Quote:
Originally Posted by pilotbob
I was reading an article on PC Week's website about the Kindle development quote and right at the beginning of the article we find:
"The success of the Amazon Kindle has legitimized the concept of an electronic book-reading gadget and led to an explosion of competing devices like the Barnes and Noble Nook, and the Sony Reader."
I'm sorry, but the Sony Reader came out will before the Kindle. After reading a sentence like this I have to question anything else said in the article.
Does anyone fact check this stuff any more? |
As far as I can remember, the Sony Reader PRS-500 was the first widely available and mass-popular (relatively) e-reader after the experimentation with the Sony Librie (or whatever it's name was, I think that was the first e-paper based e-reader) in Japan (I guess they sold it in Japan only because the Japanese are the quickest in adapting to and embracing new technologies) and therefore the one who "opened up" the market and "proved" the concept (that you could make a device solely for reading and profit).
The Kindle might be more popular today (I don't know the sales numbers for the two series) but the market would still exist if it had never been released.
The PRS-500 is what got me interested, and while I was considering buying the PRS-505 was released, which I bought and have today.
The Kindle is similar to the iPhone in the fact they both owe their stellar popularity (within their own markets) to aggresive and all-pervasive marketing, not technological capabilities. The difference is that the iPhone at least looks nice, while the Kindle is uglier then the hunchback of Notre Dame (IMHO).
P.S.
I've been an occasional visitor to this forum for almost two years, since I got my e-reader, not yet having any serious problems or questions about my reader, but now I had to stand up and say my piece. Journalist stupidity sometimes really irkes me.