the onda

Post Christmas everyone seems ecstatic about how well the Kindle is doing, with Amazon claiming that they sold more Kindle books than real books on Christmas day. And yes, just as with the Bose headphones a few years ago, the Kindle does seem to be the "it" gift for 2009.

But this is Jeff Bezos we're talking about, and fantastic though he may be as an entrepreneur, he does not (yet) have the Jobsean "Reality Distortion Field" powers, so before we all get carried away, let's remember that we are just at the start of ebooks— and more importantly that this first inning is pretty ugly.

E-Ink sucks. Its refresh rate is pathetic. On the device front, you can either go with the medical instrument inspired ID of the Kindle, or the crappy firmware of the Nook (the Sony being the book version of their MP3 player). The storefronts have a really limited selection and the lack of marking, lending, and dropping into the pool are marked limitations, to say nothing of the fact that contrast rates still leave a lot to be desired when compared to paper.

In my mind, eBook readers don't get significant until they help to reinvent the format. Yes the book is popular (with 400-500 years of installed base), but so was the map before the connected mobile device put a pin that marks your location and follows you around on it. I loved maps before but absolutely would never go back to them given the opportunity to see myself on it, and watch the map spinning around me as I turn 360 degrees around. And I suspect Amerigo Vespucci would agree.

Similarly, until we've got embedded videos in our books (a la YouTube) and a "Choose your own adventure" level of interactivity, we're just going to be aping old formats with plastic devices that will remain inferior in every way except traveling weight. There is hope yet— after all TV started as radio shows with faces.

I have a feeling that 2010 is going to be good to us on this front.