While it is certainly admirable that the nation’s largest online book retailer is trying to rekindle (no pun intended) the electronic book industry, I have to say I’m a little disappointed. Not in the feature set — that’s pretty darn awesome — but in the design of the thing.
It just looks, well, uninspired. Very basic, like the Sony Reader with a keyboard I guess. There’s no real innovation here, and that’s disappointing. Inside, it’s very innovative. The EV-DO connection is a neat idea — including the fact that they don’t directly charge you for it, and the company picks up the tab.
Instead, you pay for when you use it, say to download subscriptions or blogs. Starting at 99 cents — from what Scoble is saying, it even shares the revenue. That’s pretty neat in my opinion.
But like FSJ, I think it’s ugly. And see, beauty is what helped sell the iPod. I know people like Michael Gartenberg are quick to jump on those who poo-poo this, but even Mike has to agree here the design is unimaginative. Richard Nantel from Brandon Hall research calls it a “big cheap calculator”. While I won’t go that far, i will say its not the design that it needs to be to reinvent this space.
Lots more fun analysis from tons of places on Technorati where its currently the top search term. Well Mr. Bezos, at least you have buzz on the thing I guess?
