I think that Amazon had intentions for the Kindle to be the iPod of the book industry, and to lock in consumers to buying (e-)books from Amazon. I don’t think it has been as successful in dominating the competition as the iPod, but I feel it is leading the pack against other e-readers like the Nook, Kobo, Sony’s e-reader and other no name brands.

There are actually a lot of similarities between the Kindle and iPod. There is a huge company backing it, there are “locked” purchases that can only be played on the device (although they both support other open industry standards), there is a rabid and cult following etc. Here’s one more – I waited a few generations and bought one. I waited until the 4^th generation to buy an iPod and I’ve waited until the 3^rd generation before buying a Kindle.

The first thing I should say about buying a Kindle is I don’t read books! It seems a bit stupid to buy a Kindle then, but here are my reasons:

• Instapaper integration
• It’s light, its battery lasts a month, and the charger is the same as Android phones – great travelling accessory.
• E-Ink is cool!
• It’s not too expensive – $139

While I don’t read books (regularly, I should say, since I will probably read more books with a Kindle – at least initially) I read a lot online. So a major selling feature is to be able to punt the articles I want to read onto something that I can actually read around the house or out & about. The Kindle does this, while being user friendly.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: amazon, kindle, reading, techlust