[JSWolf]

[QUOTE=eschwartz;2996857]Amazon does so because they actually know what their customers want, and very few of them give a darn about SD slots. You keep on insisting that droves of Kindle owners want SD slots, but have yet to provide any proof OR rationale.[/quoter]

I will say that Amazon has no clue what customers want. If Amazon had a clue, then the Kindle would be a much better line of Readers then it is now.

Not everybody wants the same things, but a LOT do want these features...

More customizable margins (smaller), more customizable line height (smaller), more font choices (and side loaded fonts too), SD card slot (though less do want that then the more options for better on screen presentation).

Amazon is all about giving the customer what the customer wants -- it is rather what they are known for.

Amazon is known for giving customers what Amazon wants.

People expect people to download what they need when they need it, and Amazon caters to them.

Yes, a lot do expect this because it all they get from Amazon.

But wait -- it gets better. Amazon ALSO provides enough builtin storage to satisfy the people who want 3500 books on their Kindle at any given time, which is the kind of person I am, and I have never not been able to find a book I wanted to read. Between my ~200-item TBR, my collection of hundreds of old favorites that I might want to refer back to at any given time, and every book I have read in the last year and have not gotten around to deleting yet, plus a random selection of miscellaneous everything, I am confident that there will never EVER be a given moment when I really want to read a specific book, can't, and feel even slightly unhappy as a result.

If Amazon is so all knowing, then why in hell did they give 2GB to the PW1 originally and then up it to 4GB? They did that because Amazon was WRONG about the amount of storage when they decided to go for the cheaper option.

(If so, I can most likely download it either from Dropbox or the Kindle Cloud.)

As long as I rotate in some new books at least once a year, I am thus totally covered.

This from someone whose tastes at any given moment range from eclectic to outrageous, who is usually in the middle of at least twelve books at any given time (spanning both ebooks and pbooks) and has a LOT of favorites he likes to refer back to and quote randomly at random times, or suddenly gets struck with the passing fancy to read.

Not all Readers in use have WiFi. Most these days do. So for the ones without WiFi, a card slot is a good thing to have when you are away from home without USB access to your computer.

In order for the value of that to reach 0.00000000000000000000000000000001¢, I would have to change ereaders somewhat more frequently than once every several years -- in fact, I'd have to be changing ereaders at least once a month.

Just because you don't want a card slot does not mean that others do not as well. Knowing the way Amazon works, it's very possible there's space for a card slot on the motherboard(s) for a card slot and if that is the case, it would be very cheap to add in a proper card slot.

How often do you change your ereader, that it actually concerns you that you need to transfer your entire library to a new device potentially at any moment?

This year, I was used a 650 and moved to a T1 and recently I moved to an H2O. So I had to move eBooks over twice this year.

I remember a very similar claim at one point, where someone said ereaders are required (per Word of Consumer) to have SD slots... so people can insert their library into the ereaders on display at Best Buy.

I have to say that that line of reasoning is just silly. The SD card slot is for expanding storage, not loading every eBook owned on a store demo Reader.

So... I really do think I will roundly insult anyone who crosses the line from wanting an SD slot on their ereader, to assuming they are anything but a fringe group undeserving of the full attention of the major brands.
You can usually tell who they are -- they are the ones issuing proclamations against the Kindle for not having SD slots.

To be honest, I do think that if Amazon made a Voyage with a card slot and the price was the same or just a few dollars more, it would sell better then one without. People will see it a future proofing for storage even if they don't use it. As long as they thing they might, it would sell. A fringe group is one that wants something silly that is really not that useful and a card slot is potentially more useful then fringe.

Take the Voyage, add in sound and TTS, card slot, better configuration on margins, line height, fonts and you'd have a much better device. Make a second voyage at 7" and I think it would sell as well for those who want a larger screen Kindle, but not an obsolete DX.