KINDLE - Makes sense, a lot of sense!

Amazon.com, world’s biggest & the best on-line supermarket has started shipping “Kindle” to India.

Anyone with a credit-card can log on to Amazon.com and order one or more sets, from almost anywhere in the world. Kindle for Indian orders will cost $ 387.57 apiece. That includes the gadget’s cost of $ 259, Shipping & Handling of $ 20.98 and a $ 98.59 advance towards Import duties (taxes).

In my opinion, the tax component, which works out to more than 38% is quite high. More so when printed books / periodicals attract hardly any duty. However, it is unlikely that any traders forum or association will object. One, because they have nothing to gain but a lot to lose (IF Kindle affects sale of printed items), two, as Amazon is, traditionally unwilling to part with re-distribution commissions.

So, do not expect any cutbacks anytime soon. Many of our friends / relatives fly down to India around this time of the year. They can pick a Kindle up for you & possibly save you about 4.5K in the process. Make sure though that they pick up ONLY the “International, with wireless version“. Click on the lady’s image on your right, to go to Kindle’s home page.

Is Kindle worth the investment (roughly 19K, will vary with dollar fluctuations)? Don’t take my word for it, yet. Esquire magazine’s Stephen Marche  presented a very unique point of view, in his WSJ article. A must read before you take a decision.

Apart from the obvious technological leap, as with most revolutionary items which changed our lives forever (Spreadsheets on computers, CDs / MP3 / iPod / Pen-Drives / Google Search etc.), an e-book reader like Kindle makes a lot of sense for the book-loving middle-class Indian. Let me list down a few below.

1. As expalined by Stephen, the Kindle allows you to have a really huge library, in a “hand-held” device. Given the restrictions we have on space – at home or work, this is a winner, just like iPod.

2. It does reduce the user’s carbon footprint. One can read without switching on a light. Paper, which is made from wood & chemicals, is not required. Printed books are heavy – so a lot of energy is burnt in moving them from the press to your reading desk. Finally, storage requirements (anywhere in the supply-chain) are drastically reduced, saving huge amounts of energy and resource use. Not a bad way to help India get Greener, right?

3. This is probably the most important incentive (again, for a certain class of people). We know how reading (books) habits are on the wane. Most teenagers read little beyond their text-books. They simply find the electronic (on-screen) format much more interesting. Kindle can, true to it’s name, Re-kindle the experience of reading.

The system (of wireless access / downloads) works in India, so there’s nothing to worry about it, yet. I can personally vouch for Amazon’s truly amazing cutomer-service, very efficient support infrastructure & unimaginably vast repertoire. You probably cannot find a better on-line store!

Though Kindle’s core offer is e-books, you must not forget that it also offers many newspapers and magazines. Pretty soon you’ll be able to read many local publications, on the go. To a large extent Kindle is also future-proof, as OS / Firmware upgrades will allow many new features and options, just like any other web-device.

I am impatiently awaiting for my Kindle to arrive. Will update this blog as soon as I lay my hands on it In the meanwhile, if any of you are already using it in India, do let us know your feedback.

Thanks for reading.

DISCLAIMER: This blog has NO COMMERCIAL or other FINANCIAL links with M/s Amazon.com or any of it’s affiliates in any part of the world. The author/s have or are in the process of acquiring the reviewed item by paying personally, in full, the price mentioned (Sticker Price / Tag / MRP) on the product-package / price-list / on-line catalogue, for retail customers. The views are of personal nature and cannot be interpreted as a sales pitch / promotion. All embedded links are available in the public domain without requirement of any premium / memberships.