Well, it’s taken 10 years, but Australia is finally going to get the Kindle ebook reader. Not that it will really ‘get’ it per se, you’ll still have to buy it off Amazon.
It strikes me as ironic, in a way, that the company that pioneered online selling of books online now sells one of the most popular ebook readers in the US. Will it become as popular in Australia and the rest of the world? Who knows. Sony already has one on the market as does BeBook, and the take up of them has been by early adapters, although as Harold Wiegers from Bebook told me recently “looking at the iPhone e-reader app, which has been downloaded 1m times in the first month, there is a growing demand for e-reading.” Personally, I can’t see myself buying one – in the near future anyway. I like reading, but am more old school. In saying that, I can see a need for them, and how the current younger generation would embrace the technology. It’s a natural extension of other technologies they have grown up with over the past 10 years. Also, feedback from the US suggests that once you get a kindle, they are almost addictive with the amount of books people read. Amazon and some independent writers are also looking into a model that will allow authors to put their books online without having to go through a publisher. This would mean previously unpublished author can have a place whereby they can showcase their work without having to put up with the tedium of dealing with bolshie agents or arrogant publishers. Then again, the public won’t get the benefit of the filters such people put on over some of the drivel that might get through. What I do know is that the Kindle is here to stay, as are other ebook readers, which isn’t a bad thing.