When I was asking friends about their Kindles, trying to decide which of the new batch was for me, one comment in particular really jumped out at me: Ian Sohn told me that he loved his basic model, and that he particularly liked that it didn’t multi task. Sort of an odd statement when you think about it, but it didn’t really register with me at that time.
Given the arms race of a tech society we live in, it’s unusual to hear somebody citing the lack of a feature or features as a positive. Now that I’ve had mine for a couple of weeks, I see exactly what he means, and he’s 100% right.
I read more because all my Kindle does is let me read. I don’t have the distractions of apps or videos or a million other things. Sure I had the Kindle app on my iPad (and loved having it there), but it was all too easy to switch to something else, to check my email or the score in the game. On the Kindle, it’s read or nothing. Sounds stupid, but it’s absolutely true.
So as Ian said, the Kindle’s killer app is that is that it doesn’t multi task. It’s just a reading device. In an age where attention is at an absolute premium, the importance of that can’t be overstated. I love mine, and on this vacation I’ve used it every day. The iPad on the other hand, has come out once.
Interesting take. I got one for my 70ish parents for Christmas. They are non-techie and now I know it’ll be perfect for them
I think my exact observation was that the brilliance of the Kindle is its singularity of purpose. A few months into my ownership and I still agree. Probably my favorite electronics purchase ever.
Dean – it’ll be perfect for them. Plus you can make the text ABSOLUTELY ENORMOUS, which is useful at times
Ian Ever? Wow, high praise indeed. Such a neat little device though, and a I couldn’t agree more with you about it doing one thing really well.