Good op/ed piece, and makes some good points. But as far as I can see, the entire major advantage of the Kindle is its pre-paid network. I do fully appreciate this, too. Just not the package it's wrapped up in.

I'm still not sold on the Kindle's price or the price of the available books and other publications. And being a spoiled Apple user, I'm not thrilled with the Kindle's design, usability or interface. I'm not sold on the idea that once I've paid $10 for a book, after I'm done reading it, I can do nothing else with it, not loan it, sell it or give it away.

I'm not some anti-technology whacko. As a matter of fact, being an avid reader, I would jump at something along the lines of Kindle. But the Kindle itself has too many cons in my judgement for me to pick one up just now. So at this point, I'm keeping my $400 and buying my books and newspapers the old-fashioned way, until either Kindle 2.0, or some other company comes out with something more attractive to me.

The Kindle is a good concept, and part of it is certainly evolutionary, but, in my opinion, not revolutionary.

What you knew: people prefer the tactile aspect of paper and the affordances of the book form

What you don't seem to know: people choose and use devices they become attached to, and that requires aesthetics at least, and feel and usability ideally. And Kindle ain't that.

You're giving credit to Amazon for giving the user access "for free", when really Amazon is giving Sprint a HUGE amount of marketing for "free" bandwidth so low that Sprint won't feel even the slightest pinch. An entire novel fits in a megabyte or two; it's not like Sprint is streaming you movies--or even songs.

The Rocket eBook did all those things technologically possible back in the late 90s, and a few things that Kindle STILL doesn't do.

Kindle = First Round of eBooks + time

Revolutionary, my ass. They cobbled together deals and technology in sometimes inexplicable ways. They didn't invent or create a thing: they built an endpoint.

I'm glad you like it, but I'm betting against it. It is too expensive to take everywhere. You can't put it in your pocket or clip it to your belt or conveniently attached it to yourself like an iPod.

One factor that is often overlooked in the Newton's failure compared to the Palm Pilot's success is the small difference in size. A Palm Pilot fit nicely into a shirt or jacket pocket whereas the Newton was slightly too bulky. The Kindle is too big compared to the optimal portable device, the iPhone. From what I've seen (I haven't seen a Kindle in person), the device is probably not going to go where real books go (or even where iPods go).

Yes, there ARE voracious readers who consume book after book, but most people read a few books a year or less (I heard a statistic that some large number of Americans read two books after high school -- not per year, but for the rest of their lives!!!) There are many more voracious consumers of music and that is why the iPod/iTunes system has been so successful.

Sorry, I don't see it being much more than a niche product with a small cult following. (By comparison, we Mac users have become a mainstream religion having graduated from cult only a few years ago.)

For what it's worth, here's my 2 cents...

I'm on my second Sony Reader and really like it. While I much prefer the tactile experience of a book, I travel extensively and read constantly when on the plane or waiting on line, etc. So for those of us in that situation, an E book makes good sense. I used to read on my Palm TX but as my eyes have aged it's not a fun anymore.

The Kindle IMHO, is too expensive and fugly to get much traction but like all Rev 1.0 products, it may in time morph to something more useful.