I gave in and bought a kindle for Xmas. This is the fourth ebook reader I’ve paid for and it’s by far the best one. Wireless is a killer feature by itself but the kindle is also the best user experience i’ve seen for these devices and for the first time I’ve read and enjoyed books on an eink screen.
So what’s wrong? Two key things: there’s not enough books available and they are hard to find.
Now amazon boasts of more than a million books you can download - surely that’s enough for anyone? Well no - it’s easy to find all the latest bestsellers up there and recent fiction is generally available a short while after the publishers have squeezed that hardcover revenue. But even slightly more obscure books become hit and miss. More unforgivable, I’ve found books I want to read and would pay for only to be told “this is only available on the kindle in the USA”. Science fiction books five years old selling for five bucks in paperback just don’t feature on the kindle. It’s frustrating. I hadn’t realised quite how much I had come to rely on amazon to simply have everything! Scarcity hurts.
Secondly, and this is a point I think has been completely missed in the USA, having to buy my books from the USA site really sucks. Not because they’re priced in dollars but because amazon.com has no idea what I like to read. Now amazon.co.uk knows exactly what I like. I buy three or four books a month from their recommendations. Hundreds of purchases over six or eight years and we’re good friends who know each other well. Why is this insight not available to amazon.com? There I’m some guy who bought one bit of fiction and three books on politics. That’s it. They have no insight at all despite the fact that just one datacentre over they’ve a treasure trove of info which could be used to sell me things. The accounts even have the same email addreses and everything so they should be able to figure out they’re the same person.
And if amazon is really worried about the apple tablet they should realise that apple only knows what music I listen to. Amazon is an old friend in the book business. One I trust. No new device will build that trust but ignoring that trust may well erode it. Fix these two things and my kindle would be amazing - right now it’s just pretty good.
