- I need an audio-carrying device, as I fill a 4-hour train commute or a 15-minute walk with MANY snippets of music and spoken-word podcasts (iPod). I need a syncing mechanism with my home-base (iTunes on desktop computer) or with my multi-purpose device I carry around anyhow (iTunes on laptop). I would need an online audio backup service (?).

http://www.felg.../11/kindle.html

Sprint currently has an mobile broadband data plan that starts at $40/month (which may be about $20 at a wholesale rate * 12 = $240 per year.)

The $60 would serve to compensate for free content and the expectation of margins for the best seller ebooks and other hosting/distribution costs. If we expect even half of this to be the costs, that leaves Amazon with about margins of $30 per device assuming zero repeat buys as a worst case scenario.

It truly is the razor and not the blade.

Thoughts anyone?

But I think $9.99 is too high considering there’s no paper, printing, shipping, air-conditioned hand-alphabetized store, etc.

I really like gadgets and technology too. I’m often an early adopter, but not just for the sake of it. For people who like books there’s a lot that’s not to like about the ‘Kindle’ (yes, I see what they did there!).

“Why is the new Kindle eBook reader from Amazon and not Apple?”
http://countern...ndle-vs-iphone/

1. The name is awful.
2. The device looks like it was designed in 1987.
3. It’s too expensive. I wouldn’t buy one for a third of the price.
4. No one else has been able to sell people on the concept of e-books.
5. DRM means that if you don’t like the book, you can’t resell it.
6. E-books means the end of free public libraries.

correction, it WAS an ugly device, have you not seen the newer models? They look just as flashy as any other US-available phone

In todays world , companies incorporate design aswell as functionality . To me it looks like a computer from the 60’s .

If they had something cool in terms of design ( take tips from apple, phillips , samsung , sony ericson etc they know how to design ) they would sell.

Did ipod sell because it was the first on the market , or its price was better than the others , or it offered more functionality that all the other mp3 players outthere ? NO NO NO .

Ipod only sold because it looked great , sexy and people were proud to show it off. which in term made other people wanting one

I thought it was pretty cool until I went to amazon.com and looked at it. I will not be buying one. Reasons: high price, small screen, too many hidden costs and I’m unclear about what I would be paying for and future costs of ownership.

Once I buy a real book, there are no future hidden costs, I know where it will be (last place I put it down) and I can re-sell it or give it away (ie, it belongs to me, not some “content provider.” If this is the future, there should be another Boston Tea Party to attend.

Incidentally, I can download books in mp3 and plug them into my iPod for free. I can get my story without the eyestrain, they way people did before Guttenberg. Authors can be bards again and prose can be poetry.

The success of the iPod is partly due to the fact that was build around existing free stuff, namely the mp3 format. Podcasts were also free. Apple just organized and made it sexy. It’s a very different strategy than Amazon’s.