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walkitoutOnce upon a time, a few years ago, there was this small music device that wasn't an mp3 player. It was white. It had this weird wheel thing that was prone to breaking and instead of headphones, it had buds.
You know what I'm talking about. It has metastasized since then.
Around the time all my friends were buying one of these, I was planning my wedding, so I had a little free time on my hands (the kids came later, just like the rhyme says). I used some of that time to call my broker and say, buy me some AAPL, please. That decision at that time paid for a lot of free-spending in ensuing years.
Some of the discussion of the kindle revolves around it being the iPod of the book world and whether it is, and whether that's as important or whatever as being an actual iPod and blah blah bleeping blah. Apparently, AAPL fans think AMZN is overvalued and point at the P/E to prove it. Me, I just point to Apple, Inc.'s corporate history to prove that while AAPL has had a good few years, and has had amazing years in the past, those brief periods of brisk profit-making have been separated by the doldrums of expensive, unpopular ideas like the Apple Newton. I knew people who luuuuurved the Newton and carried it for years and years. But that sucker didn't sell worth shit.
AMZN, by contrast, while it has had trouble making an actual profit, has at least gone consistently in one direction: a bottom line that goes straight up. True, that can always change, but until it does, AMZN is going to have a bit of an edge on AAPL, especially when you compare the relative age and health of their charismatic leaders.
To return to the wheeled white thing that was so crazy popular (and apparently, as popular as it was, causing me to buy AAPL after having seen a _lot_ of my friends get wiped out when their AAPL dropped. On two separate occasions.), I had previously bought stock (which changed names repeatedly) in companies that made mp3 players (I want to say Sonic Blue, but please don't expect me to remember details like that). Stock which had not performed well at all. But it didn't particularly bother me to try again. The device itself however bugged the crap out of people who owned mp3 players. They didn't like the wheel. They really didn't like the proprietary aspects. Blah blah bleeping blah.
And so, I return to the kindle. I think there are an awful lot of people out there watching their friends, family and random strangers reading happily on their $359 device. Gadget people, who are used to being first on the block. They _were_ first on the block to read e-books, online, on a phone, on a PDA, on their laptop, heck, even on a Sony Reader that they bought because they got a bunch of free books with it to justify it. And either they don't really read that much in terms of books, so its more of a stunt than an addiction (my initial theory), or they didn't much care for the experience, or they _did_ care for the experience and so don't understand why everyone isn't doing it the way they like to do it.
And yet.
Not only are people dedicated enough to this device to buy it once. They'll get in line to buy it _again_ less than 2 years later for essentially the same price. And a lot of those people with the kindle are _not_ gadget people. Just like a lot of the early iPodders were not your typical early adopter.
I think this kind of bothers the gadget guys. Actually, I think it feels like a bunch of peer pressure. And not in a good way. Okay, I get it. I'll back down a bit.
You know what I'm talking about. It has metastasized since then.
Around the time all my friends were buying one of these, I was planning my wedding, so I had a little free time on my hands (the kids came later, just like the rhyme says). I used some of that time to call my broker and say, buy me some AAPL, please. That decision at that time paid for a lot of free-spending in ensuing years.
Some of the discussion of the kindle revolves around it being the iPod of the book world and whether it is, and whether that's as important or whatever as being an actual iPod and blah blah bleeping blah. Apparently, AAPL fans think AMZN is overvalued and point at the P/E to prove it. Me, I just point to Apple, Inc.'s corporate history to prove that while AAPL has had a good few years, and has had amazing years in the past, those brief periods of brisk profit-making have been separated by the doldrums of expensive, unpopular ideas like the Apple Newton. I knew people who luuuuurved the Newton and carried it for years and years. But that sucker didn't sell worth shit.
AMZN, by contrast, while it has had trouble making an actual profit, has at least gone consistently in one direction: a bottom line that goes straight up. True, that can always change, but until it does, AMZN is going to have a bit of an edge on AAPL, especially when you compare the relative age and health of their charismatic leaders.
To return to the wheeled white thing that was so crazy popular (and apparently, as popular as it was, causing me to buy AAPL after having seen a _lot_ of my friends get wiped out when their AAPL dropped. On two separate occasions.), I had previously bought stock (which changed names repeatedly) in companies that made mp3 players (I want to say Sonic Blue, but please don't expect me to remember details like that). Stock which had not performed well at all. But it didn't particularly bother me to try again. The device itself however bugged the crap out of people who owned mp3 players. They didn't like the wheel. They really didn't like the proprietary aspects. Blah blah bleeping blah.
And so, I return to the kindle. I think there are an awful lot of people out there watching their friends, family and random strangers reading happily on their $359 device. Gadget people, who are used to being first on the block. They _were_ first on the block to read e-books, online, on a phone, on a PDA, on their laptop, heck, even on a Sony Reader that they bought because they got a bunch of free books with it to justify it. And either they don't really read that much in terms of books, so its more of a stunt than an addiction (my initial theory), or they didn't much care for the experience, or they _did_ care for the experience and so don't understand why everyone isn't doing it the way they like to do it.
And yet.
Not only are people dedicated enough to this device to buy it once. They'll get in line to buy it _again_ less than 2 years later for essentially the same price. And a lot of those people with the kindle are _not_ gadget people. Just like a lot of the early iPodders were not your typical early adopter.
I think this kind of bothers the gadget guys. Actually, I think it feels like a bunch of peer pressure. And not in a good way. Okay, I get it. I'll back down a bit.