The Early Consensus On Kindle 2? Good, But Maybe It Should Be Kindle 1.5
It’s been less than a month since *Amazon* unveiled the Kindle 2, but there’s been no shortage of speculation about whether it will live up to the hype. Most recently, Forbes’ Tim O’Reilly cautioned that the device would be “gone within two or three years” if Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) didn’t adopt open standards that let readers access their e-books from multiple (including non-Kindle) e-Readers. So with the first shipments of the second-gen Kindle out on the street today — expect a constant stream of reviews and reactions. Here are some preliminary thoughts from around the web:
– Amazon.com: So far, the Kindle 2 has a 3.5 star rating among 44 reviewers. Most of the praise focuses on the increased storage capacity, better battery life and better button placement; the biggest con was the high price.
More from the NYT, Forbes and CNET after the jump…
– The NYT: “Amazon calls it the Kindle 2, but Kindle 1.1 would be more like it; the changes are fairly minor,” says the Times’ David Pogue. “Fortunately, they
The Kindle is actually quite classy; it's like a convergence of old school and new school technology
Your comment about the user reviews is not a valid measure and shouldn't even be in your article. The Kindle2 was only released this past Monday, so none of these folks even have it in there hands yet. And if you read the negative comments (those that received 1, 2 or 3 stars) you'll find that most of them are speculating about what the Kindle should be or have because they don't own one, even a Kindle1, and thus, skewing those numbers. I can certainly give a one star review for a Ferrari because it's expensive, but because I don't own or driven one, how does that qualify the review as valid or helpful? I believe that Amazon shouldn't allow those that don't own a Kindle (a proprietary item) to review it.
BTW, as of today, the average review has gone up to 4 stars because those that ordered are finally receiving them.
bk2, as the headline notes, these were the "early" impressions of Kindle from around the web, and I thought the inclusion of comments directly from Amazon — not necessarily professional tech reviewers — helped round out the preliminary view.
It's true that some of the reviews were from people who didn't even have Kindles at all — but I took the time to read both negative and positive reviews, and pulled out what I thought were the consistent threads from each.