Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Given that the Kindle, Amazon's new electronic reader, rolled out just before Christmas, I thought it might have some buzz about it, despite its $399 price tag. I haven't seen much (any) and as an early adopter, I thought I'd pass on some feedback. Imagine the iPOD (or remember when it was) being sold with limited downloadable songs available. In the early days of iTunes, that was the case, but the iPod also had the capability to let you rip your CDs into the player, making your existing collection portable. Without this feature, the early iPods would have been expensive paperweights. And, speaking of expensive paperweights, I bring you the Kindle. The Kindle relies on the ability to download e-books and claims a library of nearly 100,000 titles. The usability factor gets a zero out of 100,000. First, though, let me say that the unit is cool enough. I think everything about it technically is fine and the concept of building the wireless into the price of the unit and the downloads is pretty forward-thinking. Amazon, after all, realized that shipping is built into the price of anything you buy at retail stores, so a comparable bottom line price that includes shipping is attractive to online buyers. I think they've kind of done the same thing with the wireless service in the Kindle. I have no complaints about the device itself. It seems to me that the value of the Kindle is when its mobile. Say, on a business trip you see a new release in the airport for $24.99. You whip out your lightweight Kindle, type in the title, and download it for $9.99, just as advertised. No lugging of the book and you saved money, too. Further, I would think that business readers would be a prime first-mover segment for the Kindle. Let's face it--smart phones and gadgets are the business traveler's manly version of the Coach handbag. After charging my Kindle, I typed in a current release (an October release from Harvard Business Press). Umm, no, not available. I typed in another. Nope. A third, no. A fourth, no again. I thought maybe I was wrong, that these titles weren't yet available. I'd been stockpiling some titles in anticipation of the Kindle so I could load up for an upcoming trip. I went to Amazon.com and all four titles were available in their store. I typed in the title of an elections-related book, out in 2006, into the Kindle and got nothing. Again, it was at the Amazon store. So, I went back and re-watched the video on amazon.com and I verify that they have more than 80,000 books, BLOGS, and NEWSPAPERS, and I have to assume right now that that's 0 books, and 80,000 blogs and newspapers. Or, maybe 1 book and 79,999 blogs and newspapers. The video goes on to say that New York Times Bestsellers and most new releases are $9.99 or less. Well, new releases were a strike out, so I go for a book issued in 2004. Aptly titled, "Seeing What's Next," it sells for $26.36. GREAT! That's only $4.61 more than I can buy it with free shipping from Amazon's website. Jeff Bezos proudly showed off the Kindle in a video on the website. He's a smart guy and I bet he does a bit of reading. I really have to wonder if he actually used the Kindle before he shot the video. I just can't believe he would have beamed like the 2007 version of the iPod-toting Steve Jobs if he knew how useless the device was. I emailed the kindle feeback address at Amazon and got the typical response you would expect....we are adding more titles daily, tell us specific title recommendations (which I did in the initial email), etc. All in all, the Kindle, I'm sure, will go down as a stupid thing for which I spent money. It's sad that for every Slingbox, you have to kiss a few Kindles, but that's what has happened. I think the whole experience is, well, bad, but I thought the post was worth relaying for a couple of other reasons. First, I haven't seen much written about the Kindle except in the Wall Street Journal and a couple of other columns and I thought you might want some insight. Second, I think this experience speaks volumes (pun intended, because there aren't many volumes with the Kindle) about a tremendous distribution gaffe by a company that kind of invented Internet retail distribution in the 21st century. Amazon seems more intent on distributing the Kindle than someone actually using it. That seems so unlike Amazon. There will be some post-mortens written about the E-Readers (Amazon's, Sony's, and others) and I'm sure Amazon's will go down as a dud. The epitaph may speak to poor technology but, like companies find in the non-Internet world, it really will be because of poor execution. Kindle: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device