Slow death of Kindle?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by rcentros

That's basically true. Only those who come to this site and the Reddit sub-Reddit (and places like this) would really know about their options. For me, if it gets down to, if only color screens are offered, that will be where I completely lose interest in eReaders.

I think so too.

[cgsmom]

Originally Posted by cellaris

Just out of curiosity. Those of you who have had or still have Kindle e-readers, when you bought them, did you know that there were other brands besides Kindle? Why did you decide to buy a Kindle?

I was reading ebooks on an iPod touch. In 2011 I decided I wanted a dedicated reading device. Nook released the Nook Tablet and Amazon released the Kindle fire. A friend of mine was excited about the Kindle. I told her to check out the Nook. She said it cost $50 more. I told her it had more memory, a faster processor and could read books from the library. She didn’t care. It was cheaper so she bought the Kindle. I bought the Nook. I didn’t buy a Kindle until the Voyage came out. By that time Barnes & Noble was really fumbling the whole Nook platform. I did know about Kobo then, but I wanted to stay with a US company.

[Scoob]

Originally Posted by cellaris

Just out of curiosity. Those of you who have had or still have Kindle e-readers, when you bought them, did you know that there were other brands besides Kindle? Why did you decide to buy a Kindle?

When I wanted to get an ereader I knew of the three-Kindle Kobo and Nook. Nook and Kindle were more well known to me as I had seen and held them before when friends showed theirs off. Kobo was one I heard of from my being a member of Rakuten cash back. It was trying to decide which of those three to buy that I learned of Sony, Boox, Pocketbook, Meebook, Tolino, Inkbook, and the various other brands not commonly seen here in the US.

I bought my first Kindle (a PW5 off Woot for ~25$) as I didn't want to spend too much money and find out I wasn't going to like reading on eink screens. That was the only reason I bought it. If I could've found anything else at a similar price with free two day shipping I might have bought some other brand for my initial ereader. All my other ereaders were bought because I wanted certain features such as glowlight (my Nooks) buttons (my K3) screen (my Voyage) and looks cool and have buttons (my different Sonys).

[nana77]

Kobo released the HD e-reader in April 2013 and the company expected it to only account for 3% of their overall revenue. This was primarily due to the 6.8 inch screen being unproved in the market and the premium cost. Within six months, it quickly became a bestseller and CEO Michael Tamblyn said now accounts for 25% of hardware sales. This has prompted Kobo to developer a spiritual successor, the brand new waterproof H20 e-reader.

I recall during that period this:

One of the big hyping factors behind this new model is that it is 6.8 inches, which buckles the trend of your standard six inch reader. The resolution is also the best in the business, putting the Nook HD and Kindle Fire HD 7 to shame.

The Kobo Aura HD features a 6.8 inch touchscreen with a resolution of 1440×1080 with 265 DPI. This e-reader is seriously the best in the business with its high-definition display. The Kindle Fire HD 7 has 1280×800 and the Nook HD has 1440×900. What this means is that as an e-reader, it actually has better image quality than the majority of mainstream tablets on the market. The Aura HD also has a built in comfort light, which allows you to read in the dark with a front-lit display.

https://goodereader.com/blog/electro...aura-hd-review
My concerns was that the reading had to feel pleseant, and I was a little scared of lower resolutions; that's what made me to buy the Kobo Aura HD.
Sadly, the missing water-resistant feature made me to damage both mine and the one I'd lately bought for my mother too (that she quite never used).
I can't recall it precisely, but the price dropped after the release of the device.

It was revealed 15 April 2013 and allowed for preorders the next day at a price of 169.99 USD/CAD.

[vishcompany]

Originally Posted by cellaris

Just out of curiosity. Those of you who have had or still have Kindle e-readers, when you bought them, did you know that there were other brands besides Kindle? Why did you decide to buy a Kindle?

I started off with a cybook Gen3 ages ago out of nerdy interest. It was really good at it's time. Unfortunately it died on me after about a year or so, but it got me into e-reading! Kindles were still equipped with a keyboard and clunky, ugly things.

I instantly learned to hate the hassles of DRM, found this forum and shortly after, Fictionwise went belly up. Luckily I had learned already to make use of the tools, CLI commands still at that time.

Then moved on to Sony, later pre-ordered the pocketbook 302 (nerdy again), which was a hyped up piece of useless junk.

All this time I had been buying ebooks mostly off Amazon, as at this time it was practically the only source for english literature around here. Downloaded to my PC, stripped off DRM and sideloaded to whatever device I was using at the time. You know the drill.

After the PB302 desaster and as I really liked the one-touch dictionary lookup of mobi ebooks, I thought, I could just get a Kindle anyway, which happened to be a Voyage, which I happily used exclusively for many many years.
I do not read as much these days and if I do, it's mostly on my phone.

I have stayed with Amazon for a long time due to convenience, although I always disliked the monopoly it practically is. After the latest developments I decided it's time to make a move.

Installed Librera reader on my devices and looked for other sources.
Reorganized my DRM management to handle epub books properly, but I was more than amazed to find out, that a lot of books at Thalia.de are not DRM protected (I cross-checked with amazon: they are all locked). Also recent bestsellers. I still don't quite get it, but I won't complain.

So, yes, I was very aware of other brands and also preferred them for a while.
I still kind of miss my Sony PRS 350 sometimes (I passed it on in the family), but then, the Voyage is still a great ereader. If I get back to using it more again, I might treat it with a new battery.

[rantanplan]

Originally Posted by cellaris

Just out of curiosity. Those of you who have had or still have Kindle e-readers, when you bought them, did you know that there were other brands besides Kindle? Why did you decide to buy a Kindle?

Yes, I knew about Tolino in Germany, because they were present in many bookstores. But I was quite naive about it back then and didn’t care that much yet about ownership and the differences of kindle and EPUB formats.

[JSWolf]

I first got a Sony Reader. I did stay with Sony for a long time. I know of other Readers such a Kindle, Kobo, Astek, Bookeen, and some others. I then went with Kobo when they had the H2O with the newer 6.8" screen. I've been with Kobo ever since. I do have a Kindle Touch that I use for eBooks from Amazon and a PW3. I bought the Touch from Goodwill and the PW3 I inherited.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by cellaris

Just out of curiosity. Those of you who have had or still have Kindle e-readers, when you bought them, did you know that there were other brands besides Kindle? Why did you decide to buy a Kindle?

I bought a Kindle Touch cheaply from Goodwill in order to use it with Amazon to download eBooks. I had been using Sony Readers and had my Kobo H2O. Now I use a Kobo Libra 2. I knew of a different brands.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by vishcompany

I started off with a cybook Gen3 ages ago out of nerdy interest. It was really good at it's time. Unfortunately it died on me after about a year or so, but it got me into e-reading! Kindles were still equipped with a keyboard and clunky, ugly things.

Did the screen spontaneously break? There were a lot of reports on MR about the Gen3 screen just breaking with no known reason.

[vishcompany]

Yes, it cracked, my fault though, and it also started failing sich CRC errors.
Nevertheless I really liked it. I remember it also being very light.

[lp1900]

I couldn't not agree more. So I flash it back to the old firmware.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by vishcompany

Yes, it cracked, my fault though, and it also started failing sich CRC errors.
Nevertheless I really liked it. I remember it also being very light.

It was very poorly made. The Cybook Gen3 was the worst Reader made. The hardware was way too fargile.

[Canis_lupus]

Originally Posted by cellaris

Just out of curiosity. Those of you who have had or still have Kindle e-readers, when you bought them, did you know that there were other brands besides Kindle? Why did you decide to buy a Kindle?

I researched Sony, Nook and Kindle and decided to go with Kindle for a lot of different reasons and before that had looked into the Rocket eReader. I have never regretted not choosing the other eReaders.

When Amazon started going in a direction I didn’t like, I looked at Nooks again and Kobo and decided that at this moment I don’t want to switch to either.

People have come up and asked me questions about Kindles when I read in public. I used to be very enthusiastic about Kindle and show them features and some of those people went and bought Kindles of their own. I now tell people there are other eReader brands and to research them so they can find the one they would like best.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by joblack

I have the feeling they don't care about bug hunting anymore.

- The 100 percent not status read bug is open for several revisions. I reported it several times
- It gets really slow with a lot of e-books on the device
- Usability was getting worse.

I've seen mention of this several times, and I just want to say that I'm not experiencing that bug on any of the Kindles I read on--these include a kindle basic that I got in 2022, 2 different Oasis 3s, and both an 11th and 12th generation Paperwhite. (I also have a few other Kindles, but I don't read on them regularly)

What device are you seeing this happening on? Is it with books bought from Amazon, or other places? If other places, are the books sideloaded using USB, or Send to Kindle?

Shari

[ucfgrad93]

Originally Posted by cellaris

Just out of curiosity. Those of you who have had or still have Kindle e-readers, when you bought them, did you know that there were other brands besides Kindle? Why did you decide to buy a Kindle?

When I first got my Kindle w/ keyboard (the white one), I knew about other ereaders. And I chose the Kindle. I have no issues with Kindles. I still use my Kindle Paperwhite 2nd gen on a daily basis. Yeah, I'm a little tight with space, it only came with 2GB, and the battery doesn't last as long, but it still meets my needs/requirements.

YMMV