Well, we can perhaps agree on this. I hope it doesn't succeed. For me it's mostly about the DRM and monopoly-channel issue. I just don't want a single company at the spigot of human civilization. (Someone should start up Loompanics again, and try to see if Amazon will stock its books about contract murder and the best methods of torturing someone.)

Are you aware of what we know about sales, though? They had already sold 240,000 last August. Apparently your blog software doesn't like me to post a URL, so you can Google "We Know How Many Kindles Amazon Has Sold: 240,000.")

I'm with Tim re: DRM, but there's no monopoly channel issue here. The Kindle happily accepts non-Amazon content. I've got my K1 loaded with hundreds of non-Amazon books...free books from publisher's websites, books from Project Gutenberg, electronic documents that I want to read like dissertations and such. There's a TON of content available, even if you never buy a book from Amazon.

Maybe it's just me, but I find sales of 240,000 units to be pitiful. No wonder I've seen so few in the wild. The Apple Newton sold over 100,000 units over 15 years ago and was a flop. Looked at statistically, this means only one person out of 1,275 has one. No wonder I see so few people sporting the device.

Oh, oops. I forgot to be specific. Assuming that all Kindles were sold only in the United States, sales of 240,000 for a population of about 305 million means that you are unlikely, in any given day, to run into someone that has one.

We have $300 bookshelves and lots of $20 content items filling them at home. This is similar, but you can fit it in a bag. Like an ipod, and I like having all my music with me all the time.

So Dan, you have one? I hadn't known. This would increase my list of known users by 30%. ;-)

I don't have one, but I'm interested in the new version. I'd like to try one at least.

My line about the bookshelves was in response to your question "Are you ready to drop $359 on a device and then $10/book for content to fill it with?" ...the answer being "we already have, many times over." Of course, that content we can share with friends - to me, that's the biggest drawback to the kindle and probably what will hold me back from buying one. Probably.

I'm not about to buy one, as other things have higher priorities.

But I was thinking what if every patron in the library had a kindle instead of a library card. All the content of the library would be right in their hands. Just a pipe dreamm...

I also have no interest in the Kindle. I have started reading some classics with Google Books on the iPhone (books.google.com/m) and I like that better than using Stanza. By the way, the number of Stanza downloads exceeds the Kindle sales (reportedly over one million Stanza downloads in 2008 - Wired called it one of the 10 "most awesome iPhone apps of 2008".) So why would I *also* carry around a Kindle?

I'll be honest: I'm unwilling to drop $10+ on "content" that takes up yet more of the diminishing space in my apartment and then needs to be lugged with me when I move--possibly across the country, this time. I'm also tired of straining my eyes reading articles on my computer and printing reams of paper. It's a good thing that e-book readers are starting to gain ground, and I want one.

I read e-books (txt format) on my NintendoDS via media flash card, so why buying stuff like Kindle, when you can implement e-book reading on other devices that are capable of using e-texts, I bet that palmtop owner will never buy kindle, because he already has option to load pdf or txt e-book on palmtop or any other device

Huh- why hasn't anyone mentioned the most interesting part of this new Kindle- the text-to-speech function that will read the book out loud to you? I'm not much of an ebook reader myself, but I love the thought that I could be reading, need to go somewhere, jump in the car, and turn my book into audiobook mode. Thats awesome. More importantly, that reinvents the book! Now someone could be a Kindle author: meaning someone who writes new works of art specifically for this platform based on the fact that they can operate between audio and text output modes. Thats awesome!

I didn't know about audio-mode, but if that's true, thats awesome thing, because blind people can "read" books, but unfortunatelly, if there is no sound navigation trough menu, someone else has to load the book for them!

As long as it's not monopolized, and becomes relatively cheaper over the years, I'll probably end up owning one. I'd say in about 3-5 years (if they're still around).

I never thought I would own an iPod...but now I love mine.

I think it *is* monopolistic. Amazon clearly wants to make more money by cutting out shipping and resellers. If ebooks catch on, bookstores go out of business, then comes a tipping point where those of us who prefer paper almost have to go to ebooks.

And not enough people are pointing out that battery-fueled devices are less eco-friendly than paper, which is a renewable resource.

I would love to have such a device!! I read SO much...but...I go to the library...I always have several books checked out and always have many books on my wait list...until we can download books at no cost, a Kindle will just not happen for me...

I remember my grandfather telling me about the first automobiles; most people thought they were a passing fad because they were too expensive for the average person. I remember the introduction of the personal computer; most people thought they would only be useful for a select few people. I remember the first cell phones; most people wondered why you would need to carry a phone outside of the house. And I will remember the introduction of e-readers and how most people lacked the foresight, and sense of history, to imagine the future of reading.

Let's see…
√ expensive
√ proprietary format
√ can't read in the dark

Yep, that's everything I want!