Alright, this Fool.com article on the Kindle called ‘What about the Kindle? is really good. I LOVE that he brings up the earnings call and Amazon’s reticence to name figures. Also that he talks about the Audible purchase.
Here are some additional thoughts.
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He writes: Reviews have been mixed for the device, but Amazon sold out of its initial stock in less than six hours the day the Kindle made its debut last November. Kindles haven’t been readily available since then. They keep shipping out as they come in on a first-come, first-Kindled basis.
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No, reviews have not been mixed – almost everyone who owns a Kindle loves it. The majority of people who have bad reviews don’t own a Kindle. Some of them haven’t even seen or touched a Kindle in person. There’s another Kindle blogger who actually has the list of real kindle owner reviews. And I’ve talked about how only 8 of the 130 most helpful 1 star reviews on Amazon are by actual owners – Is the Kindle getting unfair Reviews? and more importantly that owners give it great ratings i.e. Analysis of the latest 48 Kindle Reviews by Actual Kindle Owners on Amazon
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Audible is really really big. And i don’t mean just for ‘audio books’ – i mean radio – read what Audible has to say about its content – note that they have three main items – books, newspapers/magazines, and radio shows/podcasts.
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He writes: Wouldn’t it only help Kindle to go public with the percentage of book and magazine sales that came from Kindle products at Amazon?
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No, keeping the sales figures quiet is necessary – since there’s a backlog, people know there’s demand and scarcity – giving out numbers can’t affect that in a significant positive way. However not giving out numbers creates a BIG competitive advantage.
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Note what he writes ( why i love the article) – ‘Is amazon afraid Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) will jump into the fray with their big-screen portable media players?’ . Yes, of course – if you were building a channel direct to the customer to sell pretty much anything then wouldn’t you be afraid that the people with the most to lose (actually google, and microsoft/yahoo) would come after you guns blazing.
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The part of the article that really confuses me is this – Questioners later enquired about the Kindle’s internal components. “Are there capabilities that have yet to be turned on beyond just the e-book reader and browser functionality inside the Kindle at this point?” one asked Bezos. “The Kindle has a few experimental features,” Bezos explained, as he delved into functionality of the Web browser built into the device.
If the writer had checked on a few blogs he would have seen IgorS’s excellent details on Kindle Hacks. Here are my thoughts on that last point -
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You have access to the internet.
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You have a somewhat crude GPS system and Google maps.
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You have a browser (this is really important lest we’re forgetting the browser wars – past and present)
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You have a direct to the customer channel – in the internet age – whoever owns the gateway to content is almost as powerful as the content owners.
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You have a bigger screen than any cellphone.
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You have a more portable device than any laptop.
There are a LOT of possibilities. NowNow and The Kindle Store are just the beginning of what Amazon is really building up – a direct pipeline to customers independent of OS issues, browser issues, google, and other stores 
Kindle might as well be called ‘the Amazon Trojan Horse’.
Filed under: kindle | Tagged: Amazon Kindle, kindle, kindle future, kindle insights
I work at a small youth library. My boss came across this article from her bosses and sent it around to all of us, about the Kindle and its share in the freedom, or in the case of the author the somewhat restriction, of information.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0318/p09s01-coop.html
I was looking for a good place to bring it up in the blog and this seemed alright, especially as you, then, called the Kindle ‘the Amazon Trojan Horse’ and the author of the article sees the present-day Kindle as a more ominous alternative. Just thought it would be of interest to you and maybe others that find themselves here. Personally, I can see the points made by Walshe, who is herself a librarian, but I’m not sure she appreciates all that this new tool can be. What control over information and literature can oppose the freedom I have of taking my own personal library with me anywhere I go, of accessing Amazon’s own library and perusing its array, noting the thoughts and opinions of both professionals and everyday people, taking snippets of any Kindle book I find to keep, as well as taking with me the multitude of public domain books available for free download throughout the internet -a fact that Walshe seems unaware of- all with a thing I can comfortably hold in my hands.
The book itself must have seemed like an unnatural creation to those that had only known stories and studies by speaking them and listening to others. Sitting in a room with a bunch of paper, instead of in the conversation of people? It’s just not…right. Well, that invention has been invaluable to us. I don’t know that the e-reader is comparable to its forebear, but that is what we do: we create more from what we can, to gain more from it. Not all our technological advances have served us well, and there are even a few points with the Kindle that may be contentious, but the right tools are those that can cultivate and coordinate our experience, nurturing the opportunities to live and meet the life around us. Maybe its just another way to read books, but the Kindle may just be an example of this, or the start of something like it. All the other arguments do not seem big enough for what we are taking on here.
In all honesty, I do not even own a Kindle yet, but I hope to soon. Thank you again for an insightful and helpful blog.
Kindle would be an excellent device for the visual impaired. However It needs a few updates. The key board is impossible for the visual impair to use. I think a port should be attached for a regular computer key board. Presentely a visual impaired person must seek help to enter any information. Maybe virbal comands would be helpful. I have a friend that had to return the Kindle because it was impossible to type the informtion required to order books. It is a great item but please consider the visual impaired.