Mid-Size Screen Disadvantage

I haven’t always been a big fan of Jakob Nielsen’s ideas about usability, but his usability review of the new Kindle Fire has this surprising comment:

1. Kindle users should change their browser preference settings to mobile view. (In the Silk browser, tap Menu button > Settings > (scroll to “Advanced” items) > Desktop or mobile view.)

I’m absolutely shocked that a full color 7″ screen device has such a poor web surfing experience when defaulting to a normal website rather than a mobile version.

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And I’m also shocked that Amazon’s customer images link takes you to a photo gallery where this is the first image: