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Okay, I admit it. I have a severe, over the top lust for the Amazon Kindle. As a new business startup things are tight so, like others whose tweet’s I’ve watched, I too have hovered over that Buy Now button on Amazon’s site several times. However unlike them, I’ve not pressed it. Last week, Amazon released to the iPhone App store a free version of their Amazon Kindle reader. HOORAY! Thanks Amazon, I can delay buying the real one, hopefully till you release the Kindle 3 without a physical keyboard but with one more like the iPhone’s (HEY AMAZON… hint, hint, hint… and I’d be a GREAT beta tester… hint… hint… hint).

I read my first ebook cover to cover on my Dell Axim. So the screen size is not a huge issue for me at this point. It was actually my reading on the Dell Axim that provided the convenience that actually got me back into reading books regularly. So, anyways I downloaded the iPhone Kindle software and thus far I have to say I am very impressed. I read another blog post by Don Reisinger reviewing several other popular ebook readers available for the iPhone and found I disagree. So here’s my two cents worth as far as what I like about Amazon’s offering:

1. Perhaps the biggest perk for me is that books I buy on Amazon now for the Kindle I can read on my iPhone and on that glorious day when a real Kindle is mine I have them for it as well.
2. Simplicity. Others rave over the Stanza or eReader, both of which are free like the Kindle software for the iPhone. I tried them as soon as the App store opened and found them uninteresting and a little too complicated. The simplicity of the iPhone’s overall interface was carried well into Amazon’s Kindle software.
3. Ease of getting books to the iPhone for Kindle. I was really impressed when I chose a sample chapter from a book and indicated I wanted it sent to my iPhone. Shazaam! It was in the list of available books. One of my complaints with the other readers was the complicated process to get books into the reader. While I couldn’t find any that let me buy right through the actual app, I found the buy it on Amazon and it gets sent to your phone to be simple enough.
4. Reading screen itself. For some reason, the Kindle software for iPhone just looks better on my screen in it’s stock install. I guess I could tweak the others and find something similar, but why should I have to. I think someone actually spent some time reading on the Kindle for iPhone and that’s why it has a better stock interface for reading. The Stanza and eReader seem to be a bit behind here. eReader needs to adjust their spacing between lines. I understand they are trying to fit more on the screen, but one of the big wins for the iPhone Kindle is the leading between lines. The Stanza has a way to increase it and tweak the font, size, etc. but I think the Kindle format is fine as it is loaded.
5. Margins. This seems simple, but it makes a big difference. The Kindle has some margins around the edge of the screen. I’m guessing Stanza and eReader want to show a maximized approach to screen utilization. I remember a comparision of the difference getting from one place to the other would make speeding verses doing the speed limit in the city. It was pretty sobering to realize the risk of speeding would only buy me a minute or two. Same for the screen readers in my mind. The margins around the edge maybe only get me one more line on the screen, but having the margins seems to massively increase the readability overall in my opinion.
6. While Don Reisinger applauded the scroll bar for pages I find it irritating and unnecessary. It’s a nice feature but one I doubt I would use. Keeping with my old rule of tech/multimedia “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”

My only fear at this point relates back to an eBook I purchased on Amazon and after several years of not looking at it I went back to view it and was unable to. First problem was they were using Adobe’s stupid edoc reader (not just a standard PDF) and the computer I had the document on was gone… crashed… finito. So the book was no longer accessible without re-downloading it to satisfy Adobe’s specs. When I tried to find it I could not and contacted Amazon. They informed me that the publisher (and a major one) had terminated the contract and they were no longer able to provide access to the book. So basically it was tough luck dude! I was pissed, but there was nothing anyone could do.

I’m hoping the Kindle and Kindle for iPhone have better service for this side of the issue, but for now I’m in love with my iPhone version of the Kindle and will (finally) have a screen reader I feel I can use. Thanks Amazon!