Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have great respect for Amazon's focus on the customer experience when developing new products. One has only to look at the evolution of the Kindle itself, not to mention the terrific Amazon Kindle covers of the past to know this. It's for this reason that I find myself baffled by this new cover for Kindle Voyage, shaking my head and wondering, "Who asked for this?" First: Amazon created the Origami design for its Fire tablet covers, where it actually makes sense. Many kinds of video content are viewed on tablets, so having a cover to prop up the screen allows the user (and friends) to just watch. But using this design for an e-reader is just silly. I'm not saying that no one would ever want to use it, but ask yourself: in the pre-Kindle days, did you first break out your book stand when it was time to read? I didn't think so. With few exceptions, reading has always involved holding a book in your hands--it's part of the experience--which brings me to my next point.. Second, an incredible engineering effort went into making the Voyage the closest an e-reader has ever come to reading off the printed page of a book. So what sense does it make to put the Voyage in a flip-top cover that is "non-book" by design? Even worse, this design makes the Voyage significantly less comfortable to hold, because the front flap, when you flip it to the back, no longer wraps the edge that you grip with you hand, as with past Kindle covers. Why do this just to deliver a "feature" that few people could have been asking for: the ability to read a Voyage propped up on its own. Third: Amazon-branded covers have always been very pricey in return for sleeker design and unique features, but they've taken it too far with the Voyage covers. This polyurethane cover is now $5 more than the Paperwhite's already expensive leather cover, while the Voyage's leather version is $20 more--that's a 50% price increase!--which is just outrageous. It's nice that the Voyage cover now attaches with magnets, making removal of it a breeze, but that doesn't justify this kind of price-gouging. In summary: while some have also questioned the high-price of the Voyage, you're unquestionably getting the best e-reader ever for your money. With the Origami cover, however, you're paying a super premium price for a misguided design. It's a rare miss for the Amazon Kindle team, and I'm hoping they'll at least offer a "normal" cover as another choice sometime in the future. Thank you for taking the time to read my review, and I hope you find it helpful in making a buying decision.