This morning I spent some time thinking about recent deal that Amazon was running for 2nd generation Kindle 3G during Black Friday sale. I personally already have several Kindles in my house so I don’t need another one but I know couple of folks who were trying to get it on Black Friday and they asked my opinion about it.
My advice to them was to consider 3rd generation Kindle WiFi in their Cyber Monday shopping list (they lost in the Black Friday deal lottery). Here is the breakdown of why I think this may be reasonable even in comparison with $89 Kindle 2nd generation.
Of course $139-$89=$50 is considerable sum of money (more than 10 Starbucks caffeine shots). But in 3rd generation you will get 50% better contrast – and yes it is important since we want to keep our sight bright and healthy, aren’t we. You’ll also get more comfortable controls (this point is somewhat arguable since removal of numeric buttons wasn’t the best idea in my opinion – but not everyone uses direct page jumps feature instead of bookmarks as I do). New generation is also lighter and smaller which makes reading more comfortable.
Next I advice my friends to think about their internet access patterns. I personally access internet from free wi-fi enabled locations in 99% of cases. The remaining 1% is when my wife is shopping (could take hours) and I’m relaxing in the nearest chair browsing internet through my Kindle 3G. But even in that case 3G is not very important to have since I can read books instead of internet which is better for brain anyway :). So if my kindle suddenly lost 3G I wouldn’t be to disappointed. So if you think you will never use 3G why pay additional $189-$139=$50=10 Starbucks coffee shots for it?
Besides that I always forget to turn 3G off when I’m done and it drains battery very quickly and I have to go searching for a power cable when I’m reading the most interesting moment in the book.
Of course it is just my own opinion and I’m sure there are folks who need 3G in 30% of even 40% of time they use Kindle. But I know that there is a considerable market of those who don’t need 3G at all and that’s why Amazon actually split Kindle into two versions: Kindle WiFi and Kindle WiFi+3G.
So if you’re shopping for e-reader on Cyber Monday think twice whether you need 3G version or not…
while a common myth, you won’t damage your eye sight by reading in poor lighting or with poor contrast. it is, however, much more enjoyable to see the words more clearly. :-)
I would wait for the color e-ink products due in the first half of 2010. In 6 months you may have buyers remorse. I do like my K3 and have 3 more to buy but have decided to wait. There are quite a few non-amazon color ink products just on the horizon and competition is good for the consumer. You may find better values elsewhere also due to the desire to topple a leader and gain market share.
The biggest problem I see with Kindle now is that they lock you in with their DRM. I have obtained over 200 books and hate that I cannot use them on other devices / software. Now that B&N offers the same huge selection of books (some are saying more) but in ePub format I foresee shelving my 2 Kindles in favor of some other non-proprietary e-reader. I will also pursue the removal of DRM from my existing titles when a good method for doing that comes my way so that the books are truly mine like the paper version.
Killer combination: international business trip, cats at home, new housekeeper, Google Voice. Picture: Standing in line waiting for immigration at Heathrow, thinking, “did she remember to feed the kitties”… whip out Kindle, access FREE 3G, pull up Google, see a Voice message from my home number saying, “Hey, I just got here and fed the cats and they’re doing fine”. Picture: 25 Euro charge for Internet access in Hanover hotel, but I just want to check my bank balance… whip out Kindle, access FREE 3G, check bank balance, log out. Picture: Training engineers in Ortona, I speak enough Italian to read music and cook, they speak enough English to understand most (but not all) of what I’m saying, someone asks a question about a historical event in the US economy, how do I explain… whip out Kindle, access FREE 3G, pull up Wikipedia and search for the topic, translate to Italian, pass around the Kindle, everyone nods and smiles. Picture: Odessa hotel, adorable cowboy drinking a beer in the hotel lobby, stroll over and sit down in his line of sight, open Kindle… he says, “Hey, is that one of them Kindle gadgets?”… smile at cowboy, show off FREE 3G Internet, have dinner with cowboy, he pays…
Yes, LOL, this all seriously happened. The free 3G was a bargain at 50 bucks and paid for itself many times over.
Just back from 3 months in Europe where 3G is available everywhere and Wi-Fi is scarce. Glad I had 3G!
@Will
the kindle doesn’t lock you in at all,the amazon store tries to (I believe that I’ve seen documentation on how to defeat it).
the vast majority of the books on my kindle have no DRM on them and can be used on any device.