It doesn’t sound like a problem that Kindle owners are people who still want to read books, does it? But it is. Take a look at the age distribution of Kindle owners. When movable type came out, the assumption was that people’s reading habits wouldn’t change: they’d still want to read the same ancient works that were “popular” before the printing press. When audio recording came out, the assumption was that we’d now be able to record live performances so that anyone could hear them. When film came out, we knew we’d be able to see plays even if we were far from Peoria. When videotape came out, we knew we’d be able to watch television shows even if we weren’t home when they aired.

Is the Kindle designed specifically for people who want to keep reading books the same way they’ve always read books? Are e-books all about just storing our paper in one compact place, but not changing the way we interact with it?

It seems to me that the Kindle is about reading books, rather than about reading. When iTunes came out, it wasn’t just a way of listening to our CDs, it was a way of listening to our music. Combined with the later iPod, it drastically changed how we interact with our music. Kindle appears to be about restricting readers to the book style of reading with more limited formats than books.

And what ever happened to Amazon Pages?