In retrospect, the first Kindle provided an exultant answer to Bezos’s question. In many respects, it was superior to its analog predecessor, the physical book. It weighed ten ounces and could carry two hundred titles. The E Ink screen was easy on the eyes. Whispernet, the name Amazon gave to the Kindle’s free 3G cellular network, allowed readers to painlessly download books in a flash. “I think the reason Kindle succeeded while others failed is that we were obsessive, not about trying to build the sexiest gadget in the world, but rather [about building] something that actually fulfilled what
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