Amazon, who revolutionized the online shopping experience, and is now trying, and succeeding, at making electronic books take off after many false starts, has announced that support for periodicals is coming to their Kindle application for smartphones. The first devices getting the new feature to read your favorite magazines and newspapers on your portable device are of course Apple’s iPad, iPod touch and iPhone. Next in line is Android, then the other platforms, but no launch date has been given other than “soon”. Being a Kindle owner myself, I own the latest generation that comes in a cheaper WiFi only version, this is great news since there have been times where I wish I could read the latest New Yorker, but forgot to bring my Kindle to my favorite café.
How is this going to impact Kindle sales? If people can buy the content they want without having to buy Amazon’s hardware, is it going to hurt Amazon? Not necessarily, since Amazon gets a cut of the money that their customers pay for content. The first Kindle was absurdly expensive, but the free application for iOS was what made me purchase an iPod touch a year or so ago because finding English books here in Finland is a bit difficult.
Are you a Kindle user? Do you prefer using your smartphone or Kindle device? With the smartphone you’re tempted to browse the internet, check your email, send out a text, and many more minor detours that a wandering mind is prone to taking. With the Kindle it’s just you and a next/previous page button. No distractions. With electronic ink gaining the ability to display color and video however … is the concept of a book going to change now that we’ve got the technology to make it happen?
I hope not. Nothing can replace words on a page, and if books were cheaper I wouldn’t even bother with their bastard electronic cousins.