“Kindle has been in the making for 17 years, almost to this day, by the way… At the time of its launch, Kindle reinvented reading.” It’s a bold claim, but Panos Panay has never been one to play it safe. He is known for his career at Microsoft, where he helped radically change the company’s design approach and promoted projects like Surface. He’s now at Amazon, heading up the Devices and Services department, which includes brands like Echo, Fire TV, Ring, and, of course, Kindle.
It’s almost hard to imagine a time when Amazon wasn’t a leading manufacturer of hardwareBut in 2004, when Jeff Bezos instructed his company’s employees to make the world’s best e-reader before their competitors did, Amazon was little more than a bookstore. on-line. The move to devices as a way to increase Amazon’s profits in other areas of business became a model of sorts, with the Kindle being the pioneer.
Of course, it also achieved Bezos’ goal. But in recent years, its competitors have regained the ground that the company had so carefully paved, even its products surpassed Kindle in several aspects. Brands like reMarkable entered the e-reader market with writing capabilities several years before the launch of Kindle Scribe, and earlier this year, Kobo, Kindle’s main competitor, beat it in color; just like Onyx and PocketBook before it.
As the Kindle Colorsoft prepares for its launch on October 30WIRED asked Panay if he thinks the company has waited too long to take the step. It turns out that Amazon had been working on the device for more than two years.
A few months after the first Kobo with a color screen, Amazon’s rivals respond with the same coin. And more new Kindles are coming for all tastes.
It’s not speed, it’s quality
“We didn’t want any slowness in the product. We didn’t want to compromise the reading experience in any way. Until we had it perfect, without any of the issues that usually come with E Ink color, we weren’t going to launch it,” Panay said.
The executive does not clarify whether he is suggesting that Kindle competitors have these problems, but the implication is there. It’s not something that was noted in WIRED’s review of the Kobo Libra Color, but several Reddit threads propose that Panay is correct. Of course, this doesn’t change the fact that waiting for this ‘supposed perfection’ allowed Kindle’s competitors to carve out a new market before them, something that should have been achieved long ago. And that had to have hurt, even if just a little.
If so, it is not clear. Amazon remains steadfast in its belief that “now is the right time,” adding that one of the reasons it took so long is that it is not using a standard panel for the Colorsoft Kindle. He hardware Customization does not come quickly or cheaply, even if that means ceding leadership to the competition. But Kevin Keith, vice president of Devices and Services, believes the time and investment was worth it.
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