The first Kindle came out in 2007. Pricey little gadgets. Still, I’d like to have one. But, I can’t just drop, what was it, nearly 400 bucks on a device my family would see as a geek’s toy.
I’ve been voicing birthday, Christmas and Mother’s Day wishes complete with ‘but they need to seriously drop the price.’ I think we’ve bought a printer, a laptop, a desktop and a few cell phones while I’ve been wishing.
Last night, charging my cell so I could continue reading an e-book in a cell phone sized window, I announced to my family that I would soon have enough money to buy a new model Smart Phone so I can read longer before it flashed the low battery icon.
Eventually the idea of checking the current price on my ‘wish’ set in and I called up the Amazon page. My tweets were at the same time mentioning a price war on e-readers. There were more tweets on the topic when I had to turn the phone to airline mode to save the rest of the battery.
This morning, news of the Kindle’s price cut had made its way into my email. So, I checked my pay-pal, it was good to go. I went to Amazon to confirm this wasn’t some really bad joke or a very cool dream.
It looks like I have fulfilled my wish. Now, when people ask what I want for this event or that birthday, I have nothing to say. Unless, of course, this gadget needs a winter coat or a reading light.
I said from the start, if I wait, the price will come down. Well, there it is, and it should be in my very hands before the week-end.
Now, I have to get back to doing the work that made this possible to begin with. Till next time, stay well and keep reading. And if you have a wish list, don’t forget to add my novel, If I Should Die, but you have to wait till November.
I wonder if I can send email through Kindle? Does it have a camera? Can I make a call? Well, I guess I can’t have everything and holding an e-reader to my ear would just look silly.
Comments
2 responses to “E-Reading and Price Wars”
You make me laugh!
I’ve been wanting one of those little gadgets “forever” too, and this weekend a friend from New York visited and proudly showed me and my neighbors hers. She mentioned that the ipad is better – but I was just overjoyed to hold the Kindle and play with it for a few minutes.
It was surprisingly less techno than I expected. We all felt, fiddled and played on it and all three of us tried to touch the screen to get it to work 🙁 only to realize you need to use buttons, how dinosaurish! But, I did like the little device and I still want one – it’s just that I can see I’ll grow out of it pretty quickly. There’s so much more that I’ll want it to do. AND, I do have to question why we would pay so much for what really is just a book (or books).
I reckon the Kindle or any e-readers should be given out freely and the profit from e-book sales should take up the slack. Obviously, the e-reader developers are going to want their cut from invention onwards and will probably get their cut anyway, so why not?
Thanks for the Comment!
Did you know the Kindle has experimental programs that allow you to access the web, listen to MP3s and audio books?
Also, while reading, I can highlight something and post it from the reader to FB or Twitter. I can look up a word that appears in a strange language, I can google a .45 gun and make a clipping without leaving the page I am reading.
The forums are very active and help is just a question away.
I’ll be using my K2 for a while before I use all of the options. It will read a newspaper out loud to me and I can change the print size, margins. Shoot, Amazon should pay me for promoting it.
Anyway, have a great Saturday. See you tomorrow in chat.