When I travel with my original Amazon Kindle I am content to know that I have more ‘content’ than I could ever read if I did nothing but read for two weeks straight. It’s still a bit aggravating that during takeoff and landing (or below 10,000 feet altitude) Kindles have to be put in the ‘off’ position. That’s when non-digital magazines/newspapers and non-digital books elbow their way back into play. There can only be a problem if the Kindle (or any e-reader or tablet) doesn’t work for whatever reason.

So there I was on my way to Asia, fully loaded up with books on my Kindle that I wanted to read on the 15+ hour flight. I opened the cover only to see an unwelcome image – the Kindle works no more. The current Kindle I have is my third one as the first two I had shortly after the launch in November 2007 (oh yes – Happy Birthday Amazon Kindle) did not work and the third time was the charm. Until now that is.

I haven’t tried as yet but it’s hard for me to believe Amazon is going to replace the now nearly four-year old Kindle with one that works. In fact I have posited that Amazon missed opportunities to re-market to me when ‘newer’ versions of the Kindle arrived. Perhaps a discount for a newer model might have motivated me to upgrade to a newer and supposedly better model.

I was already going to order a new Amazon Kindle Fire; I just did not think that it would be requirement for me to read the books I had already purchased on the Amazon platform. Amazon has done a good job of vertically integrating the new offerings with a Kindle tablet at as little as $80. Apparently Amazon loses money on each Kindle it sells as well as it loses $ 11/subscriber to the Amazon Prime $79 shipping service. It’s mildly interesting that Amazon has been able to leverage the idea of ‘Lose money but make it up in volume’ idea.

David Pogue of the New York Times writes in Monday November 14th’s paper http://nyti.ms/tuhYMT about the benefits of the Kindle platform. I agree with much of Mr. Pogue’s feeling on the entire Kindle platform – but he neglects to mention what happens when one’s Kindle or Kindle Fire is extinguished.

Kindle’s breaking down has to happen to other people doesn’t it? Can I be the only unlucky one – three times?