Amazon`s Kindle Redefines Electronic Books
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Despite the failures of several efforts to replace traditional books with electronic books in the past few years, Amazon gives its best shot launching the Kindle. Having a revolutionary vision in mind, Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon online retail store, enthusiastically believes that Kindle has a chance to redefine the niche of digital books.
Kindle is a renowned e-book reader that finally hit the market after numerous delays on November 19, 2007. Its display is based on the state-of-the-art technology called EPD — “Electronic Paper Display” developed by E-Ink Corporation. It’s able to simulate the readability of conventional books thanks to this pretty much paper-like display.
Throughout this article we are going to check out the main features of Kindle, take a glimpse at its design, cover the specifications in great detail, and endeavor to make a brief comparison with other pioneer electronic book readers. Thus, we won’t forget about Sony Reader (2006), iRex iLiad (2006), Cybook Gen3 (2007), HanLin eReader (2007) or Sony’s old-school Librié (2004).
“Books have stubbornly resisted digitization. I think there's a very good reason for that, and that is, the book is so highly evolved and so suited to its task that it's very hard to displace.” — Jeff Bezos, New York’s W Hotel in Union Square (photo above).
The digitalized format of books couldn’t break into the consumer base intensely enough. Years ago (early 2000s) a lot of analysts and experts in the field predicted a really impressive future for the commercialization and expansion of e-books. Some of them claimed that within a few years they’d take over and replace traditional books. Now it’s almost 2008 and electronic books are far from coming close to replace paper books.
In fact, during the past years distributing titles in digital format has proven to be such a failure that companies like Barnes & Noble, Philips Electronics, Xerox Corp., etc., quit supporting the e-book market. Simply put, it wasn’t profitable enough.
Therefore, I will adopt a somewhat doubtful tone throughout my article while searching for the answer to the question of whether the Kindle could ever come close to replacing analog books. I’ll conclude my brief review with the pros and cons of the Kindle while at the same time contrasting those abilities and functions with our good old dusty books.
Let’s see what Kindle can and/or cannot do, and whether we should consider this passionate effort feasible for turning the tables in the favor of digital formats.
Next: Specifications and Features >>
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