i.am.sagar

First and foremost, let’s get the obvious out of the way. I am a technophile. I love my technology, my gadgets, my digital lifestyle. Most of all though, I like space-saving conveniences that make my life easier. Wireless? Even better.

That however is not the reason I want a Kindle. Oddly enough, I want it for the lack of technology that it has to offer. First off, it’s not exactly the most attractive (read Applesque here) device. It’s not a do-it-all type of a device in that it’s not going to replace my laptop, my crackberry, or my iPod. And I don’t want it to. What I want it to replace is my many magazines and newspapers and books and even my printed manuals and word documents that I read off-line. That is exactly what this device offers - and offline experience without being offline.

I want to wake up and read a few lines of the local newspaper - or WSJ for that matter. Today, before my eyes open, my hand taps around on my side table for my blackberry. Without must brain activity, I get my doze of the news and RSS feeds, but I feel the strain on my eyes with the extra bright display on the crackberry. The Kindle would actually be somewhat pleasant to read the newspaper on.

Lately, I interview a decent number of people at work, and I always end up printing out their resumes and reading them at my desk or at home the day before. If I had the kindle, I would probably email it to the device and read it there. Books are something I don’t get into as much lately. I enjoy reading, but I find the whole experience tiring. Personally, I find it a bit uncomfortable to hold a book and read it - particularly towards the beginning or the end where the page distribution is bias towards the right or the left. I could care less about the rest of the pages, until I get to them. Maybe it’s just me, but there are times when I read a book and a word is used by the author that is not part of my daily vocab, and I make a mental note to look it up - but never get to it. There have been at least a couple of occasions where the word meant something totally different than what I initially thought. I know - it’s embarrassing.

Wireless access via Sprint’s EVDO - for free no less. Now that was a good idea. I’m partial to Verizon, but if I don’t have to deal with Sprint’s tech support, I could care less who the provider is. The important thing is that I can download content on the device that I plan to read it on. Way cool! Sure, I may also use it to read my favorite Blogs and news sites, magazines etc. But for the most part, it would replace most paper that I lug around when I travel. I’m curious to see if airlines will allow passengers to read on these devices if the wireless radio is turned off. I think we’ll find out soon.

So what’s my personal feeling on this device? I think it will be a hit. Remember, this is just the first generation of this device and improvements - both software and hardware are probably already being discussed. It will do for Amazon what the iTunes/iPod duo did for Apple. I believe that. People will more frequently buy content because of the easy to justify price of books. Not sure what libraries will do in the future :)

I think a decent set of accessories will be available for this device - leather bound covers and so on. I’m sure a few pointless hacks will be out soon as well (full blown Linux etc). Remember, at the end of the day, it’s a combination of hardware, software, and the network that make devices like this successful. Most important is the availability of content. I believe Amazon gets that part. They already have the soft-infrastructure. They have all the pieces to make this device successful. Software can be upgraded and the online marketplace can grow to accommodate a large variety of content. I don’t see this device moving towards a converging device, but more so a specialized niche market product. The possibilities are endless. Imagine being able to read a newspaper from any part of the world and clip lines that you find interesting. Perhaps a social networking aspect of this device could be even more interesting. For instance, letting friends see what I’m reading and seeing what they’re reading - a virtual book-club of sorts.

So I want the Kindle and I think I could really make the most of it. I just don’t know if I’ll drop $400 for it just yet.

What do you think? Is this just another eBook? Do you think not having traditional books is a bad thing?