In a previous post, I asked a rhetorical question about the choice of “Kindle” as a name for the new Amazon electronic reader. I don’t pretend to know anything about marketing, but fortunately, others do. I got a nice note from Collin Gebhard, whose job it is to evaluate product naming.
I guess I’m not alone in questioning the purpose of the name “Kindle,” as Collin says, “A product name like Kindle might be meant to refer to “kindling excitement” but it also reminds me of book burning.”
Maybe that’s the point–Kindle could mean the end of books as we know them?
But while it’s easy to critique somebody else’s choice, what else could be call the thing? Porta-paddy? e-Lib (library and liberty, get it?) Okay, this is why I’m a brain geek and not a marketer. I was an abysmal Girl Scout Cookie salesperson anyway.
5 Comments
Rebecca Burnside · November 29, 2007 at 1:27 am
Kindle brings up too many images of Fahrenheit 451. Literature and burning have never been positive images together.
As an aside, kindle also means a group of kittens. 😀
JacobAlv87 · December 3, 2007 at 1:11 am
I definitely think the name “kindle” refers to the book burning, because with the new electronic reading device, the company is trying use it’s marketing to say that you need the device, not books anymore. In a way, I think it’s great that we are becoming so technologically advanced. But at the same time, when I have visions of our society living in a modern-space age like the Jetsons, it just feels so cold and impersonal…having everything automated like that would make humans 1. Lazy or 2. incapable of performing simple tasks. Sadly I can affirm this… I work at Albertsons as a checker and we have the automatic change machines. When you pay, I type in how much you gave me and the computer rolls out the correct coins. One day, my manager took away the changer to re-fill it and I had to use the leftover coins in my drawer. I will admit that I did have to take more time to think about what I was doing and figure out if I was giving correct change, and this was even more difficult when customers would give me odd amounts. I guess we are relying so much on technology, but then again there is a difference in street smarts vs. book smarts. I won’t worry about this too much though because some things are okay not to know.
bookhitch · February 7, 2008 at 10:00 am
bookhitch just did an interview with the Senior PR manager for the Kindle and got some interesting insight into why the product was named as such.
We decided to do the interview because so many of our authors and readers have had questions about the reader since last year.
FYI: You can find the interview in our newsletter which will be sent out in the second week of February and will later be posted on our newsletter page.
Kindling myself hmm | Hmm Outspoken musings on nature and nurture · January 10, 2010 at 5:45 am
[…] through Old Norse kyndill. Kindle does mean to set afire, get aroused etc. anyways. Of course, there are all those theories about how Amazon named its product thus to indicate a metaphorical […]
Kindling myself | daktre.com · March 23, 2012 at 9:33 am
[…] through Old Norse kyndill. Kindle does mean to set afire, get aroused etc. anyways. Of course, there are all those theories about how Amazon named its product thus to indicate a metaphorical […]
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