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Skinny on the Kindle, interview 3

The third (and last) person I spoke with at the coffee shop was a man about my age, who I had seen using a laptop and reading the morning newspaper in print form.

I asked him if he had seen it- at first he thought it was a PDA of some sort. After talking about it for a minute, he asked to hold it.

He said the screen was easy on his eyes, and that he could see that it had potential. "There are people who like to carry books, and for them this would be great."

He went on to say, however, that people are trying to get away from carrying "extras," and the Kindle is an extra. I told him that it had newspapers available on it, and that was a positive in his view.

Score so far: Kindle Yeas-3, Kindle Neas-3

Note: this score only indicates interest, not that the respondents would be willing to pay $400 for the device.

Skinny on the Kindle, interview 2

My wife had a few things to say about the Kindle when I showed it to her.

She liked the electronic paper technology- she was reading in low light and said that it was easy on her eyes.

She was browsing the Kindle store in no time, and remarked that several of the books looked interesting. "Interesting enough at $10 a pop?," I asked (we are avid public library users). "Well, maybe not all of them," came her reply. I told her that if she was interested in buying a book it would be delivered in about a minute over the cell phone technology that the Kindle uses. That was also a positive in her mind- no wireless hotspot needed.

She had nothing negative to say about the Kindle, though I did not tell her that it has a list price of nearly $400.

Score to date: Kindle Yeas-2 (I include myself), Kindle Neas-3

Skinny on the Kindle, interview 1

I stopped by a local coffee shop this morning on my way to work, and imposed on a group of three high school students who were studying for an exam.

I took a minute of their time to ask them about their reading preferences and how the Kindle might affect their reading. I asked "How much do you read now and how might this (pointing to Kindle) affect your reading?"

The answers were not in the positive. One student said that he only reads what is required for school, and if there were a book that he wanted to read, he would simply go buy a copy. I answered, "Amazon is betting that you may want to buy an electronic copy (again pointing at the Kindle on the table)..."

He and his fellow students nodded their head in disagreement. "You have to turn that off on the plane during takeoff" remarked one young lady.

My 60 seconds were up at that point, and I excused myself. What did I learn from this encounter? First, we need to ask our users about their technology preferences before assuming anything. Second, none of the three high schoolers asked to pick up the Kindle and look at it (their exam was weighing heavily on their minds, true enough). Third, these students stood up for print format books. Print is not dead.