The Amazon Kindle Basic Web Wireless Service: Why It Is a Revolutionary Feature, and Why Amazon Should Keep It Free or Cheap | 
 enlarge | Author: Stephen Windwalker
Publisher: Harvard Perspectives Press (indieKindle.blogspot.com)
Category: EBooks
List Price: $2.49
Buy New: $1.99
You Save: $0.50 (20%)
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 44470
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
ASIN: B0010B0C9C
Publication Date: November 24, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
This article is excerpted by Stephen Windwalker's book, The Amazing Amazon Kindle (Harvard Perspectives Press, December 2007). Windwalker is author of Selling Used Books Online: The Complete Guide to Bookselling at Amazon's Marketplace and Other Online Sites and creator of the Big Man Getting Smaller blog at http://bigmangettingsmaller.blogspot.com. Approximately 1700 words. PLEASE NOTE: THIS CONTENT IS ALSO INCLUDED, along with much, much more IN How to Use the Amazon Kindle for Email & Other Cool Tricks: Read and Answer Email Anywhere, Anytime on the Amazing Amazon Kindle - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0011XW1E8/ebest
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| Customer Reviews:
 Let the Market Decide March 26, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Kindle is an experiment and those who want to participate in it pay a substantial upfront charge. Anyone who thinks it's too expensive, too constricting or too risky can wait on the sidelines and see. What bothers me is that so many people are evaluating this product using either the paper book, or their own wish list of features as a standard. I personally prefer to read books on my Kindle rather than on a computer or on paper.
I have accumulated literally a ton of books in my lifetime and have no desire to add any more to my collection, unless it's what I consider a collectible, in which case I'll buy it in paper. Incidentally, I have reached the same conclusion about my music collection. The iPod is just what I need, so I use it. I don't begrudge Apple or Amazon the fees or restrictions, because they offer a quality product and service for the price.
I have a laptop that I use to access to video clips, play DVDs, read blogs, news, search via Google and use email. I don't see any advantage to using a Kindle for any that. Adding a fraction of an ounce or a penny of cost to the Kindle in order to add any of those features would disappoint me.
Amazon obviously put a lot of though and research into this venture and I hope that it works out for them and for us. If they have to make adjustments as time goes on so be it. Like Apple, they provide an excellent product at an initially high price. In Kindle's case I estimate that I'll get my money's worth over about a two-year period. Users' mileage will vary. Similarly, my five year old PowerBook G4 doesn't owe me a penny. And Amazon, it seems to me, is closer to the ideal of excellent service and support for a reasonable cost than Apple. Let's hope it stays that way.
Finally, anyone who feels that people should be able to drop their computer's internet access because they own a Kindle are to me a little off base. It's for reading text. Increasing the list of Kindle books, working out a solution to the PDF problem and the next page button are what interest me most.
 Unclear Priorities March 16, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
If the author feels as passionately as his title implies, then he wouldn't charge people any more than a penny to hear his heartfelt opinion, making it clear that his priority is to help spread the word, rather than making a buck.
What Amazon should do is this:
Each item you purchase from the Kindle store should earn you a certain amount of credit to cover the cost of your wireless access. If there are possibly some Kindle users out there who don't buy anything whatsoever from the Kindle store, and who look to it purely as a clever scheme for finagling a lifetime of free wireless access, (the same kind of diehard sponger who never, ever gives a tip to waiters and waitresses) then those are the only people who should rightfully pay any and all nominal fees that might become an economic necessity if too many hardcore spongers start climbing on board (and weighing down) the Kindle express.
P.S. After posting this review I found out that [currently] Amazon does not allow people to charge less than 99 cents for a Kindle offering (a kindling) and I must confess that makes my initial point uninformed. I think Amazon should make the 99 cent minimum known to all buyers.
 ingenious device March 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
i held off buying a kindle because it seemed like a lot of money to read a book {how wrong i was}. after reading the initial revues i found that it was a lot more than that. ive had it now for a couple of months and i dont know how i ever did without it. there are a couple of changes i would like to see. larger area to hold it without changing the page, a much better book cover with stlyus and key stroke chart. i have problems with the internet but not downloading which is amazing, for some reason it takes my user name and password but goes no further {i.e. banks and brokerage acct's}. i cant wait for the improved model and will buy it without hesitation especially if you improve the internet and make it easier to hold. the kindle will revolutionize the world for people like me that love to read and resarch.
Nice job March 12, 2008
Helpful article, that gets down into the real economics of the wireless feature. I definitely agree that Amazon should not start charging heavily for this tool.
A great insight into the marketing value of the Amazon Kindle's Basic Web browser and 3G service January 1, 2008
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
Every Kindle owner should read this article and join us in calling on Amazon to keep the basic web browser and the remarkable wireless broadband service that supports, and to keep it free or cheap. There has been plenty of buzz (as well as a few troublesome lines in the terms and conditions) suggesting that these features won't be free forever. Windwalker makes a well-reasoned case that it should suit Amazon's business model and customer-experience goals to maintain the service at no more than a nominal charge, and even suggests that it will be most profitable for Amazon, in the long run, to keep it free. Are you listening, Jeff?
Other articles by Stephen Windwalker about the Kindle and related issues:
How to Use the Amazon Kindle for Email & Other Cool Tricks: Read and Answer Email Anywhere, Anytime on the Amazing Amazon Kindle (The Amazing Amazon Kindle)
20 Effective Steps to Publishing a Kindle Edition of Your Book or Document: How to Connect Your Amazon Kindle Book with Readers (Publish and Market Your Book on Amazon Kindle)
Selling Used Books Online: The Complete Guide to Bookselling at Amazon's Marketplace and Other Online Sites (Harvard Perspectives in Entrepreneurship)
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