Amazon to introduce larger Kindle this week?
Plastic Logic has be showing off a larger form factor e-reader--but Amazon may get to market first.
(Credit: Plastic Logic)Rumors have been circulating for a while that Amazon has a larger form factor Kindle in the works--and we may get a first look at it as soon as this week, according to sources who spoke with The New York Times.
Initially, a lot of the chatter around a new jumbo Kindle was focused on the textbook market. But in recent months, as more newspapers and magazines have become threatened with extinction, these larger e-readers--which also include models from Plastic Logic and News Corp.--have increasingly been pitched as digital saviors for old-media companies looking for what the Times calls "electronic life preservers."
The Times didn't specifically refer to itself as one of the companies requiring such a preserver, but it is expected to be featured in the introduction of the new Amazon device along with other major newspapers and magazines that are already available on the Kindle e-readers for a monthly fee.
Clearly, it's that ability to charge a fee and the potential cost savings of a paperless platform that makes digital readers so attractive to newspapers and magazines. As the Times and other have pointed out, publishers could "save millions on the cost of printing and distributing their publications, at precisely a time when their businesses are under historic levels of pressure."
But there are some inherent problems with shifting paper readers over to e-readers. First, some people just like paper. It's light, disposable, and you don't have to worry about spilling your coffee on it and destroying it. Second, this Kindle is likely to be just as expensive as the Kindle 2, and probably more expensive--unless Amazon and its publishing partners have plans in place to subsidize the device (i.e., pay for a two-year subscription, get a discount on the e-reader). And finally, it's hard to compete with free online versions of the same publications that are quite readable on devices like the iPhone (and would be even more readable on the alleged media pad Apple may be prepping).
Personally, I like the idea of reading a paper on a jumbo Kindle or Paper Logic e-reader--but I don't really want to have to carry it around with me, even if it's thin and relatively lightweight. And I don't want to pay $13.99 a month for a Kindle New York Times subscription (half that, maybe). However, I can see how this type of device would be very appealing to college students, who could carry around all their textbooks (and regular books for that matter) on one device.
In other words, a larger form factor Kindle may sound good on paper, but it may not be as viable as some old-media companies might hope. Yes, it's a potential lifeboat, but if Apple comes along with a tablet-style device that does more--and doesn't cost all that much more--it could sink.
What do you guys think? How much would you pay for a larger e-reader and digital subscriptions to your favorite papers? And will Apple blow away a jumbo monochrome Kindle out of the water with a new media pad that has color and a real Internet browser?
*Update: Just got an invitation from a Amazon for a press conference on May 6 at 10:30 a.m. at Pace University in Manhattan. I assume the press conference is for the new Kindle.
Hunkered down in New York City, Executive Editor David Carnoy covers the gamut of gadgets and writes his Fully Equipped column, which carries the tag line "The electronics you lust for." He's also the author of "Knife Music," a novel. E-mail David. Follow David on Twitter.
Why pay when one can get the same information to their cell phone, and/or non Kindle device for free?
If you truly want a Netflix style subscriber model, I think you'd be looking at a Netflix style pricing model as well. With cheap rates, like the $6 a month; but with restrictions on the number of publications you can choose per month. An all you can eat level would probably be $20 or so just like Netflix (maybe more because of the vast number of publication choices).
The main obstruction now is price, high price for the device and very high prices for the reading material.
Let Apple come out with a dedicated reader and compete with Kindle, competition is good.
Record shops, newspapers, magazines will soon bnostalgic memories whether we like it or not. There is no way to stop it at this point. Someday even printed books will go too, but I do think that is many decades away.
If Apple does release this oversized Touch and people use it as eReaders, it further demonstrates how people will buy Apple not because its good, but because they're ignorant about their actual product purchases. There are a multitude of things an oversized Touch could be used for other than reading that I'd have no problem with, however, as an eReader, its such a bad idea, i'm dumbfounded by how many intelligent people even think, "hey this looks like a good idea."
It's simply an idiotic notion.
Photons are photons, your eye doesn't care whether they're coming from an emissive or reflective display. What counts is whether the image is readable enough that your eyes don't keep hunting for focus, and that's a function of resolution and contrast ratio. Modern LCDs are plenty good enough for extended use. Indeed, they're better than E Ink displays in both respects.
Seriously, there are at least tens of millions of people who have spent several hours a day for years-- even decades-- staring at CRTs and LCDs, and there's been no huge epidemic of eye problems.
Maybe you think you're doing people a favor by repeating this stuff, but the facts just aren't on your side here.
The real data of how much better e-ink is for eyes isn't available yet. That's true. It's a new technology. There is data on how bad heavy computer use is on your eyes. However, I can tell you from personal experience that it is "easier" on my eyes. I could never read an entire book comfortably on a laptop screen. I have read several on my Irex Illiad e-reader.
In addition there are other advantages to e-ink. It will likely be able to mass produced at a lower cost then equivalent sized LCD displays. It does not require power to hold an image, or to run a back light. This allows for a device to be built that is thin, small, light, and has a multiple day battery life.
It is precisely because of the power use issue that we don't have thin, small reader like devices made out of LCD screens. It only makes sense to combine large LCDs with a large device like a laptop. Or make them small like the itouch, iphone. E-ink technologies will bring about a whole new category of information delivery devices. I for one am excited. You just seem bitter.
Can you fold a Kindle in the same way you fold a newspaper or roll up a magazine?
I suppose that if you are an avid reader of the same publications, this would be a boon, but now having to worry about an electronic e-reader, the fragility of it, battery life, subscriptions, etc... it seems like too much of a hassle now. Maybe if battery life was superb and if we actually invested more into e-paper...
The advantages you get with the Kindle over iPods, iPhones, Palms, etc., are:
1) Battery life. You can read a Kindle for days without charging, since it's not powering a display the entire time. (It only uses power to turn pages.)
2) The E-ink technology is [i]much[/i] more readable than a computer screen (whether it's a PC, iPod, or Palm).
Think of it this way: When you read off of an iPhone or other non-e-Ink device, you're basically staring into a light bulb (or actually, thousands of tiny ones). By comparison, an e-Ink display is more like looking at paper.
Now granted, the contrast on the screens *could* be better. It would be better if the screens were more of an off-white than gray. And the Kindle (and other similar e-readers) should include an external reading light, since you're eventually going to run into a low-light situation where you want to read. Having said that, judging the Kindle by what you saw of its use on the subway isn't a fair evaluation. It's a little bit like evaluating an iPhone based on how easy it is to run Windows 7 apps on it.
Too many devices. What is needed is a standard agreed among publishers, a la PDF. or possibly PDF, as the format. Do not bind the service to a proprietary device; this is a step backwards in a world were universal connectivity and content compatibility are needed.
The book industry already uses PDF as an alternate distribution to paper; it works well.
Will the Kindle be adopted in volume? I doubt it. Instead, what the industry should do is define a service and accompanying content format, fort newspapers, books, marketing material, etc.,available as a fee per content unit available via conventional devices: desktop, laptop, netbook, phone, etc.
Either into a Netbook with some actual I/O ports and horsepower or the aforementioned Media Reader.
Does your mp3 player browse web, give you email, days worth of games at a quick touch, weather, news, word processing?