Well, it's here: The Kindle 2. If I had money to burn, I'd buy one, but at $359, I'm not going to run out and buy one anytime soon. Would I like to get my hands on one to try it out? Hell, yeah! Now I've seen an iPhone up close and I know it's like comparing apples to oranges but I like the form factor of the iPhone. I also like what you can do with an iPhone. It's unfortunate that the battery life isn't quite there yet for the device, but I think that in a few years from now we'll not have to worry about that.
As for the Kindle 2, well, it looks a bit cooler and I like how thin and light-weight it is. Having the ability to carry so many books with you at once is nice, but how many books do you need? When I travel for work or go on vacation, I typically only bring one book with me. What I would like, well, what everyone would like is the child of an iPhone and Kindle 2. Imagine that: A device which would allow you to surf the web and read your books on it. Now that's a device which I suspect will be coming in the future, but we're not there yet. I don't believe it's possible to make a device that has a good of enough battery life yet. Yet with flash drives becoming so big and so cheap and battery life increasing each year, I wouldn't be surprised if such a device is closer than we might think.
But coming back to 2009, we have the iPhone and the Kindle 2. Sure, there are other devices that allow you to surf the web, but I think as soon as one is about the size of a Kindle 2 that is full color and allows you to surf the web then I think that the print version of magazines/newspapers will have seen their day. I think that day will come, but I don't see it happening soon. Rather I think there will be a slow decline of print--a decline that will take decades. I am a lover of books and enjoy holding a book in my hands and being able to share it and beat the book up without having to worry if I broke it. But with a Kindle 2, you can have so much more, but it's not a necessity. It's not what one needs, but rather what you might want as a toy. If you had $359 in your hand, would you buy an iPhone (yes, I know the data plan costs involved) or a book reader? I'd vote for the iPhone as I would have a phone, camera, mp3 player, video player, could surf the web and play games. With a Kindle 2, I can read books, play mp3s and subscribe to some newspapers/blogs and have the Kindle 2 read to me (but in the test video I watched, how many minutes could you listen to that robot sounding voice? Five? Ten minutes at tops). The clear winner, in a tight economy, is the iPhone--even though it's comparing apples to oranges most people have limited funds and they're not going to run out and by both--especially since the iPhone now has book applications you can download for a few bucks.
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