Amazon Kindle Probably Won't Start A Fire

The Amazon Kindle comes out today. For those of you who don't know what the Kindle is, it's the new ebook reader from Amazon. I'm interested to see how this thing will do and how Amazon will support it. I like the idea of making text digitally portable and I think the Kindle has some things worth noting. Some good, some bad (although I think the bad sadly outweighs the good in this case).

The Good

• The device is supported by Amazon which means it has a lot of money behind it and it's going to get a fair amount of coverage/hype. The online store/market should be pretty good and I imagine very robust in terms of selection (after all, Amazon started as an online bookstore).

• Some of the wireless features sound pretty cool. For example, having the device wirelessly sync content from specific blogs/news sites could make a nice, portable RSS reader for commuting. I suppose email syncing is also a nice feature except that this has already been done before (you could say the Kindle has actually been done before too).

The Bad - Look out, this list could get a little long. Where to start? I guess first impressions.

• They're important and the Kindle fails here....big time. The device looks like a failed tablet PC....from 10 years ago. Maybe the device will be sexier in person and its small size will be appealing, but for $400, a portable media device should turn heads (in a good way).

• Not only is Amazon entering a market that's already occupied, but it's a market without much interest. Sony's reader has gone nowhere near the same price point and the only thing that Amazon will have going for it against Sony is support through the Amazon store, which could turn out to be really good. Amazon has had some good services like S3 and the new Amazon MP3 store. I think the Kindle market could be successful in the same way as the Mp3 store through openness (no DRM).

• This thing must be open to any kind of digital text, which seems unlikely. In the same way that copying any text from any page on your computer and pasting it anywhere you like, the Kindle needs to be super simple in its ability to add and share text files (again, no DRM).

• No back light. It comes with a book light attachment thingy (I'm not joking).

• The nail in the coffin might be that e readers might be the wrong idea all together looking forward. Audio content has become more accessible in the last few years and there's a lot of it in the form of podcasts and audio books. Audio books really seem like they have a nice space in the digital world almost like books on tape/CD were just a beta of audio books.

• In the end, this thing is a $400 book.