Competition Destroys the Kindle - or Why the Kindle Touch is Pocketful of Fail

My first experience with the Amazon Kindle was with Model #2. Since then a Kindle has the following features: keyboard, e-ink screen, free internet connection, mp3 player, audible audiobook player, web browser, wireless delivery of books, wireless delivery of personal documents, text to speech and custom apps/active content.

With the Kindle Model 3 we see Amazon reacting to the market. They removed 3g from the basic model - if nook doesn't need it they don't, they removed the number keys from they keyboard -if the ipad doesn't need number keys then we don't, they did add a webkit browser but they stopped allowing the browser to access file urls.

Needless to say their sales responded, 3g model sold less than wi-fi model. The Nook became popular with the press because it didn't have a keyboard and was shorter, consumer reports says that even though Nook didn't have web browser, apps, mp3, text to speech, e-mail delivery of documents, audiobook it was a better product.

So Amazon responded, they removed 3g, keyboard, text to speech, mp3, 3rd party apps and audio support. While smashing through the mystical $99 price point. So they produced the best e-reader which I reviewed here.

The e-reader was excellent but it was no longer a "Kindle". My son could no longer pick it up anywhere and search google for images of characters from his favorite tv show. He couldn't click a button and have the book read it him, he couldn't listen to his "The Incredible Adventures of Jack Flanders" radio drama, he couldn't play Chess.

At this point you can now understand why Amazon is selling 5 different e-ink models instead of the 1 they had just 30 months ago because they are trying to respond to the press and market pressures. They are trying to sell their UNIQUE device the Kindle. While every review has them competing with the Kobo Touch, Kobo Wifi and the Nook Simple Touch.

Amazons' response was two parts, the first was their $79 reader that took a classic Kindle and ripped out everything that had a marginal cost of greater than zero cents that was required for it to be an e-reader. Even the power adapter and and 1/2 the memory was removed. The second part was the Kindle Touch.

The Kindle Touch is Amazon's attempt to put the UNIQUE features of the Kindle into a $99 package that has a touch screen like its "competitors". Unfortunately its for us its a "Pocketful of Fail". The reviews are positive because reviewers aren't Kindle users, they aren't readers. They don't understand that earlier Kindles had many features that they never noticed or reviewed. See this awesome positive review from Wired and the assumptions it contains. Such as "Gone as well are the page-turning buttons as users, even infants, assume and insist the screen be the sole interface"

First I must state that what I mean by a "Pocketful of Fail" I simply mean that it is worse not better than the previous Kindle. The reason this upsets me is that I fear that Amazon will eliminate the previous models leaving us only with a reduced device.

Since I have K2, K3 -3g, and k4 I am able to compare the Kindle Touch to all of them.

The Kindle Touch does 1 significant thing better than previous kindles. The touch screen allows you better control when reading PDF files. So if want to view lots of PDF's such as the ones provided by google books the Kindle Touch is your e-reader.

In ever other significant point the Kindle Touch is reduction in functionality from the Kindle 3, now called the Kindle Keyboard. The reason the Kindle Touch is not a upgrade from the Kindle 3 is that its a total software rewrite and not an upgrade as Amazon implies by calling it firmware version 5. I haven't read any reviews or news or insider information to support this belief but I will lay down the supporting evidence. (Update: New software now verified by

outside source).

Lets talk about the significant reductions in functionality

1. You can't rotate the screen - ie. no landscape mode
2. no volume/page turn/menu/ or 5 way controller buttons
3. The maximum volume for audio books is reduced significantly along with speaker quality
4. You can no longer browse the internet on 3g
5. 3rd Party Apps don't Run

I think these changes speak to a total rewrite of the software. There is no reason to remove landscape viewing mode especially when the smaller form factor makes it so much more appealing as I pointed out in my $79 Kindle hands on review. In an ideal world the software of the old kindle would all be there but you could now touch as well as use the 5 way controller, they could then just add the pinch and zoom functionality to make it better.

As a experienced project manager I can see in my minds eye what happened. Jeff said just add these touch zones and pinch and zoom to our touch screen version and we release Nov 2011. They started and realized that they couldn't be sure that they could deliver on the extra required functionality but they could take a tablet web browser and customize it to the kindle. They just used their current interface as their specs.

If you look closely this is what they did. For example it makes no sense that the "Menu" button is at the top of the Kindle Touch instead of near the bottom by the physical "Home" button. It stops you from being able to manage it one handed. With the K4 -($79) you can stop reading a book and then browse through the kindle store one handed, you can't do this with the touch.

Notice that the excellent and useful "back" button functionality that exists in all previous Kindle Models is gone. Also notice that the UI is not optimized for Touch. I.E. no intelligent utilization of fitts's law (unless you think they used it so you are always accidentally touching the special offer) which shows that the designers were told keep it just like the old Kindle's so we don't get crap from users and reviewers for changing everything. (The fact that most reviews don't even notice that landscape mode is gone tell us how much the quality of tech reporting has dropped since the days of Byte).

Lets look at some more changes for the worse. In all previous models of the kindle you could go through your list of books and your long web pages using the same physical actions you used when reading books. You could scroll through using the next page and previous page button which would move it up or down by one screen. With the Touch you can't use previous and next touches you have to swipe up or down, on the book list it moves by one page but in the web browser it doesn't move up by a full screen sometimes its hard to get it to move up or down even 1/3 of a screen this makes the web browser significantly worse than the previous model.

When you are in the web browser you lose the ability to scale the page by the menu, you can only do it using pinch and zoom. Also in the web browser if your focus changes to a textbox the on screen keyboard come up but for some reason the browser decides to automatically zoom in the web page about 300%. It doesn't go back once you lose focus so as far as I am concerned the browser is broken.

My final evidence that this is a total software rewrite is that the screen refreshes look different and much less sharp even when you put it in refresh every page. It starts to melt away then it forces the full refresh. This indicates to me significant low level changes.

This review might seem like I am harping on small things but details matter. The Kindle Touch is using 1.0 software and it shows. My recommendation don't purchase it yet. If you want full functionality get a Kindle Keyboard, if you just want to read books get the Kindle you will be very happy with either of those models.

If you don't believe me note the Amazon reviews of the Kindle and Kindle Keyboard are higher than the Kindle Touch.

Final note: After using the $79 Kindle for a month the extra weight of the Kindle Touch feels like carrying around a brick.