Is Kindle a Hype?

[trendfreaks]

Amazon relased Kindle in November 2007. Immediate to its release it grabbed enormous attention in he blogosphere- which eventualy faded away soon.

We leave this for your discussion - was kindle a Hype? The meteorite growth & subsequent catastrophe of "Kindle" in blogoshphere - we have captured
here.


Also going by 2007 eBook download data -its sure Kindle is not most popular book format -
http://www.swivel.com/graphs/show/25808741

[Nate the great]

Why should it matter to us how many blogs talk about the Kindle? I, for one, bought one so I could read on it, not because of the hype.

Plus, did anyone say the Kindle was the most popular format in 2007? How could you think that might be a possibility when the device came out at the end of November?

[vivaldirules]

Welcome, trendfreaks. I would think the Sony Reader, when it came out, would have generated a similarly brief buzz followed by a rapid tail, although maybe not so pronounced since Amazon did quite a lot to push the Kindle into people's faces in November. As to the "2007 eBook download" graph, I'm not sure what I'm looking at or from where the data is collected. Yes, PDFs are by far the most popular form of digital publications and, unfortunately, it will take some doing to change that.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Unless there are sales figures to put up against the blog figures, it doesn't really say much.

[tsgreer]

Yeah, basically the drop was a result of "everyone knows about it now." Lots of hype when it was new and then on to other things. Sounds like a kindle-hater type of post to me.

You could say the same thing for almost anything new introduced into the marketplace.

[tsgreer]

Or it's like the "new guy" at work. He's new, you get to know him for about a week, and then he just becomes a regular employee....

[TadW]

And the majority of bloggers (which is what we're talking about when we talk about the blogosphere) doesn't care about the Kindle. It's Steve Jobs, the iPhone, Twitter, and anything else that makes the daily news. It doesn't mean, however, that people with interest in reading e-books care less about the Kindle today than they did in the beginning of the release.

[JSWolf]

What I want tot know is where the heck they got their numbers. They just seem off to me.

[ProfJulie]

That graph really doesn't mean anything...who cares how many blog posts there are? I'd expect a spike like that every time some new gadget is released and the bloggers all write an article (or regurgitate an article - to be more precise ...how much original content really makes it to blogs anyway...now that would be an interesting study!).

The initial blitz has passed, now back to reading about the next best thing....that makes more sense to me.

[Ervserver]

The same could be said for blogs, they have hit their peak

[Alisa]

I would think if there were still tons of blog posts about it, that would be more indicative of artificial hype. What you're describing there is natural. Big press release -> lots of buzz -> everyone's heard about and talked it to death -> people move on. If you kept seeing lots of news items being planted, now that would seem like an attempt to keep generating hype and interest.

I guess I'm not really getting your question. If you mean "is it all hype and no substance?" then I would have to say no, IMO. I think it's a solid product that's delivering on its promises. Amazon is continuing to grow and improve the bookstore. The hardware works as advertised. Is it perfect? No. But I'm satisfied as a customer and feel it was money well spent.

[Gideon]

There's also a difference on what gets continued hype - and on tech blogs that generally means one thing: expandability. New programs, hacks, options, models, prices, etc.

None of that has really happened for the Kindle, and so you're not going to see press because all you can really say about the Kindle is "yay, it's out!" And I love my Kindle, but it is a rather static device as opposed to the iPhone which is hacked a new way every month, etc.

The Sony Reader, of course, gets some hacking love too - but big news is still infrequent or minor enough to rarely get much press.

[spirits]

Considering the Kindle were selling on ebay for $800, that in itself is a hype.

Reading ebook through E-ink is only the beginning. When they expand to something more multi-functional, such as what the Iliad has been trying to accomplish, things will begin to change (and no, I don't mean multi-functional as in playing Mp3).
No matter what, 1st generation will always just be a hype. But many large corporations surfaced over the past year because they can see where this technology will eventually lead.