amazon.com $13.20
B&N $12.99


I can't get Apple's price because I don't have iTunes installed on this PC.
 
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Snuff is next week?

Schweeeet.

ETA relevance:

On a similar note, to examine the allegation that ebook prices are too high, I did a comparison of paperback/ebook prices a while back for the bestsellers.

From memory, the ebooks were overall about 10% cheaper for the top 10 bestsellers.
 
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Worm said:
Snuff is next week?

Schweeeet.

ETA relevance:

On a similar note, to examine the allegation that ebook prices are too high, I did a comparison of paperback/ebook prices a while back for the bestsellers.

From memory, the ebooks were overall about 10% cheaper for the top 10 bestsellers.
Click to expand...

Aren't the publishers able to fix the price in the UK for the e-books, like they used to be able to do for books under the net book agreement cartel?

And damn - Snuff is the 13th! Don't know why I thought it was next week. One of things I like best about the Kindle is pre-ordering, the books appear like magic as soon as they are available - it's like I imagine heaven to be.
 
Some publishers fix the price, some don't. It's called the 'agency pricing model' and the original gang were Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin, and Simon & Schuster.

Others let retailers set the price. The way to tell on Amazon is look at the bottom of the price section. You'll see a lot of books say 'This price was set by the publisher' - that's the agency pricing.

As of the time of writing, of the top 10 Kindle bestsellers, 5 have a publisher-fixed price.
 
Worm said:
Some publishers fix the price, some don't. It's called the 'agency pricing model' and the original gang were Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin, and Simon & Schuster.

Others let retailers set the price. The way to tell on Amazon is look at the bottom of the price section. You'll see a lot of books say 'This price was set by the publisher' - that's the agency pricing.

As of the time of writing, of the top 10 Kindle bestsellers, 5 have a publisher-fixed price.
Click to expand...

Some even price the ebook above the hardcover.
 
I'm baffled by the Fire's lack of 3G connectivity. Amazon is excusing the relatively low amount of onboard memory by saying that having all your movies, music, books, etc., on the cloud will make up for it (yes, I meant to put books last -- a review I read summed up the Fire as an ebook reader for people who don't like to read :)). But in order to use the cloud, you have to be near a wifi point, which many people rarely are unless they're sitting at home or in a coffee shop. Cloud storage + lack of 3G? It just don't add up! I'll keep my beloved e-ink Kindle for now, thanks.
 
Buckaroo said:
I'm baffled by the Fire's lack of 3G connectivity. Amazon is excusing the relatively low amount of onboard memory by saying that having all your movies, music, books, etc., on the cloud will make up for it (yes, I meant to put books last -- a review I read summed up the Fire as an ebook reader for people who don't like to read :)). But in order to use the cloud, you have to be near a wifi point, which many people rarely are unless they're sitting at home or in a coffee shop. Cloud storage + lack of 3G? It just don't add up! I'll keep my beloved e-ink Kindle for now, thanks.
Click to expand...

Well, I'm guessing they wouldn't be able to include the cost of unlimited world-wide 3G (like the current Kindle has) in the one-off price for a multi-media device. Given that, maybe they don't want to get into charging a monthly subscription or expecting people to sort out their own 3G coverage. I don't see this as a replacement for the e-ink version, but as a means for Amazon to sell other media.
 
Buckaroo said:
I'm baffled by the Fire's lack of 3G connectivity. Amazon is excusing the relatively low amount of onboard memory by saying that having all your movies, music, books, etc., on the cloud will make up for it (yes, I meant to put books last -- a review I read summed up the Fire as an ebook reader for people who don't like to read :)). But in order to use the cloud, you have to be near a wifi point, which many people rarely are unless they're sitting at home or in a coffee shop. Cloud storage + lack of 3G? It just don't add up! I'll keep my beloved e-ink Kindle for now, thanks.
Click to expand...
There's nothing baffling here. Including 3G would make it a competitor with every 3G tablet and would increase the price significantly. They can get away with no-fee 3G on the regular Kindle because it's not a competitor with any other standard mobile products and because the amount of data being transferred is typically very small.

Besides, 3G sucks. ;)
 
Buckaroo said:
I'm baffled by the Fire's lack of 3G connectivity. Amazon is excusing the relatively low amount of onboard memory by saying that having all your movies, music, books, etc., on the cloud will make up for it (yes, I meant to put books last -- a review I read summed up the Fire as an ebook reader for people who don't like to read :)). But in order to use the cloud, you have to be near a wifi point, which many people rarely are unless they're sitting at home or in a coffee shop. Cloud storage + lack of 3G? It just don't add up! I'll keep my beloved e-ink Kindle for now, thanks.
Click to expand...
I thought that was odd too. What's the point of a device designed to view media and surf the web when you're on the go if you can't actually use it when you're on the go? :confused:
 
For those considering an upgrade to the new Kindle Touch with 3G: No 3G "experimental" web browsing on that device.

I expected as much; in fact, there was a deleted scene in my last post where I went on and on about it but it was left out of the final cut in favor of the more pithy "Besides, 3G sucks." ;)

Having a touchscreen interface would enable users to far more comfortably browse the web and that would cost Amazon too much money. The Kindles with keyboards will continue to have 3G web access but the Kindle Touch 3G will be restricted to 3G access to the Kindle Store and Wikipedia; the web browser of the latter will still work fine via WiFi.
 
Disaster! My Kindle started freezing and rebooting, in a cycle.

Massive panic (okay - slight distress, but you know what I mean)

One call to Amazon CS later, and I should have a replacement tomorrow.

Those guys really do deserve glowing reviews. *****
 
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