In early February 2008, I wrote a post asking a simple question: is anyone actually buying the Amazon Kindle? The device had launched just a couple of months earlier in November 2007, and despite Amazon's enthusiastic marketing, I had never actually seen one in the wild. None of my gadget-loving friends had one. For a gadget enthusiast like me, the absence was conspicuous.
The First Kindle
The original Kindle was a boxy, somewhat awkward-looking device with a keyboard and an electronic paper display. Amazon described it as a “revolutionary portable reader” that could wirelessly download books, newspapers, magazines, and blogs. The display used E Ink technology that looked like real paper, even in bright sunlight.
What was genuinely innovative was the wireless connectivity. Amazon paid for the Kindle's cellular data connection, so there were no monthly wireless bills or service commitments. You could buy a book from anywhere in the United States and have it delivered to your device in less than a minute. The Kindle Store launched with over 90,000 books, with New York Times bestsellers priced at $9.99.
The device weighed 10.3 ounces, could hold about 200 books, and included a built-in dictionary and wireless access to Wikipedia. By 2026 standards these specs are quaint, but in 2007 they were remarkable.
What Happened Next
The answer to my question, “is anyone buying this?” turned out to be a resounding yes. The first Kindle sold out in five and a half hours and remained out of stock for nearly five months. Amazon had dramatically underestimated demand.
The Kindle went on to transform the publishing industry. Subsequent models became sleeker, lighter, and more affordable. The Kindle ecosystem expanded to include apps for phones, tablets, and computers, making it possible to read Kindle books on virtually any device. Amazon's $9.99 pricing strategy for bestsellers disrupted traditional book pricing and helped establish e-books as a mainstream format.
The Kindle in 2026
Nearly two decades later, the Kindle is still going strong. Modern Kindle devices feature high-resolution displays, warm lighting, waterproofing, and weeks of battery life. Kindle Unlimited offers a subscription model for voracious readers. And Amazon's dominance in e-book publishing has only grown.
My skepticism in 2008 was a classic case of underestimating a product because I could not see it fitting into existing habits. The Kindle did not just offer a new way to read. It created new reading habits. People who had stopped reading books started again because the Kindle made it so convenient. That is the mark of a truly transformative product: it does not just serve existing behavior, it creates new behavior.
I think some very cool products based on E-ink (manufacturer of the displays in the Kindle and Sony Reader) electrophoretic displays are going to be out in the next few years.
Right now, E-ink sell monochrome displays with switching times on the order of half a second or so. But, they have prototype full color displays and I believe the “in the lab” switching times are getting down into the 50ms range — early LCDs were around 30ms or higher.
Pretty nice, considering that the display is reflective and nonvolatile, so it only consumes power when switching. An ultraportable laptop (or tablet…) with 10-20+ hrs of battery life would be nice.
Saw a working prototype of a full-color e-reader that was maybe 1cm thick – I think I’ll wait for that to hit the streets instead of being a Kindle early adopter. Plus, for $400 I can have an iPhone instead.
@Adam — do you ever see these on campus? I can see a real application for eTextbooks.
Mark
Haven’t noticed anyone on campus with one. I’ve only seen them ‘in the wild’ on airplanes – I guess they’re popular with road warriors who enjoy reading but don’t enjoy lugging heavy books around the world.
I think the publishers are the biggest impediment to eBooks. They’re worried that their business model is going to end up like the music industry, with rampant piracy and dropping prices as content goes digital. So they’re reluctant to sign deals to make their books available electronically.
As far as textbooks go, I personally like to have something I can put my hand on. But a supplementary electronic copy would be fantastic; I’d pay $20 or so more for a hardcopy/eBook bundle, but a $150 electronic-only would be a tough sell.
The ability to mark up textbooks with notes on a touchscreen would be a killer app for education, I think… you could even imagine working out homework problems and submitting them electronically all on your reader device.