Kindle 2: Amazon Is Good at Selling. How About Making?

August 3, 2009

Does the Kindle 2 — Amazon’s new wireless reading device — spell the end of books as we know them? There’s no question that the idea of saving millions of trees, gallons of ink, and all the resources of print distribution is a good one. But is Kindle 2 the best vehicle for that idea? Novelist Nicholson Baker gets deep into the product’s problems in this New Yorker article: Limited titles, whole sections of the New York Times unavailable, no “kick-stand” so you can read while eating, limited legibility from the “Vizplex” print display. Baker even recommends loading the free “Kindle for iPod” application for better nighttime bed reading. But take the writer’s criticism with a grain of virtual salt. The New Yorker, primarily a print publication, has “a vested interest” in dead trees, as the magazine’s semi-competitor, New York magazine, waggishly points out. It also notes that Baker ran up an awesome list of expenses buying books and gadgets for his review.