Kindle was the first e-book reader

banjomike · 07-31-2011, 02:43 PM

DON'T KILL ME. I'll explain.

I've just started to read "The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Eighth edition" by Gardner Dozois and in the summary of the year he writes (my bold):

"The big story in 2010 was the explosion in e-book sales, something that some industry commentators have seen coming for a long time now, but which has come to a boil faster and more extensively than almost anybody predicted that it would.

This market started to accelerate in 2007, with the introduction of Amazon’s Kindle, the first portable e-book reader, but the lid really blew off this year when Amazon lowered the purchase price for the Kindle down to $139, with the introduction of competing devices such as Apple’s iPad and Barnes & Noble’s NOOK, and with the founding of “online bookstores” by Apple, Barnes & Noble, and Google where products for these devices can be purchased. Amazon has announced that the third-generation Kindle is the bestselling product in its history, having sold “millions” (no exact figures are available) in 2010 alone, and the NOOK is similarly Barnes & Noble’s biggest seller in its forty-year history; Apple’s iPad—which has other functions, so it is technically a touch screen media tablet rather than an e-reader, but you can still read e-books on it, and that’s probably a fairly common use for it—sold 3.27 million units in its first three months after its April 2010 release, and is projected to hit 28 million units sold in 2011."

You can read the item here on Amazon, click on Look inside and search for Kindle. As a matter of interest Sony isn't mentioned.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...9505/sfsi0c-20

It annoys me that an editor can start an analysis of a year in an industry with a bit of duff data. Not to mention the Kindle pricing doesn't apply in the UK, $180 for WiFi.

OneandonlyDoc · 07-31-2011, 03:16 PM

If he had said "Dedicated portable ebook reader" I'd have agreed. Alas...I cannot agree because Palms and IPaqs had the ability to read ebooks long before the Kindle.

I read my first ebooks on my Ipaq around 2002 or 2003.

HarryT · 07-31-2011, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OneandonlyDoc

If he had said "Dedicated portable ebook reader" I'd have agreed

I'm a little puzzled by your agreement. Do you not consider the Bookeen CyBook, sold in 1998, to be a dedicated bookreader?

OneandonlyDoc · 07-31-2011, 03:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm a little puzzled by your agreement. Do you not consider the Bookeen CyBook, sold in 1998, to be a dedicated bookreader?

...I retract my agreement. I was not aware that existed, in fact (which I blame on the fact that I was still in high school at the time and ebook technology was not even on my radar at the time).

Penforhire · 07-31-2011, 03:28 PM

Or the Sony PRS-500, supposedly on sale in America in 2006 (not on my radar either until the PRS-505 in 2008).

HarryT · 07-31-2011, 03:29 PM

No problem

. I still have mine, which is why I happened to be aware of it. It was basically a Windows CE tablet, with book reading software (in fact, a variety of different programs) built into its firmware.

Its biggest restriction was battery life. On a minimal screen brightness, it would drain its battery flat in about 3h!

OneandonlyDoc · 07-31-2011, 03:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

No problem

. I still have mine, which is why I happened to be aware of it. It was basically a Windows CE tablet, with book reading software (in fact, a variety of different programs) built into its firmware.

Its biggest restriction was battery life. On a minimal screen brightness, it would drain its battery flat in about 3h!

Talk about an insane increase in battery technology since then....

kjk · 07-31-2011, 03:41 PM

And Nuvomedia's Rocket eBook, a dedicated reader also released in 1998.

EowynCarter · 07-31-2011, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

No problem

. I still have mine, which is why I happened to be aware of it. It was basically a Windows CE tablet, with book reading software (in fact, a variety of different programs) built into its firmware.

Its biggest restriction was battery life. On a minimal screen brightness, it would drain its battery flat in about 3h!

Woo that's collector !

And yes, there were quite a few readers before the kindle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-book

Synergi · 07-31-2011, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm a little puzzled by your agreement. Do you not consider the Bookeen CyBook, sold in 1998, to be a dedicated bookreader?

Don't forget the Rocket eBook. I think it came out in 97-98 also. I love Kindle but it isn't even close to being the first ereader, only the first to really take off.

Oops see kjk covered Rocket.

bgalbrecht · 07-31-2011, 04:02 PM

One suspects that Gardner Dozois owns a Kindle. I know that there's a joke in the SF community that many academic studies of SF like to claim that SF became "legitimate" around the time the author started reading SF. I'm sure the same blinders apply in other areas as well.

Phogg · 07-31-2011, 06:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

One suspects that Gardner Dozois owns a Kindle. I know that there's a joke in the SF community that many academic studies of SF like to claim that SF became "legitimate" around the time the author started reading SF. I'm sure the same blinders apply in other areas as well.

I submit an alternative hypothesis:

Science fiction has been legitimate since Jules Verne.
Academics in general looked like gibbering asses regarding the genre until a few of them realized how they must appear to the public in the wake of George Lucas' tremendous success with Star Wars. Those few undertook an effort to reform the outlook of their profession to remove themselves from the ridicule they had become aware of.

robko · 07-31-2011, 07:03 PM

And on another note: In my opinion it wasn't the Nook or IPad that caused the price to drop - the Kobo at $149 caused the original drop in prices for all the readers which then caused Kindle to follow suit.

jgaiser · 07-31-2011, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Synergi

Don't forget the Rocket eBook. I think it came out in 97-98 also. I love Kindle but it isn't even close to being the first ereader, only the first to really take off.

I own a Rocket eBook reader. Stored in a box somewhere in the garage. I know it was pre-2001 and MobileRead Wiki puts it at 1998.

https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Rocket_eBook

Andrew H. · 07-31-2011, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phogg

I submit an alternative hypothesis:

Science fiction has been legitimate since Jules Verne.
Academics in general looked like gibbering asses regarding the genre until a few of them realized how they must appear to the public in the wake of George Lucas' tremendous success with Star Wars. Those few undertook an effort to reform the outlook of their profession to remove themselves from the ridicule they had become aware of.

Bgalbrecht was posting *a joke*.

There has been serious academic criticism (in the sense of literary criticism) of sf since at least the 60's.

07-31-2011, 02:43 PM	#1
banjomike Addict Posts: 319 Karma: 397404 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: UK Device: PRS-505,DSlibris,nook Glow & HD+,Tab S2,Moon+,Clara,Clara Colour	Kindle was the first e-book reader DON'T KILL ME. I'll explain. I've just started to read "The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Eighth edition" by Gardner Dozois and in the summary of the year he writes (my bold): "The big story in 2010 was the explosion in e-book sales, something that some industry commentators have seen coming for a long time now, but which has come to a boil faster and more extensively than almost anybody predicted that it would. This market started to accelerate in 2007, with the introduction of Amazon’s Kindle, the first portable e-book reader, but the lid really blew off this year when Amazon lowered the purchase price for the Kindle down to $139, with the introduction of competing devices such as Apple’s iPad and Barnes & Noble’s NOOK, and with the founding of “online bookstores” by Apple, Barnes & Noble, and Google where products for these devices can be purchased. Amazon has announced that the third-generation Kindle is the bestselling product in its history, having sold “millions” (no exact figures are available) in 2010 alone, and the NOOK is similarly Barnes & Noble’s biggest seller in its forty-year history; Apple’s iPad—which has other functions, so it is technically a touch screen media tablet rather than an e-reader, but you can still read e-books on it, and that’s probably a fairly common use for it—sold 3.27 million units in its first three months after its April 2010 release, and is projected to hit 28 million units sold in 2011." You can read the item here on Amazon, click on Look inside and search for Kindle. As a matter of interest Sony isn't mentioned. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...9505/sfsi0c-20 It annoys me that an editor can start an analysis of a year in an industry with a bit of duff data. Not to mention the Kindle pricing doesn't apply in the UK, $180 for WiFi.

07-31-2011, 03:29 PM	#6
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383099 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	No problem. I still have mine, which is why I happened to be aware of it. It was basically a Windows CE tablet, with book reading software (in fact, a variety of different programs) built into its firmware. Its biggest restriction was battery life. On a minimal screen brightness, it would drain its battery flat in about 3h!

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07-31-2011, 03:16 PM	#2
OneandonlyDoc Fearless Writer Posts: 210 Karma: 375317 Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: In a mitten! Device: Kobo Wifi	If he had said "Dedicated portable ebook reader" I'd have agreed. Alas...I cannot agree because Palms and IPaqs had the ability to read ebooks long before the Kindle. I read my first ebooks on my Ipaq around 2002 or 2003.

07-31-2011, 03:28 PM	#5
Penforhire Wizard Posts: 2,230 Karma: 7145404 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Southern California Device: Kindle Voyage & iPhone 7+	Or the Sony PRS-500, supposedly on sale in America in 2006 (not on my radar either until the PRS-505 in 2008).

07-31-2011, 03:41 PM	#8
kjk . Posts: 3,408 Karma: 5647231 Join Date: Oct 2008 Device: never enough	And Nuvomedia's Rocket eBook, a dedicated reader also released in 1998.

07-31-2011, 04:02 PM	#11
bgalbrecht Wizard Posts: 1,806 Karma: 13399999 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: US Device: Nook Simple Touch, Kobo Glo HD, Kobo Clara HD, Kindle 4	One suspects that Gardner Dozois owns a Kindle. I know that there's a joke in the SF community that many academic studies of SF like to claim that SF became "legitimate" around the time the author started reading SF. I'm sure the same blinders apply in other areas as well.

07-31-2011, 07:03 PM	#13
robko Wizard Posts: 2,454 Karma: 5469320 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: Kobo	And on another note: In my opinion it wasn't the Nook or IPad that caused the price to drop - the Kobo at $149 caused the original drop in prices for all the readers which then caused Kindle to follow suit.

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