Posts Tagged ‘Kindle’
Kindle vs. Laptop: Why Kindle Beats a Laptop When It Comes To eBooks
Posted by P. Rad | Filed under Thoughts
Kindle has been around for a while, but surprisingly a lot of people are finding about it these right now. When it was released, people were complaining about its lack of compatibility with PDF files (?) and its high cost. Now, the whole PDF issue was blown out of proportion as you can convert most PDF files to Kindle format and play it on your Amazon Kindle. The cost was high at first, but I find the $359 price tag to be reasonable, considering the free wireless service that you get with your Kindle. But now at $259 (the limited time price), you would expect people to stop complaining so much about Kindle. But here is the new complaint that is going around the net: a laptop does everything a Kindle does and therefore is a much wiser option.
Well, here is why Kindle TKOs a Laptop when it comes to reading:
- Portability: Even the lightest laptops can’t hold a candle to Amazon Kindle. Kindle is simply made for the portable life. If you are on the go all the time and you would like to keep up with your favorite newspapers, blogs, or books, Kindle is a hands down.
- Convenience: a laptop is great for reading ebooks that you already have, but it does not allow you to download new ebooks in less than 30 seconds (unless of course Amazon offers your favorite books in PDF format as well). Kindle on the other hand is linked to your Amazon account, and one can argue that buying from the Kindle store is the fastest way you can buy a book anywhere.
- Experience: I don’t know about you, but my eyes hurt after an hour of reading an eBook on my MacBook. I also can’t really take to bed and use it to read books before my asleep. With Kindle, it’s so tiny and convenient, that you can take it anywhere and read your book in any position, even when you are half asleep. Besides, I have never read a book on my laptop and said afterwards, “boy, it felt like I was reading a real book.”
- Price: Most laptops are more expensive than Amazon Kindle, and you wouldn’t buy a second laptop just to be able to read eBooks. Besides, Laptops don’t come with a wireless plan, so you have to take that into account as well.
- Battery Life: Amazon Kindle beats any laptop in the market in the battery life department hands down. No laptop can go for a week or even 4 days all the way without needing a recharge. If you are reading a book on your laptop, you’ll either have to be plugged in all the time, or you need to turn your laptop off after 4 hours MAX (if you don’t have your adapter with you).
- Features: comparing a laptop and a Kindle is a little bit like comparing apples and oranges. Kindle comes with features that are specifically designed for people who like to read, a lot. Whether it’s bookmarking, taking notes, or researching on Wikipedia, the Kindle has it all. A laptop is simply a laptop. It can do a lot of things, but it is not designed specifically for reading.
Am I suggesting that you should choose the Kindle over a laptop, if you don’t have a personal computer? Absolutely not. The Kindle is designed for people who read a lot of books and can use a separate device for that purpose. The Kindle can’t handle Microsoft Word or other software solutions, so if you need a laptop, you should get a laptop. That’s the whole point. A laptop is used for a lot of different things whereas the Kindle is used for reading (or listening to audio). That’s its purpose. It’s perfect for college students, but not so much for programming C#. Would you buy a car when you want the whole bike riding experience?
Amazon Drops Prices on Kindle, Sort of…
Posted by P. Rad | Filed under News
Good news folks. Amazon has finally dropped prices on Kindle by $100. Sort of… Amazon has just announced that if you get their Amazon Rewards Visa Card, you can get the Kindle for $259! In other words, you get $100 off the Kindle if you help out Amazon’s partner, Chase. I personally think it’s a decent deal as the credit card is not that bad at all. It also goes on to show that it’s not out of the realm of possibility for Amazon to offer these Kindles for much cheaper in the near future to boost sales. We shall see.
Amazon Drops Price on Kindle, now $359!
Posted by P. Rad | Filed under News
Amazon.com finally buckled under the pressure from its customers to drop its price on Amazon Kindle. The device that many of us bought for $399.99 and months of shipping, is now going for $359.99 and free 2-day shipping. Was it worth the wait? I don’t know as I couldn’t wait that long. I bought mine the minute I saw it on Amazon, and I have used mine way more than the $50 could make up for. How about you? If you haven’t bought your Kindle yet, get it or it may go out of stock again! You never know!
Kindle Still Unknown to the Tech Savvy
Posted by P. Rad | Filed under Thoughts
I made a point a few days ago on how Amazon needs to do a better job promoting their great device. While Kindle is a top gadget, it is surprising how tech savvy individuals have not either heard or used the device to the extent one may expect these folks to.
Today I had a chance to talk to a SVP of a reputable company about this great device, and to my great surprise he did not know what a Kindle was. He is a very technical person and follows innovative products all the time, so it was rather surprising he did not know what exactly Kindle was. No wonder why Amazon is not sharing those numbers with us. As great as Kindle is, one needs to accept that reading is not cool enough to most people in the U.S. A cool device such as Apple iPod Touch sells out immediately because people like to listen to music all the time these days. Unfortunately, the number of readers is dramatically less than the number of music listeners in the U.S. So that is probably why Kindle remains enigmatic but limited in terms of adoption rate.
Is Amazon Intentionally Hiding Kindle Numbers?
Posted by P. Rad | Filed under Thoughts
Amazon Kindle is a wonderful device. It is a potentially game changer and has rekindled the ebook market’s fire. Kindle is a portable and cost saving for consumers, and as an always connected device is sure to be the man’s next best friend on trips and on the go. But why is Amazon hiding the sales numbers of Kindle? Here are a few reasons that I can think of, which by the way may or may not be true:
- Amazon has failed to sell enough Kindles and they are afraid that revealing the numbers will blow apart all the hype that they have had for Amazon Kindle. After all, Amazon Kindle can’t be a revolutionary and game changing device unless its in people’s hands. If the number is too low, then that would be extremely disappointing not to the fans, but also to the investors and other stakeholders.
- Going back to the first point, Amazon could have intentionally released Kindle slowly to create the illusion that it is in high demand. But with no real numbers to back them up, the gig is up. Amazon may have delayed the shipments to create artificial demand, but that can’t last forever.
- Amazon’s failure to provide its customers with timely delivery will even look worse if the numbers are out. If the numbers are very low, then Amazon will look extremely bad as it shouldn’t take 30 to 60 days to ship Amazon Kindles.
- It could be that Amazon is buying time. Somehow someway they may be waiting for Kindle to catch fire, but this also would not work as the longer Amazon goes without disclosing the sales numbers, the more discouraged people get about the future of Kindle.
Amazon Kindle is a great device, but without a community of people using it, it will die a quick death. I put Kindle up there with the iPhone, but Amazon has not been able to generate enough buzz around the Kindle. I still get surprised when I have to explain to people what the Kindle is and how it’s worth $399 that Amazon is charging. I know that Jeff is behind Kindle, but I am not sure Amazon can sustain Kindle without a true big community of users. Maybe Amazon will try one from Apple’s handbook: price cut!
Can it Be? Amazon Kindle In Stock!
Posted by P. Rad | Filed under Uncategorized
Finally, after months of waiting Amazon Kindle is in stock and eligible for one-day shipping. No queue, no waiting time whatsoever. It’s almost like a dream as we used to wait days and weeks to get a message from Amazon about the availability of this awesome product. Well, Kindle away folks before all these are gone. While I anticipate Amazon to have some available in stock, you don’t want to wait for Kindle to go out of stock again.
Customer Getting Impatient With Kindle
Posted by P. Rad | Filed under Uncategorized
You can’t do anything but feel for some of Amazon Kindle customers. Some have been waiting for close to two months to get their Amazon Kindles, and like many they don’t understand why Amazon is offering a product that is not going to be available for months. The good news is that Amazon Kindle has received a very strong support from avid readers which means we will see a Kindle 2.0. The bad news is that some of Amazon loyal customers are absolutely gutted with the company which means we could see a negative word of mouth marketing going against Amazon unless they start delivering those Kindles. Even Nintendo Wii did not have such long delivery delays.
Tip of the Day: Can 2 Kindles From same account share books?
Posted by P. Rad | Filed under Kindle Tips
The quick answer is yes. But there is a limit as far as how many times you can share the same content with another Kindle (physically, using a memory card for example) registered under the same account. The limit seems to be 6 times at this point. In other words, you can’t keep putting it one and deleting content and expect them to work. Of course, you can download content for an unlimited number of times, which is another story.
Can e-books succeed while prices are relatively high?
Posted by P. Rad | Filed under Thoughts
That’s the main question that Amazon needs to answer to have any chance of gaining traction with its Kindle ebook reader. Amazon Kindle is a wonderful little gadget that is very handy for those of us who read almost all the time, regardless of where we are. But many are arguing that Amazon is charging too much for eBooks. While Amazon has stuck with $9.99 per eBook for most books, there are some eBooks that are going for $20, $30 or more on Amaozn. Those are prices that I don’t think people are ready to pay for an eBook. Not now any way.
Is Book On Demamd (BOD) the Future Business Model for Publishers?
Posted by P. Rad | Filed under Thoughts
It seems like it to be honest. Writing a book is like taking a snapshot of the industry you are writing about at that very time. Let’s say that you are writing about the ever changing search industry. The tips that you are giving to your users could be outdated in the matter of weeks, but your book stays the same way until you decide to publish the next edition. At some point people are going to stop buying your old book, and you are pretty much stuck with your publisher to get your new edition rolling. I think that’s why many people are now moving from the fixed-fee business model to the subscription-based business model.
Take Aaron Wall for instance. He has probably the best search engine optimization book in the industry. To be fair to him, he did update his eBook numerous times to keep offering his students the latest info on search engine optimization. But in the end you are fighting the inevitable. The effort that goes behind updating a book numerous times is too much to be quantified by a one-time payment. Think about it. If Aaron asked you to pay a one-time $1000 fee for his book, would you? If you are a SEO freak, you probably will. But paying a $1000 for a book seems unreasonable. That’s where the subscription model comes in. You can charge a monthly fee of let’s say $30 and constantly provide your readers with up to date information. The best thing about this is that the readers are not stuck with old content. At the same time, the writers can get paid for their effort to keep their books up-to-date. Book on demand is not where software on demand is right now, but you can expect it to catch fire in the near future especially with devices such as Amazon Kindle.
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