The Kindle is actually quite classy; it's like a convergence of old school and new school technology

@doogald:

I am not going to pay $359 for a dedicated electronic device that reads e-books, that could be broken with a four foot drop to a concrete floor, or perhaps a drop in a puddle, or get smashed if my bag that carries it gets crunched.

Understood, but people pay that much for tablet PCs, UMPCs, WinMo touch screen phones, etc. which have the same vulnerabilities.

Plus, it's far worse to lose your phone or PC than your books. ;)

I’d have a hard time comparing this with a netbook, by the way. Can I do spreadsheets on this? No. Can I get e-mail on this? Maybe awkwardly. Can I browse the web in a productive way? Not really. Word processing? No. Manage my iTunes content? No.

You get the idea. Just because they cost the same, it doesn’t mean that the Kindle could replace a Netbook. Segways and Vespa Scooters cost about the same, but I think I’d get a lot more out of a Vespa, frankly.

Come on, I specifically said the Kindle wasn't as flexible as a netbook (I'm not an idiot). I was just using two techie devices that had comparable price points and shared some of the same attributes to point out why the Kindle might cost so much; the lack of flexibility in the Kindle might be made up for by the cost of the data plan.

And Just because a data plan would cost a certain amount per month, if I am not planning to buy one, then it’s ridiculous to say that the data plan pays for the device over 18 months. It only does if I was planning to buy a cellular data modem. Well, I’m not.

You missed the point. Amazon could probably charge less for the hardware, then charge you a $10-$20 per month fee for book access. They don't.

If you remember the early days of DVRs, ReplayTV and Tivo were the two big names. Replay cost more initially (by $200+) but you got a lifetime subscription; Tivo cost less, but you had to pay a monthly charge. (That was one reason that I got the Replay.)

Which revenue model would you prefer the Kindle to use?

Also, does the Kindle have another way to get books on it? If not, if you want a Kindle, you have to get the data plan. Obviously if you don't want a Kindle, it's moot, but if you do, then data plan savings could pay for the device. I don't think that's a ridiculous point at all.

If this makes sense for you, that’s great. I’m guessing, though, that this will be successful - it is a cool device- but not iPod successful, unless at some point they bring the price down.

I didn't say that it made sense for me. I unfortunately don't have enough time for reading books to justify this (although if it displays RSS feeds well, that would be a plus, but I can get those on my Q9m already).

I just don't think the price is way out of line like you do. Expensive, yes, but that tends to be true of any new electronic devices, especially niche ones.

Steve

I am not going to pay $359 for a dedicated electronic device that reads e-books, that could be broken with a four foot drop to a concrete floor, or perhaps a drop in a puddle, or get smashed if my bag that carries it gets crunched. I'm really not all that eager to buy a dedicated e-book reader - regular books work just fine, as far as I am concerned (well, better, actually) - but if I was, I could see paying maybe $200, maybe $225 at the most. This is too expensive.

I do think that it's great that you can get books delivered straight to the device. That's really very cool. It's just not enough.

I'd have a hard time comparing this with a netbook, by the way. Can I do spreadsheets on this? No. Can I get e-mail on this? Maybe awkwardly. Can I browse the web in a productive way? Not really. Word processing? No. Manage my iTunes content? No.

You get the idea. Just because they cost the same, it doesn't mean that the Kindle could replace a Netbook. Segways and Vespa Scooters cost about the same, but I think I'd get a lot more out of a Vespa, frankly.

And Just because a data plan would cost a certain amount per month, if I am not planning to buy one, then it's ridiculous to say that the data plan pays for the device over 18 months. It only does if I was planning to buy a cellular data modem. Well, I'm not.

If this makes sense for you, that's great. I'm guessing, though, that this will be successful - it is a cool device- but not iPod successful, unless at some point they bring the price down.

Typo alert! The last paragraph should start "If eBooks were priced cheaper...."

Steve

@doogald:

I don't know if it's way too expensive. It's priced about the same as some netbooks and includes a cellular data plan for free (which would probably cost $20-$40 per month on a cell phone). It's not as flexible as netbooks, obviously, but the data plan alone pays for the device in a maximum of 18 months.

If books were eBooks were priced cheaper than paper books, maybe you could further justify the price if you're a voracious reader. Unfortunately, I don't believe that eBooks do cost less in general.

Steve

It still costs too much. Way too much.