Check out the product page, where they have video of Toni Morrison talking up the product. It looks to be about the size of an electric can opener. What do we think? Is the world ready for this one? Will it change our book reading habits, as promised?Thanks to electronic paper, a revolutionary new display technology, reading Kindle’s screen is as sharp and natural as reading ink on paper—and nothing like the strain and glare of a computer screen. ...
We wanted Kindle to be completely mobile and simple to use for everyone, so we made it wireless. No PC and no syncing needed. Using the same 3G network as advanced cell phones, we deliver your content using our own wireless delivery system, Amazon Whispernet. ...
With Whispernet, you can be anywhere, think of a book, and get it in one minute. Similarly, your content automatically comes to you, wherever you are. Newspaper subscriptions are delivered wirelessly each morning. Most magazines arrive before they hit newsstands. Haven’t read the book for tomorrow night’s book club? Get it in a minute. Finished your book in the airport? Download the sequel while you board the plane. Whether you’re in the mood for something serious or hilarious, lighthearted or studious, Kindle delivers your spontaneous reading choices on demand.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Future of Book Reading?
Fourteen years ago Knight-Ridder and some other media companies experimented with an electronic newspaper tablet. It looked like a clipboard. The world was not ready, and the companies lost millions. This week Amazon introduced Kindle:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I think Kindle relates to the new cell phones, such as the iPhone, that combine many media uses into one mechanism. It appeals specifically to heavy book, newspaper and blog readers, however, making it a niche product in the growing market for PDA devices.
Yet, to identify if society is ready for the Kindle we can't just look at the technology it provides. As W. Russell Nueman aruged in 1991, "We need to understand the relationship between the 'technological drivers,' the social psychology of media use, and the economics of the media industries." We must look at how the Kindle's technological properties intersect other social forces (Media Society 322).
So, from this viewpoint, I beleive our society is ready for the Kindle. People happily consume IPods, Blackberry's, and more advanced cell phones, to bring them greater media usage on the go. Also, the rising numbers of online news consumers combined with the increasing popularity of blogs makes the Kindle's easy to read screen a valuable attribute. Lastly, it provides books in a system that has already proved successful. Amazon.com made e-commerce into a big business, and iTunes has made online downloading into a social norm. All of these factors have prepared society for the technology of the Kindle.
I'm not convinced that society, in general, is ready for the Kindle. Certainly many people in our country embrace technology and convenience, which the Kindle seems to have. But there are many more people who don't. Because many of us-- that is young, media-savvy people-- would be interested in trying this product, its easy to forget that we are a minority. After all, not everyone in this country has a computer, let alone the internet.
And even for people who do understand and like technology, the Kindle might seem excessive. It performs a very specific function, compared with computers or even cell phones/blackberrys, but the function it serves doesn't really fill a widespread need -- it's just an extra gadget.
I understand that newspaper circulation is, in general, in decline. And I think it will continue to be for the next couple of years, and then possibly level off. It seems to me that people who are comfortable with getting their news from an alternative media have already canceled their subscription and converted to online news. The people that are still getting newspapers are the people who grew up with them or strongly prefer them and have no interest in giving them up. For these people, I don't see the Kindle being a great alternative.
Plus, I think that many people enjoy snuggling up with a cup of tea or coffee to read their favorite book, newspaper, magazine, etc. and that becomes less appealing when it means snuggling up with a tablet monitor.
Maybe someday, though, people will be able to stare at a screen for hours without getting a headache and then the Kindle will be a big hit. But until then, I think it will be only used by the 'early adopters' and will remain a sort of geeky status symbol.
I think our society is ready for the Kindle. Come on guys, it's portable, small, and you can get any print media on it that you want, how cool is that? BUT this ties into what Toby Harshaw (sic?) was saying in our discussion wiht him. He said that IF something were to take off, it would have to be A) small and portable, even pocket-sized and B) affordable and accessible to everyone.
I don't know about you guys but $399 is not necessarily an amount of money I want to throw into a product that just hit the market. How successful will this be? Before reading Sue's blog, I hadn't even HEARD of it. Why is it not being advertised everywhere? And what about the world's less fortunate? They might be able to buy the Wisconsin State Journal at 25 cents a day, but a $399 lump sum? And, does downloading books and the like cost more? I bet it does...
And does this thing have Internet access? Because if it does, it's just like a laptop, right? And if not, then why would I subscribe to the New York Times and get it in the morning, and then have to go to my computer to check the online version for updates? This product confuses me, and even though I think the world is ready for a product like this, I doubt it will be successful until the price comes down enough to make it accessible to more people.
-Abby R.
I think we are ready for Kindle. It capitalizes on many consumer needs and trends in society - we want convenience, portability, quickness and interactivity. We like having options and choices - we want customization and media that are tailored to our needs.
I think Toni Morrison makes an interesting point about the interactive nature of Kindle. Morisson references how you are able to take notes, underline the text, and use the dictionary. She says "When you are interactive with a book...you own it."
This made me think of chapter 8 in "Media & Society" where the authors discuss how having an active audience acknowledges the "intelligence and autonomy of people," (266). Kindle and other interactive gadgets, from iPods to Blackberries recognize this in society. It is likely that by "owning" a text through active participation, people will construct new meaning from media messages.
While the price is a bit steep now, it's likely that it will lower over time. But it looks like Kindle has already done well; it's temporarily sold out on Amazon.
I think the main problem with Kindle-and technology like it-is that the book, the magazine, and the newspaper are not yet irrelevant as "technologies." What Kindle does is merely translate the medium-printed word- into an electronic setting, something that may be more convenient in the sense that it's illogical to think that someone would carry multiple books around with them and therefore having access to many books or publications at your fingertips is definitely convenient. As I said before, however, I don't think paper media is irrelevant yet, and therefore I don't think (especially considering the expense) that Kindle is anything more than a technological trend. (for the moment)
In Jenkins' article about convergence, he writes "once a medium establishes itself as satisfying some core human demand, it continues to function within the larger system of communication options." For Kindle, this means that it is just a communication option for which books, magazines, newspapers and other print media are also satisfying the "core human demand." Unless the core human demand changes to be something along the lines of printed word in an electronic setting (which seems highly improbable, being as that's just too specific, and isn't exactly what Jenkins is getting at) I don't think Kindle will be the great success Amazon is hoping for.
Post a Comment