I have been browsing around and reading reviews on the “Kindle”, they’re mixed to say the least. There seems to be a love hate relationship for it in the Blog-a-Sphere. For a quick negative review on it read the following post. I sort of see the posters point, but the comments, you got to read the comments!

Kindle?
I’m not getting Kindle in both senses of the verb — not buying and not understanding, both as a device and as a model.
Buzz machine
by Jeff Jarvis

It’s a 90% hate and 10% love review! It’s without a doubt the most brutal Kindle review I have read so far. I could make a good argument that the 90% just like to bitch, but I’ll pass for now. I believe some of the anger is pointed more at Amazon than the product itself. Most of the other reviews I have read where a 50/50 mix, which I usually expect when a new product comes out. Let’s face it, you can’t please everybody all the time. I’m not saying they’re wrong, I mean everybody is entitled to have their own opinion. I just disagree with the nay sayers, of course I ain’t always playing with a full deck myself at times! I personally agree more with the 10%, but I’ve always been a rebel. The whole premise of the argument is based on the fact that it’s bad because the “Kindle” only does one thing. “It ain’t no iPhone”! Of course it isn’t, it wasn’t designed to be one, there I said it!

This whole idea of having one device that fits in your shirt pocket and does everything sounds cool… But there’s a lot to be said about having a device that does one thing… real well.. I’m not saying the Kindle fills this bill…. but I haven’t really used one… so how could I know? Good point, huh? I don’t believe that a single person in the above said post had actually used the product. I love my Sony eReader and it has the same “limitations” mentioned in the comments. And the idea that this product would appeal more to the non-techie because a “techie” would use his/her (need to be politically correct here!) computer, phone or whatever multi-unit gizmo they own to eRead, is asinine. I have owned most gizmos at one time or another and occasionally I just want my gizmo to do one thing. I just went through this ordeal when buying my last cell phone. I had a Treo which did all sorts of techie stuff and I liked it, but it was a pain in the ass as a phone. And let’s face it, when I bought it, I was looking for a phone. So this time I just wanted a phone, JAFP! Because I want a phone to phone people not to manage my life. If I wanted something to manage my life, I’d get married again!

So…. What does this all mean? Probably nothing, the Kindle will either catch on… or it won’t… only time will tell. Look at the Sony eReader, great product but really didn’t sell well. Will I buy a Kindle, probably not, but I own the Sony and I can do everything with it the Kindel can! I may have to use two or more gizmos to get the job done, but I’m a techie!

Making a successful reader for electronic books is one of the toughest tasks in consumer electronics. Many have tried and all have failed, defeated by something that’s thousands of years old - the book.

Last Modified: Saturday, November 24th, 2007 @ 13:48

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