Halogen Network

Just got a Kindle from Amazon. So this will probably kill off the last of my print-based subscriptions or purchases (even at airports), with the exception of the Sunday NYTimes. I actually read through the manual on this device, something I rarely do – so was using the device within 30 minutes.

Great screen, decent navigation, impressive array of content – and also like, for travel, the ability to send a document to a Kindle email and get the attachment on the device to be read on the plane or over the weekend.

Biggest disappointment is design – it’s a Buick to Apple’s BMW. Packaging and first product impressions not that cool or buzz worthy. Integration to Amazon, one-click etc all very strong.

I am having a hard time holding it in both hands and not by mistake clicking on the page forward bar, which is annoying. Need to see how others handle it. Bottom-line: looking forward to see if it becomes indispensable (like all my Apple devices) over a summer of lots of business and vacation travel.

But back to the airport: when traveling, I usually buy print copies of the WSJ and NYTimes, and as the same time when in the store, pick up some magazines – Robb Report, Architectural Digest, Travel and Leisure etc. But this trip, no need to buy the newspapers, since I was carrying Kindle – so no opportunity to grab the magazines.

So, I am not suggesting that Kindle kills off magazines – just that technology continues to encroach on the need to buy and read them, and the pace of that encroachment is accelerating. For luxury marketers, the implications are obvious – these new devices are in the hands of their customers and prospects, but the medium is different. While you can subscribe to magazines on a Kindle – like Forbes – glossy real estate or travel ads won’t look great.

I used to think that magazines like DuPont Registry had a future – albeit a diminished one – as the print magazine read at airports and in dentists’ waiting rooms. Even that future looks uncertain.