Now that Amazon’s Kindle e-book device has started to move out of the headlines and into the hands of actual users, we’re starting to see some consumer feedback on it. (Actually, there was feedback the moment it was announced – there are nearly 800 consumer reviews on the product page as I write this – but as much of the early feedback was from people who hadn’t actually used one, it’s not worth much). For many web workers, the notion of a universal portable library, if only as a way to cart around endless reams of technical reference material in a briefcase, is an attractive one. So how’s the device doing on that front?
Not all that well, apparently. Here are some highlight – and lowlights – from the early Kindle reportage that’s crossed our path.
- Perennial early adopter Robert Scoble gives the device a big thumbs-down after a week of use, based largely on usability issues. “Whoever designed this should be fired and the team should start over.” Ouch.
- The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg, another cutting-edge user, likes Kindle for buying but not for reading. That’s a problem in something intended to be a book replacement.
- Larry O’Brien, former editor of Software Development, liked the device’s usability, but found that technical titles were lacking. Based on that, web workers may want to hold off until technical publishers start to issue titles for the Kindle. On the plus side, Larry poked around some, and says the format is hackable with free tools.
- Publisher Tim O’Reilly says the reason they don’t have titles available for the Kindle is that they don’t see the payback right now for supporting another proprietary format. That’s one big set of important titles we won’t be seeing on the device soon.
- SmugMug CEO confirms that the reading experience is good and the title selection is poor.
Now, bear in mind that this is hardly a scientific survey of all Kindle users, and that I haven’t used one myself. But in a lot of reading, I’m not finding anyone saying that the Kindle is a home run, or any web workers or technical users saying that it works as a portable technical library. So based on the early returns, a Kindle isn’t on my Christmas list. If you think it ought to be, tell us why!
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