Quote:
Originally Posted by CleverClothe
koland, in a perfect world every device could talk to every other device. But right now WiFi costs money to add. And someone has to pay the subscription on cellular if you go that route. Then you have the complication of all the different cellular companies...
Unfortunately, we just aren't there yet.
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True. And no doubt one reason Sprint was chosen for Amazon is their lower cost - it's only $12 for my internet connection ($15 before discount), versus the $40 plus that the other carriers charge. Basically, though, the download charges are being paid by Amazon (out of the cost of the book) and probably are about that dime they threatened to charge (a bulk text message charge, even though they are larger than text messages) for emailing. Those using the free web browser are getting that $12 month for "free" (and no doubt few use it much, as it gets old fast and has the same limitations for complex pages as using mobile IE, plus a few more). The free part, of course, is born by a combo of Sprint and Amazon, mostly likely most of it by Sprint (who needs customers - and has had as good or better coverage everywhere I've tested it as Verizon does and isn't considering selling their southeastern states to AT&T, who still has the highest prices and worst coverage around).
Wireless is more limited in where it works, not just geographically, but due to closed access point and some places still stuck in pricing schemes of a decade ago. That is slowly changing - you can sit outside many fast food places and get free wireless (although if you eat inside, you pay a price in health, rather than dollars), at some libraries (but not all, some restrict to residents only) and even at some interstate rest-stops (most of Iowa, for example). But airports tend to be a bust, in my experience and convention hotels amongst the worst places to try (especially in union states), unless you have a room there (even then, some are wired only, so bring your own access point).
On the other hand, there are very good reasons not to provide open access points (more, now that some ISP's are starting to charge for "excess downloads", which should stop hi-def movie downloads in it's tracks). No one wants to end up on the wrong side of a warrant for child-porn or suspected terrorism or end up defending a suit from the RIAA. Of course, in your ideal world, you could leave your access point open and your firewall would stop these abuses cold.
In the meantime, we have edevices tethered to PC's and the Kindle standing alone (so far) using EInk and various backlit devices - some tethered as well (many palm models, for example) and others using wireless and/or cell (the iphone does both, for example), but all at addition cost and with less than satisfactory performance when outdoors.
What's funny is reading the messages about the Kindle over the last year - at first, all were attacks on how awful the design was, predictions of total failure and scoffs at the idea that it sold any books (I didn't buy then - because it was out of stock and $400). Then, it came back in stock and later dropped $40 (at which point, I did buy - because I wanted to try to tame the teetering TBR piles around the house and perhaps find room on the bookshelves for the books I wanted to keep). Shortly thereafter, the announcements started about how many Kindle books were being sold, as a percentage of the books where the Kindle is available. Then that percentage doubled (even as the number of books grew by thousands nearly every day -- which makes growing that percentage of books an even bigger accomplishment). Rumors of actual sales started to skyrocket, based on numbers coming out of the place making eInk displays (after all, Sony and the others weren't selling all those displays, so the reasoning was it must be all Kindles). And some numbers started coming out of publishing houses that ebook sales, while still a small minority of all sales, were skyrocketing. The date where the charts showed a steep increase in numbers corresponded almost exactly with delivery of the first Kindles (and the press ignored that the new Sony came out about the same time). Bezos confirms - those who buy Kindles keep buying the same number of print books, but now buy 2.5 times as many books as before. Which means for every ten they bought before, they get those plus 15 ebooks and those who grabbed early Kindles were heavy readers. Warren Buffet chimes in - he's getting one just for finance newspapers/magazines, as he'll save the cost of the unit in a few months (no word on whether he liked it later, as it no doubt greatly slows scanning of these vs. the print editions). And here it is a year after release (more or less) and all the press is about the "next Kindle Killer" - either new Kindles, new eInk devices (none of which, so far, seem to have wireless or cell access as a basic feature) or the iPhone (and ipod touch) - despite the added cost of $70/month for that phone (or did it go up higher) and more limited coverage of the cell provider (not to mention that some may not use cell phones, even in this day, or be unable to easily switch providers, even if the iPhone weren't being sold by a company that believes reading is dead).
So, the virulent hate press continues, but the message keeps changing. Funny how it all seems the same (if, so far, less vitriolic in content) as the blu-ray vs hd-dvd press and forum messages of the last few years. Don't forget that in that fight - the losers were the consumers, as prices of the media increased across the board after Sony won (not picking on Sony in particular, although losing the betamax fight did bring prices down, but this happens anytime you have a closed format with a single supplier/patent owner/monopoly).