UHFMagazine - 2008-01 - January 2008: on kindle, digital libraries, and library salvation from "customer satisfaction"

Everybody in late december was talking about Kindle, the new distribution channel for Amazon.

I read probably tens of articles- and most were slightly better than cut-and-paste from the official material of Amazon.

But it is nice here in Brussels to have access to foreign newspapers and magazines, both online and offline (one day I will be kicked out of newstands: I parse a few everyday, and buy no more than one or two that have something really interesting).

So, is kindle a real revolution?

If you are a book worm (like me), you know that paper has some unmistakable advantages vs any electronic device: no batteries needed, you can use a dim light to read it, it is avaiable in pocket-size formats, you can flip through pages, and so on.

Back to kindle: to me, looks more like good marketing- they are trying to iPod their bookstore, replicating the "lock-in" strategy that Apple used for iTunes (before being forced to open up).

And if you buy books, you know that the way the market works, it is quite easy that most books are available on paperback format one or two years after the hardback format for a price lower than the 9.95 USD that Amazon would like to charge.