Amazon decided to inject the Kindle Scribe into the Kindle lineup at the end of 2022, and now the Scribes seem to get all of Amazon’s attention, despite being the least popular Kindles by a wide margin.
Most software updates these days revolve around adding new features to the Kindle Scribes, while other Kindles mostly get stuck with a constant stream of random changes to the UI that nobody seems to like.
Amazon has released 5 different Kindle Scribe models over the course of 3.5 years since it was first introduced. During that same time, Amazon has released 1 Kindle Paperwhite, 1 Kindle Colorsoft, and 1 basic Kindle.
Granted, the Paperwhite and Colorsoft both have upgraded Signature Editions available, but they’re still the same generation. And the basic Kindle is nearly identical to the model that preceded it, so much so Amazon doesn’t consider it a new generation.
Plus they mostly reused the designs of previous models for the regular Kindles, while the latest Scribes got completely revamped designs and new exclusive features. The Scribes have clearly been getting priority in the development process and the software department for several years now.
Amazon probably sells 100x more regular Kindles than Kindle Scribes, but for reasons I’ve never been able to understand, Amazon keeps pushing the Kindle Scribes like they’re the best thing going.
If you go to the main Kindle landing page on Amazon’s website, the Kindle Scribe gets top billing above all other Kindles in the advertising department.
I’ve been saying since the beginning there aren’t many ways for Amazon to monetize things like notetaking and annotating PDFs, so why are they so adamant about selling Scribes to begin with? Sometimes I think they got into the eNote business just so they could sell overpriced cases and other accessories, but that’s hard to do when very few people are buying Kindle Scribes.
I think people would be more interested in new Kindle devices with unique features and options than new Kindle Scribes. I’m surprised Amazon hasn’t done more to bring some variety to the Kindle lineup. A lot more people would be interested in buying a new Kindle Oasis or a mini Kindle than a Kindle Scribe. Do we really need three different versions of the least popular Kindle model (actually 4 since they’re still selling the 2024 model)? It simply doesn’t make sense.
I would love to see an 8” Kindle. I have a PocketBook Inkpad 3 Color with a 7.8” screen and the size is, for me anyway, perfect. Unfortunately the OS of the PB is way underpowered and glitchy so I don’t use it much anymore.
I miss the Kindle Oasis! I will not use the other Kindles. Would my Kindle Oasis dies or when they stop supporting it, I’m moving on to another e-reader.
Probably they want to take over the e-note segment because the profit margin is a lot bigger there. I’m not really sure if it’s a good idea, but the Scribe as an ereader certainly isn’t one. We learnt that with the unsellable Kobo Elipsa line.
Maybe that’s why Kobo keeps pushing the small Clara iterations instead, because they sell the best. Not to mention the booming popularity of the even smaller Xteink devices.
I believe in the area of note taking devices, it’s still a lot to change, add, tweak. Especially when we compare Scribes to Onyx and Remarkable products. And the latter is struggling now, which for Amazon is a potential opportunity.
Not a lot can be gained with standard Kindles – just minor improvements here and there. They introduce more software features rather than innovative hardware. For the fans of BW screens K11 and Paperwhite are still fantastic devices. There is room for improvement when it comes to color screens though. However, we will need to wait (probably) several years for any ground-breaking tech for a reasonable price to be introduced (mass-market-wise).
I was holding out for the scribe until they restricted the kindle books so much it made me feel like I don’t own the books Inhave bought from Kindle. It also made me realise that they can retrospectively roll out changes to restrict their products at any time. I am now looking to invest in a boox product instead which has the eink technolodgy, note taking ability as well as the ability to download Apps from android or apple stores. How on earth can Kindle scribe compete with that kind of versatility when it is moving in an entirely different direction
I guess some of the Amazon execs really loved their Scribble 😀
Or they are trying to pushing this to corporate customers as go to solutions for note taking, as you can see on the scribble amazon page.
I don’t think they are prioritizing Scribe at all. They haven’t launched it in most countries. In India, they’ll have huge sales numbers if they introduce it. I just want them to launch a Scribe which I can use to write using handwriting and dictation capabilities. The microphone is there and I expect them to introduce the STT feature soon.
Their marketing doesn’t make sense to me. I can tell you that the Scribe will never become popular for note taking for college students. All of them are using tablets both for reading PDFs and for taking notes. Or they use laptops. I have never seen people use them in a corporate setting, either.
Amazon doesn’t care about their core customers. I stopped expecting another Oasis-like e-reader from them. I am not interested in the low-quality, dark color screens they have been pushing.
It is a big disappointment that I am about to sell. Too big for reading and the miniscule amount of books you can markup. An 8″ Paperwhite and I will come back.
I am glad to see that they are working on the Scribe, trying to make it a mature device. I think it is a great platform. Better to have them focus on it from the start than to just release it and then forget about it, like kobo has with their e-notetaker. Regular kindles are pretty well developed, so it is difficult to come up with new features unless they start to steal ideas from other brands. They just need to work on fixing the broken parts of the regular kindles.
I guess Amazon wanted to be an important actor in the big eInk tablet, even if it’s a niche market.
But you’re right, most people would like Amazon to invest more time in the usual Kindle models.