Is it Time for You to Buy a Kindle?
April 12th, 2011
Perhaps…read here about Amazon’s new aggressive plan to get more people to buy a Kindle.
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Categories: e-books
$25 isn’t a big enough discount when I consider getting ads for the lifetime of the device. Also, haven’t we left the era of single function devices. I don’t want to go back to the days of separate cellphone, pda, and music player. Get an iPad, read Kindle books from CPH on it and also get a couple of CPH Arch Book apps (they’re in color too, sorry Kindle).
Here’s an article on someone’s experience on a plan with an iPad vs. a Kindle, vs. a paperback book.
http://successbeginstoday.org/wordpress/2011/04/ipad-2-vs-kindle-airplane-usability-test/
Deal with ads for only $25 off the price? On a single-use device? Nope. I’d still recommend to stick with an iPad (1 or 2) running the Kindle app. Amazon still hasn’t baked anything into their device that makes it more compelling than Apple’s, and the only way I see any change coming soon is if Apple gets stupid about their subscription model & killls off the Kindle app (which I don’t think will happen, btw…).
CPH + iPad + Kindle App = WIN
The reason I still recommend the Kindle over iPad to people who really just want a device to read e-books on is because:
The Kindle is much lighter.
The Kindle is much easier to read.
There is a lot of glare on the iPad and I find it a tad on the heavy side as well.
On the flip side, people who buy a Kindle simply must realize they are NOT getting a computer, they are getting a device to read text. I had a pastor complain that The Lutheran Study Bible on the Kindle does not allow him to have multiple windows open and conduct searches in each of them. Ironically, he sent his complain from an iPad, so I explained that the Kindle is *not* an iPad and I told him about the LOGOS edition of TLSB for iPad which will allow him to enjoy the more robust feature set he was interested in.
I just bought a Kindle and love it. It is a lot easier to read then a computer screen. I can sit and read my kindle for hours, if I look at a computer screen for more then a couple hours I start to get sick. I would recommend a laptop over an iPad anyway, if you are going to go that route.
Plus my Kindle was $139. I already have a laptop and iPhone, so no need to spend $500+ on a iPad. The one thing I do like about the iPad is the interactive books for children, but I don’t have children yet.
Give me a Kindle over an iPad any day. I agree that the screen display is much easier on the eyes. And some of the newer downloads available for the Kindle make it much more than just a way to read books. Probably the one complaint I might have with it is that I can read blogs such as this one on my Kindle, but I can’t read or make comments, and I can’t access links or videos embedded on the site. But, overall, I have to say that’s not very important in the scheme of things.
Twenty five dollars isn’t worth it to me, and you may end up dealing with ads you don’t want to know about.
If the ads are there for the lifetime of the device, I’d expect the device to be free. I guess there are enough people out there who just think they can ignore the ads, but really, if you think about it for even a second $25 in exchange for ads for life, not a great deal.
Starting to give serious consideration to purchasing a Kindle, but it won’t be with $25.00 discount to put up with all those insufferable ads.
Christine
Because of the way content is provided on the Kindle, you won’t find me buying one.
Between Amazon lock-in, proprietary formats (for example, they don’t support EPUB books [http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/epub-the-final-barrier-for-kindle-adoption/13804]) and the fact that they can (even though they say they “won’t”) delete books from my device that I have already purchased ([http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/drm/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218501227]) it all makes me, “uncomfortable”.
What it boils down to is that I’m very unlikely to buy a license to use something (which is what you buy when you buy from Amazon) that can be revoked by the licensor for any or even no reason what so ever. I prefer traditional commerce, I pay you something, you actually give me something… not a revocable “license to use” it.
My 2 cents…
@M. Dent:
Some people do feel that way about the Kindle, but its ever growing popularity and enormous success indicate that a whole lot more people are not bothered by these restrictions.
I never heard yet about Kindle but after reading your comments on it, I became very interesting to know more about it as I was thinking to invest in iPad but now I’m not so sure.