Amazon fails to follow up on the Kindle, says Pressman

I finally gave up on the Kindle any ordered a Sony PRS700 after seeing one at a Borders and deciding the tradeoff in clarity for the touch screen was worth it.

The think about the Kindle is that, as it is now, it is seems entirely targeted toward the casual reader and yet it is obviously not priced toward the casual reader. For what it cost, I should have at least been able to organize my books into categories a year after release.

I’m very fond of my kindle. But I have to admit that I’m also surprised there have been no upgrades to the software. The wireless connectivity should make it easy to update the software or firmware.

I believe that Amazon would like to push the kindle. But they have to dance a fancy dance to keep from antagonizing the big print publishers.

I figure my kindle will hold me over for a couple of years. It’s great for casual reading and book sampling. But we need a bigger and more durable screen along with cheaper pricing for both device and ebooks before the full potential of electronic reading can be realized.

Pressman must have seen my comment to this teleread article back in November last year.

http://newteleread.com/wordpress/2008/11/28/e-book-popularity-surge-as-shown-by-amazons-11-to-13-week-back-orders-oprah-effect/

Nothing has changed with Amazon that makes what I wrote any less relevant.

Meanwhile, for those who aren’t wary of playing around and installing new firmware, the OpenInkPot project is making huge strides forward, consistently adding new capabilities to existing hardware.

What makes Amazon think that once hardware is released, development of firmware ceases? That just shows how out of their depth they are with hardware and product development.