The Kindle

It's no secret I'm a huge fan of the idea behind the Kindle, even if some of the things that come with it are flawed. Not every book is available on the Kindle (but the same applies for bookstores and even Amazon's book department), the new one does not have an SD card slot which was handy to archive your purchases, the fact that Amazon has the power whether they say they'll use it or not, to reach into your Kindle WITHOUT you permission and amend, or delete books from your library. That's ridiculous.

Even iTunes, which is what the Kindle gets compared to all the time anyway, has an OPTION to download updates to the apps you buy on your iPhone/iPod Touch.

There's also the fact that the thing is freaking EXPENSIVE. The price went DOWN to 300.00!

Then there's the price of the books. 10.00 may seem cheap, but considering that I don't really OWN the item, it's not cheap at all. I can't loan it to friends or sell it, and for this inconvenience I'd like to see the price of books drop to reflect the fact that they aren't selling me an item but an "experience" as another blogger put so eloquently. Not to mention the money everyone's saving by not actually printing a book.

Some reviews suggest a price of 3-5.00 which seems right to me as a consumer because I would probably buy more books, but what about as an author? Well, the same blogger that called the item an "experience" also said that money paid to authors needs to be re-thought and looked at like at a library where certain countries acknowledge the fact that the author is getting zero money when a customer borrows a book vs. buys one and pays them either a flat rate or an amount per time the book is checked out.

The main thing is the price though. Amazon needs to get this device into the hands of the public and the public will make it rise or fall accordingly. Nintendo had a habit of taking hits on hardware costs because they knew that they would get the money back with software sales. The same applies here.

Also, publishing companies need to realize they aren't going to get away with charging Amazon the same amount of money for an ebook which would give them who knows how many percentage points more in profit. They need to adjust the price they sell Amazon the books for to reflect the same profit margin or maybe a little less to pay the author a little more.

However with all of this, I still want one. They're damn pricey but cool as all get out.