If you are thinking about buying a Kindle, don't and here's why.
I'm a gadget geek and I bought the Kindle 1 as soon as it came out. I liked the idea of a wireless device using Linux and Java. I liked the search feature so I could search for words across all my content. I liked that I could have a bunch of books when I travel without the weight.
What I didn't figure out in advance was the economics (or lack thereof) and the technology lock-in.
My Kindle 1 broke yesterday 1 month after the 1 year warranty expired. Amazon has no repair service like Nintendo DS does. If it doesn't work after a hard reset you are out of luck. I was given the option to buy a Kindle 2 at full price or a Kindle 1 for $180.
This is when I figured out that the economics didn't add up (or added up too much to justify.) I purchased $210 worth of Kindle books in the 1 year and 1 month I had it. I thought I had saved a bunch on the book purchases (more on that deception in a minute). I calculated that if I had purchased real books instead it would have cost a $237. Wait a minute, I only saved $27? How could that be when every time you buy a Kindle book it shows you the savings and it always seems to be about 50% off? Now the deception: they are comparing the savings to the list price of the real book not the Amazon discounted price of the books. So, instead of comparing it to the Amazon price they are comparing to list. Thus the savings of only $27. The other thing I noticed was Kindle doesn't charge sales tax or shipping. (Why no sales tax seems odd when the physical book has sales tax -- seems the State of California is missing some revenue here.) But assuming I paid sales tax and shipping on all the real books instead, which are not charged on the Kindle, that would raise my real book purchases to $340. (Assuming I only purchased one book at a time and didn't earn free shipping by combining orders.)
So I "saved" $130 but the device itself cost me $399 plus tax - so where's the savings?
Here's the final straw. The content is closed and locked to the device. With the physical books I'd still have the book and I could have shared the books with my wife or friends. I could have sold them on Craigslist or eBay. Not with Kindle books. In order to keep reading the books I paid $210 for - I have to buy the device. (The fact that I can now read them on an iPhone makes it somewhat better but why do I have to buy a iPhone?)
I thought the content was in a .pdf format so that I could read it on my computer. I thought this because you can download .pdf documents to your Kindle so I assumed the format of all the docs were .pdf. I also thought this because there's an option when you purchase Kindle content via the web rather than using the Kindle's wireless connection to download to your computer. So I thought that meant you could read it on your computer. No, this PC download feature is there so that you can download it to your Kindle in the event you are out of wireless range.
So learn from my mistake. Unless Amazon (or Sony or any of the readers) opens up their formats so that you can read them on any device you want to, don't buy it. Unless they get the economics right, don't buy it. There's no .MP3 format standard for digital books like there is for music so it looks like it's lock-in wherever you turn.
The publishers are the ones who have given us the anti-competitive copyright laws we have in the U.S. today. So it's no wonder as they attempt to move into the digital world they continue to create these kinds of uneconomic offers. (Watch Larry Lessig's latest speech on this topic.)
Shame on Amazon for taking open source Linux and Java and creating a closed source lock-in. If they do this with the Kindle, I can only imagine what they will do with their (your) cloud.
Sunday Mar 15, 2009
That's a very interesting post - thanks.
Posted by Dave on March 15, 2009 at 07:29 PM PDT #
That's a very good post. Kindles aren't an option where I live, but it's good to see that someone with an open mind is analysing it. I hope they improve their philosophy about that. Damnit, it's pretty much a DRM on BOOKS. That's an absurd!
Posted by cindy on March 15, 2009 at 07:42 PM PDT #
Spot on, Joe. Not only does the Kindle lock up your content - but it takes it away when / if your Kindle stops working. The short life of the Kindle would be annoying (at $399) enough even if your ebooks were DRM-free, which they are not.
Let's hope that Amazon, sooner rather than later, gets the message. Thanks for posting.
Posted by Court on March 18, 2009 at 07:11 PM PDT #
It appears that you're upset that your Kindle 1 died and they didn't replace it. To "get" them you published this as retaliation.
Posted by Kevin on April 08, 2009 at 09:05 AM PDT #
To sum it up, Amazon does not care about economics.
Posted by Grayson Peddie on April 08, 2009 at 10:50 AM PDT #
Kevin my intent was not to retaliate for not having as good a customer service experience with Amazon as I had with Nintendo. Rather, the breakage made me realize the lock in that the Kindle has on the content I purchased and the poor economic value to me as a consumer.
The irony is Amazon wins my dollars either way because I'll buy my real books from them regardless.
Posted by Joe Hartley on April 08, 2009 at 03:43 PM PDT #
Good point that when we either break our units within the 1-yr warranty period or when we, as you did, have a model that went bad after the warranty period, Amazon will replace that model for half the price of the original cost.
I'm not sure I know of other seller of electronic products that will do this when the unit is out of warranty period (repair often costs as much as a new unit) or that will offer the same model at half price when you drop it or some other user-caused problem. But they've done both.
Your larger point is that if you don't take them up on the offer, then you lose access to your Kindle formatted-books. And that's a good point.
For me, that's a user-value situation, when you're aware of the copyright or Digital Rights Media situation with purchased books from Amazon or from Sony et al, as you sway. I agree that if I bought a book from Sony I should be able to read it on the Kindle, but ironically you point out that we should know the copyright limitations and what they mean to us while you yourself didn't look up what the Kindle does and does not read - and whether or not the purchased Kindle materials are readable on a computer.
Important, yes, to research like this anytime we buy anything. Many of us went into this knowing the limitations, due to a lot of reading forum boards. What we worry about is not so much whether we would want to buy another Kindle if it breaks after the warranty period is over (we can get extended warranties from squaretrade.com or, with Kindle 1, from Amazon) but what happens should Amazon go bust.
Already there are hacks available to make these essentially mobi format books with Amazon ID locks readable w/o buying them, on an existing working Kindle, or on one's computer. Obviously these hacks will not be publicized (though they were for awhile) but it means that if Amazon fails, we will be able to continue reading those books in the normal mobi format because the conversion and unlocking processes are already in place.
As for some reasons some of us did buy the Kindle(s) despite the drawbacks know to us, I give my own reasons at kindleworld.blogspot.com/2009/03/is-kindle-only-e-reader-why-360.html
- Andrys
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Posted by Andrys on April 16, 2009 at 06:22 PM PDT #
Hey Joe,
You should check to see if you have access to Books 24x7 thru Sun's contract with SkillSoft. I think you would really like the features and search capabilities. And, access to thousands of books anytime anywhere is just what you need.
Hope all is well, I hear you are in China! Safe Travels.
Dave Dew
Posted by Dave on April 22, 2009 at 08:03 AM PDT #
I bought a Kindle 1 as a birthday present for my wife on 8-JUN-2008. It locked up once about 6 months in. I did a reset using the button in the back and it was fine. One year and 20 days after the purchase the device locked up and continued to do so after every reset. I have talked with customer support 3 times. I tried a firmware reset and a firmware update and still no improvement. The device constantly locks up and takes multiple attempts to reset even while plugged in just to get to the home page. I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist but this certainly makes me wonder. A $359 electronic device should last longer than 1 year unless maybe Amazon decided it was time for us to upgrade. My wife spent about $125 on books in one year. I was given the same option of paying the full price for a Kindle 2 or sending in my defective unit and getting a refurbished Kindle 1 for $180. I don't believe Amazon will get any of our money ever again.
Posted by Steve on July 07, 2009 at 07:30 PM PDT #
WOW! good information, our daughter who is 13 has asked for a Kindle for her birthay. We purchased it 3 hours ago, wished I had read these comments earlier.
Posted by Amy Ogbomo on August 30, 2009 at 03:44 PM PDT #
"I calculated that if I had purchased real books instead it would have cost a $237."
That doesn't seem to be a lot of books. While Kindle doesn't appeal to you, it still is great for people who reads a lot. And by lot, I am talking about at least a book every week.
Besides, it's only $259 now. As a gadget lover, you (and we all) know first generation gadgets are always expensive and full of issues. But give some time, it will improve.
Posted by Rich Ji on October 12, 2009 at 09:00 AM PDT #
I totally agree! I feel like Amazon has a gun and mask each time I buy a Kindlebook. This proprietary eBook has nowhere near the value of a physical book, yet they charge 90% of one. Where's the logic? There isn't one except that Amazon knows that they can get away with it. As soon as there's an alternative - SEE YOU AMAZON!
Posted by Stewart Davidson on November 04, 2009 at 01:02 PM PST #
So, just to be clear, your Kindle broke, you have electronic books, and you're angry that you need a new electronic device to read them? There's a Kindle reader for iPhone, Windows, and soon for Mac. Assuming you knew that you were buying into computer files that require a computer device to use them, I'm not sure I see the issue.
And I would note that the files are not locked to your device, they're locked to your account. You can add and remove devices at will on your Kindle account page.
Yes, electronic media have drawbacks like "they can break". But really, this is no different from having MP3s and dropping your iPod on the sidewalk.... You're not locked out of your music, you just broke the thing you've been listening to it on.
I fill my Kindle from http://promo.net/pg/ , mostly; anyone who isn't availing themselves of this resource is probably finding the Kindle experience much more expensive than they have to.
Posted by Harry Teasley on November 18, 2009 at 01:34 PM PST #