I want one even more than I want a Lightwedge Book light. And that's saying a lot.
Lust may be the most appropriate word to describe my desire for a Kindle.
When Amazon first introduced the Kindle last fall, I immediately turned to the New York Times to find out more. I found "An E-Book Reader That Just May Catch On" by David Pogue who got me even more excited about it. Sure it costs $400 but man it's so cool!
It can hold up to 200 books and with a SD memory card hold thousands more! And it weighs just 10 ounces. It's thin as a No. 2 pencil!
To get a new book all you do is log-in to Amazon's WhisperNet and buy a book in Kindle format. And you get to read the whole first chapter of books before you decide to buy!
While there are no service fees for using Amazon's WhisperNet, you can't add the books you already own to your Kindle, but books for Kindle are so much cheaper than normal books (unless of course you shop at used book stores).
And you can email yourself Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF documents and files in other formats for viewing on Kindle.
Unbelievably Kindle sold out in the first five and a half hours and only now have they gotten ahead of the manufacturing game.
Which is why I've been thinking about the Kindle again. I went to Amazon.com today to purchase a few books and was greeted by this letter from Jeff Bezos, Founder & CEO:
Dear Customers,
Ever since we launched our wireless reading device Kindle last November, we've been unable to keep it in stock, and we've had to work hard to increase manufacturing capacity. Today, we're excited to announce that Kindle is in stock and ready for immediate shipment.
We've also been adding selection. Since launch, we've added 25,000 additional books, blogs, magazines, and newspapers that you can download wirelessly to your Kindle, bringing the total to more than 115,000. To learn more about the device and what you can read on it, visit Kindle's product page. You'll see that more than 2,000 customers have reviewed Kindle - I encourage you to take a look at what customers have to say.
For those of you who are interested, I invite you to read Amazon's just-released annual letter to shareholders. I don't normally link to a shareholder letter from the Amazon home page, but this letter is all about Kindle. If you're curious, it will give you some insight into how we think about the business and our long-term vision for Kindle. It's a short letter, and I hope you find it worthwhile.
Happy reading,
Jeff Bezos
Founder & CEO
The letter to shareholders is particularly inspiring.
Now, I'm not a big technology person. I like some toys, like my Palm pilots (which I am loyally devoted to), but generally I don't spend my money on them. I usually spend my money on books. When all my friends went out to purchase iPhones, I stuck it out with my old phone purchased in 2003.
But somehow Kindle is different. I can't decide whether to buy soon or to buy it when the second generation (perhaps with color monitor??) Kindle comes out.
Of course, if Kindle was compatible with borrowing books from the library then I would absolutely go out and buy one today -- I've cut back on my book buying by borrowing books from the library before purchasing.
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