Technology commentators have noted that Amazon is trying to improve the Kindle browser experience. With the iPad only weeks away, I don’t blame them for trying to play catch up. However, I do wonder if this is really going to be a net win for end users?
Wired Magazine’s Michael Calore has described the Kindle’s browser experience as:
… notably sub-par. It’s good enough to check your e-mail, post to Twitter or read Wikipedia, but it doesn’t handle images or more complex web apps particularly well.
I would disagree with the browser being described as “sub-par”. The Kindle browsing experience in fact is so far below par that “sub-par” is by contrast a compliment tantamount to the most obsequious flattery!
The Kindle browser should be kept behind glass and marked “emergency use only!” It should be thought of in the same vein as the emergency biscuits found on lifeboats. Not something you’d consume if you didn’t absolutely have to!
The Kindle is good for one thing, reading books bought from the largest seller of useful eBooks in the world. The 500,000 out of print books available through Sony hardly makes me want to buy their reader!
Unluckily for Amazon a better browser will not be enough to withstand the coming onslaught of tablets. However, as a Kindle owner I will continue to use it for as long as I have to. At least until I find a better way to get access to more good eBooks regardless of which country I live in.
Should Amazon beef up the browser and other features, it will still not make me want a Kindle Pro over an iPad. I will be buying the iPad for Net/Web use and applications. I believe a more expensive Kindle with a better browser and Kindle applications will be superior to Apple’s offering in one way only … more books! I don’t see Amazon being able to out-Apple Apple. Software is just not Amazon’s area of expertise, regardless of who they hire ( … hire me, just kidding )!
A faster, better, color ePaper Kindle is so far off that based on the current speed of the Kindle hardware, I’d more readily sign up to a ZX Spectrum developer program!
Ladies and gentlemen, in the eReader market, content and not hardware is king!
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