OMG I ordered a Kindle!

Holy shit guys. I ordered a Kindle. I was pretty locked on getting the Apple tablet, until the thing was actually announced. (See my previous posts for more on the anticipation and disappointment.)

It all happened yesterday when I was half-thinking about getting a B&N Nook but found out that its 3G won't work in Hong Kong. And then last night I've worked out that the time is now for e-readers and (after some more research) I submitted my online order for the Amazon Kindle 2. It'll be shipped on premium shipping for US$20 and arrive in two days. Pretty fast I say.

Here're my reasonings for getting it:

- Save shipping costs on book purchases. I regularly order books on Amazon.com which I can't find in local bookstores. (Yes this includes ALL poker books since gambling related prints are restricted here.) On average each box costs about $40USD in shipping. On top of that, the ebook discount over paper books are anywhere between 25-75%. On guesstimate it'll take only 3-4 orders of what-would-be paper books to fully fund the cost of the Kindle ($279.98). (edit: this is about 18-24 books.)

- Save delivery time on book purchases. This one is pretty obvious. A paper book takes 10-14 days to get here compared to under 60 seconds for ebooks.

- Free internet in many many places globally. On top of the seamless access to the Kindle bookstore, Kindle offers free internet browsing and Wikipedia use in many places.

- Ease of carry/use. I can't bring many books and magazines to a poker tournament but I can bring one Kindle.

- Battery life. 7 days of use is awesome. My bottomline is it'll need to last at least one long haul flight. iPad fails miserably.

Here're my concerns:

- One trick pony. Yes despite executing very well (or almost perfectly), Kindle has one and only one main function.

- Black and grey. Once in a while I might miss color.

- Durability. I expect to carry this thing around quite a bit, meaning I would expect a few bangs and drops. Let's hope the e-ink doesn't spill.

That's my quick preview guys. I'll do some in-depth review later. Or I might just post a link to Engadget.