More reflection on the Kindle: Did Amazon just answer an unnerved media industry's prayers?

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Let me add this up

So I shell out three or four hundred dollars for a reader device, plus ten or fifteen per month for the three-year life of the thing, for a total of somewhere around $750. Average comes to $250/year for a newspaper subscription that I can't share over breakfast.

If I "subscribe" to any books, there's a surcharge of about two or three dollars per title over and above the price of a paperback, with the added constraint that I only have it as long as the device lasts (max three years) and can't transfer it, loan it, etc.

Upside? Well, it takes up less carryon space than a bagful of paperbacks or newspapers, and it makes for less waste than the newspapers. Offset that by the fact that I have to take a notebook with me anyway and a tablet works better for reading, over and above the portability of the e-books I can carry on it.

Bottom line? Still a major loser. There will be a burst of sales (it did come out in time for the usual guilt-driven shopping frenzy) but once the "price is no object" set have theirs, it's as dead as all of the other readers before it.

Posted by: Yagotta B. Kidding   Posted on: 12/06/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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