Each time there’s a difficulty or loads of detrimental critiques surrounding a brand new Kindle or a Kindle-related product, Amazon places up a “We Need You To Know” disclaimer on their web site.
This has occurred a number of occasions through the years, and now Amazon has two “We Need You To Know” warnings on their web site relating to the brand new Kindles for 2024, and a kind of warnings changed a earlier warning so there’s really three.
The Kindle Colorsoft is getting flamed by reviewers at Amazon due to the frontlight difficulty. It has a 2.7-star ranking with practically 1500 critiques. Earlier than that hit, there was a “We Need You To Know” warning concerning the Colorsoft not supporting full darkish mode, however I assume they don’t need to have two disclaimers up on the identical time.
In addition they lately added a disclaimer to the product web page for the overpriced premium leather-based cowl for the brand new Paperwhite and Colorsoft, which has a 3.6-star ranking with 113 critiques. There are loads of complaints concerning the cowl scratching simply, so Amazon added the next disclaimer:
Our Premium Leather-based Cowl develops a pure patina and will mark with use. It arrives with an genuine scent from the leather-based tanning course of. These traits are regular for high-quality leather-based and guarantee your cowl tells your one-of-a-kind studying journey.
The advertising and marketing spin they placed on that’s good for amusing. It’s imagined to be like that!
Amazon is unusually simple to affect underneath sure circumstances, and in the event that they get too many complaints they could simply pull a product solely, like they did with the official covers for the Kindle Oasis 2, so individuals must be cautious earlier than making too huge of a deal out of one thing.
Most individuals most likely don’t know or keep in mind, however after Amazon launched the Kindle Oasis 2 in 2017, the critiques for Amazon’s official covers had been so scathing that they stopped promoting them. They then discontinued them and began recommending third-party covers as an alternative.
It was bizarre, particularly contemplating there actually wasn’t something unsuitable with the covers. Folks simply didn’t like how they didn’t cowl the total again, and a few complained about how the magnet that held the duvet on wasn’t sturdy sufficient. I really actually preferred these covers as a result of they weren’t cumbersome and so they had been simple to take away (they had been designed to be eliminated whereas studying, however for some purpose individuals didn’t like that concept), and I used to be shocked when Amazon discontinued them a number of weeks after they had been launched.
Just a few months later Amazon launched redesigned covers for the Kindle Oasis 2 that lined the total again and weren’t meant to be eliminated whereas studying like the unique covers. The Kindle Oasis was designed to have these authentic magnetic covers that match the distinctive contour on the again so bailing on that concept solely after only a few weeks was stunning. Then after they launched the Oasis 3 with the identical actual design, they eliminated the magnets on the again since they did away with the magnetic cowl idea. Personally, I preferred the concept and want they’d’ve caught with it.
I can’t assist however surprise if the oldsters in control of Kindles are regretting releasing the Kindle Colorsoft proper now like they did the magnetic covers for the Oasis. It’s going to be actually laborious to dig out of a 2.7-star ranking at this level.
The humorous factor is, other than the frontlight difficulty, I believe the Kindle Colorsoft is one of the best colour ereader on the present market. Amazon did a greater job than their competitors by way of colour/display high quality and software program optimization to attenuate ghosting, however all of the detrimental critiques concerning the frontlight make it appear to be the Colorsoft is the worst colour ereader available on the market.
I can’t assist however suppose that Amazon is getting what they deserve. Once they determined to cost the Colorsoft on the high of the colour E Ink market, after which didn’t ship on correct high quality management of the frontlight, it set issues up controversy.
There’s all the time going to be some stage of controvery with colour E Ink due to the very fact there are some notable drawbacks in comparison with common black and white E Ink screens. Amazon ought to have anticipated there can be some negativity anyway, however placing a value of $279 on a first-gen colour gadget simply compounded issues.
Different corporations solely cost $20-$30 extra for his or her colour ereaders, however Amazon determined to cost $80 extra for the Colorsoft, and to make issues worse the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Version is at present on sale for Black Friday for less than $155. How can Amazon anticipate individuals to pay $125 extra for the Colorsoft proper now with all of the detrimental critiques? They’re setting the Colorsoft up for failure. It doesn’t matter what number of disclaimers they placed on the product web page now.
