Spinfield: Web marketing trends today, tomorrow, and beyond…

“Another gadget?” my wife gasped. What can I say? It’s the Kindle, the ebook reader by Amazon. It does some amazing things and I wanted to try it out. (Actually, my wife likes this one.)

The Kindle is definitely a harbinger and hopes to change some of our reading habits. Specifically, will it be able to:

1. Replace my three newspaper subscriptions?
2. Replace paper books?
3. Provide remote Web browsing?
4. Replace iPod for music?

So let’s put it to the test. I am up for the challenge to see if it can change some of my reading habits. My wife and I recently traveled to Scotland to visit our daughter. Before we left, I loaded the Kindle up with some books, magazines, newspapers and audible books. If the Kindle does anything, it consolidates all of your reading into one location. The same group in paper versions would require quite a bit of packing to get the entire stack into my bags. Score a point for the Kindle for convenience.

My Kindle held the following:

• Wall Street Journal (past three days)
• The Independent (past three days)
• Forbes Magazine
• Elizabeth and Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens by Jane Dunn
• Groundswell by Josh Bernoff
• The Man Who Loved China (audio) by Simon Winchester
• An assortment of inspirational material sent via e-mail to the Kindle

Where to start? Since we were heading to Scotland I dived into the Elizabeth and Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens. Full of rich history and intrigue, it was a perfect companion for our eight hour flight overseas. When I’d had enough of people being sent to the Tower of London or getting their heads chopped off, I moved over to the newspapers and inspirational books. It was great having everything right there. The screen was very easy and pleasing to read and the pages turned as quickly as if you did them by hand.

The big problem was gripping the Kindle. The page forward and back panels along the sides of the Kindle are a real nuisance. They were inadvertently bumped either by the case, the pillow, the seat or mostly by my clumsy hands. You just can’t get a true grip on it like a book. I must have knocked it well over 100 times which means my pages were either advanced or reversed.

Another problem is the power switch is on the back, which caused me to whack the page turning panels even more. All-in-all, this is a major problem with the Kindle. The only place to really get a good grip in it to put fingers underneath and your thumb right on the display. This means you can’t really read anything because your big fat thumb is right there on top of things.

I was able to get through my book on the flight home but it was bit of an ordeal. I never got very far into Groundswell but now I’m making progress. The Kindle cannot display maps, charts or pictures so there are some things missing from the book.

The Wall Street Journal is my favorite newspaper and I signed up for a free 14-day Kindle subscription. It displays the sections and titles of stories along with the text of the first paragraph. If you want more then simply click on the article and there it is. Using the built-in wireless it’s great that you can download the paper no matter where you are.

The Kindle will display the engraving-like portraits of the people in the WSJ articles but again no pictures or charts.

I guess I much prefer the good old newspaper to the Kindle version. If the Kindle had a way to flag stories and then let me come back to them. Bookmarks are one way but the listing of bookmarks don’t give you the article title,–only the words “Next Article”.

An interesting feature of Kindle is NowNow. Using the wireless function you can ask a question about anything and a Kindle team will respond with up to three answers. We tried, “what is the best restaurant along the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.” Within a half an hour the answer came to the Kindle and also to my e-mail account. I’m not sure why this was included in the Kindle but it’s pretty cool.

The Kindle also has a very crude, slow, Web browser in it. It’s good for checking blog sites and has a bookmarks page. But you’ll use this only if you’re desperate.

As for an iPod replacement forget it. If you need a few chill-out tunes to read with then it works fine for that. It even has a little speaker so you can listen to Yanni, John Tesh or whatever.

The Kindle has a handy Home button but I wish it had more direct action buttons on the box for navigation.

In conclusion let’s review some of the pros and the cons:

Pros:

• Kindle versions of books are cheaper than buying a real book.
• There is the ability to upload Word, PDF and other docs to device.
• SD Card slot for more storage.
• Quick access to media like daily newspapers. You can buy just one newspaper at a time at half the newsstand price.
• Long lasting battery.
• USB access to computer in order to move files back and forth.
• Storage of articles, books on SD card.
• Plays Audible books.

Cons:

• The excessive length of the buttons. It’s hard to get a grip on the thing without clicking a button. There is no need to extend the buttons along the 3/4ths of the sides of the Kindle. It makes it very difficult to get a handle on the device.
• The case that comes with it does a poor job of keeping the Kindle secure. In fact one whole side is unsecured and the top and bottom are barely held onto by the case. The Kindle can easily slide out.
• Navigation can be tedious.
• Four shades of gray. So far it works for text, but images come out lousy.
• Like iTunes, Kindle locks you into using the Amazon store.
• I have to share it with my wife.

I’m sticking with paper books except when travelling but will use it for the newspapers. It won’t replace the iPod or Web browsing.

My conclusion is that I hope the newer versions of the Kindle rework the physical interface and bring us color. I’m keeping it because I think it’s great for trips and there is lots of stuff to explore on the device itself.

Copyright © 2008 by IdeaStar. All rights reserved.