pat loughery

I’ve become more and more intrigued by the Amazon Kindle, the electronic reading device that allows you to carry around multiple books, purchase new ones electronically and wirelessly, and synch your notes and highlights to a computer.

For most of the past year I’ve thought of Kindle as a gadget that I really don’t need. Weird, that, since I’m a voracious reader and I do like gadgets. But Kindle just seemed too.. gimmicky? to me.

However, after letting it settle in and hearing from folks who bought and used one, I’m more and more interested.

Most specifically, the idea of being able to search across text, notes and highlights for a specific keyword is a mind-blowing feature – especially to somebody who has easily a hundred books from which references will be pulled for next year’s dissertation writing time.

Here’s what would push me over the edge and make it a no-brainer for me to buy a Kindle:

1. Drop the price point to $250. Right now, the $359 point isn’t a temptation to me, though if I would have heard about the Oprah $50 coupon before it expired on Nov 1, I’d have jumped.

2. Give me steep price cuts on Kindle versions of books I’ve already purchased in print form. If I’ve bought the book on Amazon already, sell me a Kindle version for cheap. $1.99 ought to do it. This makes it easier for me to make purchase decisions on books that don’t yet have Kindle versions – I know I’ll get it eventually and don’t need to wait a while “just in case”.

3. Put demo devices into electronics stores. I want to feel how the experience of highlighting and note taking works before dropping a few bills. Partner with Apple stores, or example.

4. Offer a color version. I have a raft of photography books that would be neutered if color illustrations aren’t possible, and many magazines just don’t translate well into black and white.

5. Work with magazine vendors to complete their print offering in electronic format. I’m not going to give up my subscription to Newsweek and move over to the Kindle version if only some of the articles are available. Heck, the quotes/cartoons page is why I chose Newsweek over Time anyway.

6. Announce a release date for the long-rumored v2. Give us a quarter that it’s expected to arrive. Meanwhile drop the v1 price to avoid the same upgrade pricing fiasco that Apple had with iPhones.

All in all, the Kindle is a very attractive device, especially with its ties to Amazon books and to Audible.com audiobooks. I hope to be able to begin using one reasonably soon, and the above featuers would make it easy for me to move to this device.