But the bigger issue with the Kindle platform is the inability to mimic the usefulness of a large, graphics-heavy reference book. It has a tiny screen that isn't good for viewing larger diagrams, and its tools for quickly flipping through pages or jumping back and forth between specific parts of the book are pathetic when compared with using a real book.
In terms of popular digital devices, the Kindle is the most puzzling to me. It was an innovative and groundbreaking technology when it was introduced 8 years ago, and all we've seen since then are the most boring and incremental improvements. Some have even been major missteps, as evidenced by the removal of physical page-turning buttons, only to have them return in the latest model.
Imagine if smartphones, tablets, wearables, or laptops had undergone such a severe lack of innovation in the past 8 years. How the product leadership of the Kindle team isn't fired and replaced with people who have real vision is a complete mystery to me.
I thought Bezos was supposed to be a hard-ass, but from an outsider's perspective it seems like he's totally fine with them barely lifting a finger to collect their paychecks.
You're clearly conflating Kindle (the device) with Kindle (the ebook store).
A bit off-topic, but I couldn't get at all interested in Kindles until the Kindle Fire, because that was the first time it would render O'Reilly books correctly, or render something like a resistor color code correctly. I love having a programmer's reference library in my laptop bag.
