Can Amazon Fire Up eBooks by Kindling?

Amazon debuted the kindle on Monday.  Engadget has a good photo gallery of the device.
The kindle will let users read books ($9.99), Magazines ($1.99/month), Newspapers (varies from $5.99-$14.99/month), Blogs ($0.99-$1.99), your own files ($0.10 each), RSS feeds ($1 per feed).  Not withstanding the potential monthly fee nightmare, The Kindle is a tempting little device.  But how tempting can it be at $399?  That's a lot of money for the device and then you have to buy the books, newspapers, blogs. 

Plus, it looks like the Kindle got hit with the ugly stick.  I get the fact that they wanted it to "feel" like a paperback in your hand but, ugh!, the white-beige color scheme is 1980's retro - but in a bad way.

Now, I read a ton of books in a year.  And, in the past, I had eBooks on my Palm Pilot and enjoyed the fact that I could carry several books in my pocket that were available to me whenever I had a spare moment.  But, when I ditched the Palm, I did not feel some great loss because I didn't have my eBooks anymore.  Its not as if you can read and walk at the same time or read and drive like you can with music.  And that's the problem I think the Kindle has got.  There just isn't a longing to have books available on demand.  Not to mention the fact that the paper book is pretty well perfected after about 600 years.

So, although I like the idea, I don't think Amazon has got "it" with the Kindle.  The high cost of the device, the "nickel and dime" monthly costs, the fact that there just isn't a clamor for eBooks and the fact that the alternative is damn near perfect tells me that Kindle is a dud.  I think the best that Amazon can hope for is to start changing the environment for eBooks by getting people to want them.  If they can do that then maybe Kindle version 2 or version 3 will take off.  Until then, I just don't see it.