Will Canadians buy the Kindle?

Hey Danny, I agree with you, even though a Kindle seems like a very interesting product, I feel that my "old" books will look at me with an ugly "face"....crazy idea. As for waiting on the tablet to be launched, the only issue I see is that it will probably cost a lot more than the average kindle (US$ 260 now), even though it will offer a lot more than simply "reading txt". Best, Carlos.

I think the Kindle will re-define the way we read. I believe it is a wonderful usage of technical "know how" and the benefits have yet to be discovered. Young readers who have avoided reading now have an automatic assistant via the audio read option. Seniors who previously enjoyed reading may now once again enjoy reading as the font can be increased and the book can be electronically read if the reader has a medical limitation.

I think the graphics will move from single dimension to a three D imagery in the foreseeable future. The sketchy hand drawn imagery, typically seen in novels will be a think of the past.

I am buying one shortly and am extremely excited about using it while exercising, while in transit and uploading several books at a time. I simply can't imagine the convenience of a compact device that can maintain a virtual library. The music feature is also something that adds to the overall value of the product.

If the price point on the down-loadable material can be conservatively maintained then I think this will be a paradigm in how we collect, store and utilize text.

Too expensive for a small black and white screen and just a bit cheaper than a netbook. The next best thing will be the Apple Slate. A real computer in a tablet, that replace a Kindle, a netbook and the traditional laptop ... what most consumers need.

The Canadian version of the Kindle will suck big purple ones because Rogers will provide the service. Why is this a bad thing you may ask, well the Kindle is wifi enabled and in the states that web functionality is free on the kindle but here it wont be. Web browsing will be disabled except for access to Wikipedia until Rogers figures out how to screw you out of more internet access money. I'm not saying that I'd want the Kindle for web browsing but I want the option to do so on a wifi enabled device that I paid for.

I don't really understand all that fuss over Kindle. I've been reading books on my PDA for years. It's extremely convenient because it holds tons of books and is way smaller than the smallest paperback. I can totally start reading when I'm waiting for something, even if it's only 30 seconds. This Kindle is huuuuge. I can't imagine carrying that with me everywhere. When you read, it's actually not the screen size that matters, it's how you scroll. A small screen can still deliver clear, bright, big font, easy flow text that you read as if from a book. And a PDA can do way more than just books too ... for that, I'm willing to go through the trouble of downloading books through my computer.

Has anyone ever thought of opening a library on line? For $15 a year you get to download a book onto your computer or Kindle and not have to worry about getting the book back in time. No Late Fees. Or, has anyone in the library business thought of downloading at the local library? The future is coming whether we like it or not, and I can envision a paperless system. Already I get the paper on line. Why use paper, I only want the news. And who wants to move all those books, or clean them for that matter. Great idea. I'll just wait for the price to come down some more.

I bought a Kindle the day after they were available in Canada plus 2 more as gifts for my sons. Yes, I love the feel of books, but I live in the middle of nowhere. It is very difficult for me to get a book. It's 15 miles to the nearest drug store with their limited selection, and over an hour's drive to a Chapters. The local libraries, 15 miles away, have very limited open hours. Now I can have any book I want any time!
It seems to have endless features, like moving stuff from my computer to it, allowing me to delete a book with any notations I've made back to my account at amazon, where it is saved, with notations until I want it again. It holds 1500 books. It lies flat on an exercise machine or table when you're hands are busy. You don't have to try to weigh it down with something to keep the page open. I've barely scratched the surface, playing with it for a couple of days. It arrived 2 days after I ordered it. I can't say enough great things about it! It's the best new toy I've had since my first computer!

Like Java, I have been reading books on my PDA for several years now. It's probably about 70% of what I use it for and one of my main reasons for buying it, but I really like that it can do a lot of other things as well.

I can certainly understand the appeal of being able to cart around multiple books easily and read electronic texts on something less bulky than a laptop.

I remain "old school". As much as the idea of a Kindle or the like appeals, I live in an area where dial up is still the norm and downloading anything is next to impossible. Thi infrastructure is not in place and the cellular service is spotty at best. I can at least order a normal book form Chapters and have it in my mail box in a couple of days.

I will not buy a Kindle. They didn't want to do business with Canadians to start with. I bought a Sony e-reader instead. They are fantastic. Besides, we don't have Rogers wireless service here either so I'd be hooped anyway! We are so far out here in central BC, that we had to bring in our own wireless internet because NONE of the "big" names could be bothered.

And Chris, you hardly live in the middle of nowhere if you are lucky enough to have a Chapters only an hour away and the wireless service to download to your Kindle *wink*. The nearest Chapters to me is 3 hours (whine, snivel) but I usually shop online for books anyway.

I'm with you Ozilla! I don't live in the boonies though, I'm in a major city centre, but there's no way you'd get me to shell out money on that klunky Kindle. It's all hype in my opinion.
I can understand needing a wireless connection to download dailies (newspapers etc), but I get my news online for free already, so I won't be paying for an electronic newspaper. So that issue aside, I use my Sony E-Reader mostly to read novels, don't need wifi for that. Plus, when I buy a book and I download it to my computer I own that copy and no one can take it away from me, and I can make a back-up of my library.
My biggest beef with the Kindle though, is the lack of diversity, you can only get books through Amazon. At least Sony supports multiple formats, my public library offers a downloadable e-book library with membership, there's a TON of free books on the web if you know where to look. And if I'm buying, I can shop around to various ebook stores to get the best price.
I still love my paper book collection, but you can't beat the portability and storage capacity of a e-reader.
I also think Rogers is definately looking for a way to set up monthly payment plans to gouge the Kindle users too. Greedy buggers!

I purchased one the day it was available, I had it in my hands two days later, one of the better electronic devices I purchased, the battery is great and the screen is very clear and easy on the eyes and the overall build of the unit is great, I can order a book and have it in about a min. Lol now my wife wants one :)

I live in a major city center and I use the public library quite often. In terms of cost ya can't beat free (except for tax dollars). If you don't mind waiting for a book you can still eventually get it.
In response to Marlene, the public library I use also has digital books that are free to "borrow" for up to 21 days. Download the books to your home computer or PDA or book reader and if you exceed 21 days you lose access to the book or it automatically is "returned". There's not a huge selection but it is growing.

I heard that the Kindle doesn't offer a lot of book selections in Canada yet. Apparently even though we can buy the product a lot of the books which are available to buy in America and online cannot yet be bought on Kindle yet because Amazon hasn't managed to get their copyrights straight.

"So, after much complaining and wailing from Canadians, Amazon's Kindle has finally hit Canada." wtf is this about? no one in canada was complaining and wailing for this kindle thing to come because we knew that when it did we wouldnt have access to the same stuff americans do.

get your head out of your ass man and think like a person instead of some sheep that most americans are. you think we are all friendly up here and live in igloos and its winter yr round. well guess what a majority of us canadians are almost as bad as americas additude wise.

heck there are a lot of things we have that the americans dont have and they complain more than we do. ie we have free health care dont matter what you are disabled or not you are covered.

we have ubisoft thats right ubisoft is a canadian company bet you americas didnt know that did ya.

and there is more that is too long to list on here. think about it this way there has always been a debate between what the americans get and what we get. and there will always be a debate because american companies look at the states to buy but canadians would buy up what they have to sell down south way easier and faster than any american.

And you think I'm American because....?

Thanks for the great (and mostly polite) comments. I know that there were some libraries offering ebook loans for Sony eReader users in the US. I'd love to see that up here. Of course, that makes the whole idea of geographical proximity largely irrelevant. Wouldn't it be great to see a federal library that could make ebook loans to Canadians across the country?

I'm still waiting for the Kindle app to arrive for the iPhone. I think I'll probably end up just using that and saving myself the 300 bones for the dedicated hardware. Right now, I use Stanza, which is an excellent iPhone ebook app with links to a variety of online stores (such as Fictionwise) and public domain book databases. Today, I downloaded Dickens' Christmas Carol for free, and have been reading it to usher in the festive season. Lovely!

I think the next big idea would be to have digital downloads on books just like they do on dvd/bluray movies. On some movies (not a lot, I'll admit) they have a feature where, when you buy the movie you can also download the online format so you can watch it on your ipod and whatnot. If they started putting those on books, you could buy the book in a bookstore then go home and put it on your kindle or sony e-reader or whatever apple comes up with. I love my books and would never want to trade them for e-books.. but if I could have both, and not have to pay double for it: fantastic, I'm in.

When you say to 'buy' a book to read on Kindle you do not actually mean that the book is yours do you? Did you hear how Amazon wiped out George Orwell's book from everyone's Kindle after the people had paid for them and thought that they owned the book. YOU DO NOT OWN THE BOOK and Amazon can delete any book they want from your Kindle; that is your agreement with them.
Me I am sticking with paper.

I agree with jlandon.
I looove my books, so my whole issue with the e-readers is that I don't have the hardcopy! It would be awesome to have two versions of a book - you can still maintain that beautiful library in your homes, while having accress to the e-version while on the go!
They do that with lots of textbooks too for school..it would be awesome if they extended that to books..
The tangible book along with the intangible e-book..that's my vote.

Both My wife and I are avid readers . Although, we like to do our part for the environment ..Many who believe this is the answer, are fooling themselvses,these e-books will eat up batteries to which there are few ,if any place ,,at all, to dispose of to preserve the environment. Not to mention how many of these units will also endup in a land fill themselves. Todays cellphones ,Ipods andeven simple headphones for these ipods say it all , more toys with a very short life built in,,,,Hence, while I pass my third generation of leather bound Charles Dickens to my grandchildren. Think long and hard ,we are worse than our parents who only bought what they needed, and hardly wasted anything and we blame them for the environmental problems ,,,hmmmm,,,Besides ,nothing beats that image of only a few pages left , before you find out what happens in the end .... I am sure avid readers will agree!!!!
As well , we need to manage our forests ,now that we do not allow nature through things like forest fires to manage itself....think about it ,,,,and happy reading no matter how you do it,,,,,,

Ps - there IS a kindle app on the iPhone - I don't kno how it works though, or anything at all about it!

@Avid Reader - thanks for a thoughtful post. Thinking about the environmental cost of manufacture is called lifecycle analysis (LCA), and it's something that people often forget to do. Analyst firms are starting to consider this more and more when advising companies on environmental policies and evaluating vendors' green credentials.
@Sharda - yes! There's a Kindle app for the iphone, but the last time I looked, it was still unavailable in Canada. Just checked it again, though, and they've unlocked it north of the border!! So now us iPhone users can read to our heart's content without having to fork out for an expensive ereader.

Danny, FYI in BC anyone with a library card can access a large selection of ebooks for free. So it's not just south of the border....

@goaliegirl - so they can! I just checked the catalogue, and they have 2800 ebooks for download. Not too shabby. I hope the numbers expand, but it's a healthy start. It strikes me that this is great for people with disabilities, too, who may find it hard to get to their local library as often as they'd like.

I see that BC libraries offer audiobooks too. Excellent news.

d