Have you heard of Amazon.com’s Kindle? If you have would you want to own one? For those who aren’t familiar with the latest high tech gadget Kindle is an electronic book device sold by Amazon.com that currently sells for $359.00. The Kindle made it’s debut last November and sold for $400.00.

According to SeattlePI.com an investment bank asked over 300 internet users whether they would buy a digital book reader. Seventy one percent said no. Price was the biggest obstacle. I guess so.

Price will have to fall for Kindle’s fortunes to rise
E-book reader’s cost slows sales

By ANDREA JAMES
P-I REPORTER

The Kindle will probably never be as popular as the iPod, but Amazon.com thinks it has potential to be as industry-changing.

But before that can happen, electronic book devices will have to cost a lot less, according to a research note published Friday by Piper Jaffray.

The investment bank asked 344 Internet users in June whether they would buy a digital book reader. Most of them — 71 percent — said no.

Though the same number of people said they didn’t want one regardless of price, Piper Jaffray found that the Kindle’s $360 price tag is a “major obstacle.” Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc. makes Kindle. A competing device, the Sony eBook Reader, costs $300.

The most that 30 percent of the survey respondents would pay was $100. Sixty percent of those surveyed wouldn’t want one, even if it were free.

The U.S. market for the Kindle is worth between $760 million and $4.5 billion. The high estimate assumes that a $100 Kindle would be quite popular, according to the research.

When Kindle debuted in November at $400, it sold out in hours. The device went back on sale in April. Piper Jaffray’s findings matched previous predictions that the cost would have to fall below $200 before an electronic reader would be more widely adopted.

You can read the entire article here.

They would have to bring the Kindle down to at least $150.00 before I would even think about buying one. The Kindle does look cool though. The thought of being able to read various newspapers, books and blogs on one digital device sounds very interesting.