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Since this is getting a lot of visibility, I would like to ask - How many of you like the e-book reading experience in the Kindle or with the Kindle reader apps

Since this is getting a lot of visibility, I would like to ask - How many of you like the e-book reading experience in the Kindle or with the Kindle reader apps on other devices? To me, I hated the high quantity of low quality of work I was doing at Amazon. I worked for Kindle e-books division. Most of the times the product managers were giving random suggestions, and the managers mostly spent time impressing higher level management rather than delivering the best experience for the customer. I felt like being in the midst of a bunch of folks who weren't excited about the e-books space and that they were mostly there because they had a good pay and were able to dance the dance. Internal politics was a big thing and the more I licked my managers boots by answering his midnight calls/mails the more he liked me. Adding even a small feature to enhance the reading experience needed sign-offs from a gazillion teams who would sometimes not agree to just Quality Validate because there wasn't enough time for them. The environment was toxic and no team wanted the other teams to perform well.

parasubvert 11y ago
I find the Kindle ebook layouts are "meh" and miss, so will tend to lean towards iBooks or Kobo when I can lately. PDF is best but tends to be slower to render. Though the vast majority of my e-library is on Kindle. Device wise, I have an old 2nd generation Kindle for beach use but mostly use my iPad and Laptop. The Voyage and latest Paperwhite look interesting but I'd rather have a device that supported EPUB without me jumping through hoops. So I guess I'd say "it's adequate". Early Kindle days I was a brand loyalist, but not these days... probably a mix of quality issues and Amazon's overall monopoly position.
- kindleguy 11y ago
  Actually nobody cared to ask a majority of users their opinions in what was wrong with Kindle.. Any survey would only be towards a subset of users who like the Kindle because they most likely got it for free from Amazon. This feeds into an ecosystem which gives them the impression that everything is right while in reality, they can do much much better. I hope your comments on layout get enough visibility.

parasubvert 11y ago

I find the Kindle ebook layouts are "meh" and miss, so will tend to lean towards iBooks or Kobo when I can lately. PDF is best but tends to be slower to render. Though the vast majority of my e-library is on Kindle. Device wise, I have an old 2nd generation Kindle for beach use but mostly use my iPad and Laptop. The Voyage and latest Paperwhite look interesting but I'd rather have a device that supported EPUB without me jumping through hoops. So I guess I'd say "it's adequate". Early Kindle days I was a brand loyalist, but not these days... probably a mix of quality issues and Amazon's overall monopoly position.

kindleguy 11y ago
Actually nobody cared to ask a majority of users their opinions in what was wrong with Kindle.. Any survey would only be towards a subset of users who like the Kindle because they most likely got it for free from Amazon. This feeds into an ecosystem which gives them the impression that everything is right while in reality, they can do much much better. I hope your comments on layout get enough visibility.