What have you been doing on November 19, 2007? Six years from now doesn’t seem too far, but when it comes to technology it’s an endless abyss.
Amazon launched on that day a first generation Kindle e-reader – “a revolutionary portable reader that wirelessly downloads books, blogs, magazines and newspapers to a crisp, high-resolution electronic paper display that looks and reads like real paper, even in bright sunlight.”
On a first day Kindle became a No. 1 bestselling item in the Kindle Store. “Want it delivered Tuesday, November 20? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout.” – this sounds like being inside some kind of time machine.
Browsing Amazon back on November 19, 2007 wakes in me exactly the same feelings as when looking at the book bought 30 years ago. Time flies. Print books resist it much better, and they get older in a more stylish way.
Getting vintage clearly belongs to everything paper, no matter how much you try to apply it to electronics.
Nevertheless, it’s a wonderful moment when you realize that thanks to devices such as that white plastic e-reader with a weird design, reading books in a flood of online content was made possible, and proved to be more popular than anyone could have imagined.
Below there is just one screenshot of the Amazon’s page with the Kindle. Thanks to Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, you can read it, as well as explore Amazon site in real as it was six years ago.
⇢ Wayback Machine: Amazon Kindle product page – Nov 19, 2007, 17:45:59
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