Amazon's Kindle and the Fidelity/Convenience Problem

I have to give Jeff Bezos a lot of credit for the way he thought through the problem of fidelity vs. convenience that are inherent in every effort to create an electronic book. This, from Bezos' press conference today, is a great observation: "The book is so highly evolved and suited to its tasks that it is hard to displace. the key feature of a book is that it disappears when you read it."

Every e-book so far has failed. The reason is that they can't come up with enough convenience to beat the fidelity of a paper book. And one of the things that makes that harder is that books don't HAVE to be extremely convenient. Unlike a lot of other kinds of information, books are something you only buy once in a while, and rarely do you need one in an instant. So adding Internet-style convenience to the book experience doesn't do much for a lot of people.

Amazon seems to be aware of all that, and has tried mightily to build groundbreaking convenience into Kindle, including an amazing package of wireless services. But even though the reader seems like a marvel, it might be burdened by one significant stumbling block: its $399 price tag. Since cost is part of a product's convenience, that kind of cost weighs down the other convenience factors -- particularly since you don't have to pay extra for any kind of device to read a traditional paper book.

This will be fascinating to watch. Other than the price, Kindle seems like the best shot yet at making an e-book successful.

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