RSSAmazon pushes Kindle book reader, but will anyone buy it?
By Ed Oswald | Published November 19, 2007, 11:34 AM
As expected, Amazon debuted its $399 Kindle book reader at a Monday press event in New York. But will it be enough to finally help electronic books take off?
The retailer is ready to make a big deal out of the product as well: a letter from CEO Jeff Bezos greeted users visiting the Amazon.com front page beginning Monday morning. He says that Kindle was born of his interest in electronic books, and how they could be improved.
"Our top design objective was for Kindle to disappear in your hands -- to get out of the way -- so you can enjoy your reading," Bezos wrote. Amazon engineers had been working on the device for three years.
Kindle supports content from 90,000 sources, including 101 of 112 current best sellers and releases. Electronic books from Amazon are slightly more expensive than a typical book at $9.99 USD.
Subscriptions are also available for newspapers both foreign and domestic, ranging in price from $5.99 to $14.99 USD per month. Magazines run between $1.25 and $3.49 per month. Blogs will also be available for wireless delivery with rates starting at 99 cents a month.
Publishers will be able to upload their own content to the Kindle book store for sale through Amazon's "Digital Text Platform."
What seems to be incorrect from the initial reports of the device is third-party format support. The Kindle is compatible Microsoft Word, HTML, TXT, JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP files, however not the popular PDF format out of the box. Amazon will convert PDF files to the Kindle format if they are sent to the company via e-mail.
Like initial reports indicated, the device does have EV-DO wireless connectivity, which would allow it to sync over the air with Amazon's online store from any location. This connectivity would be free, Amazon said, although as the fees above show, the company is making up the difference in other ways.
Up to six Kindle devices can be tied to the same account, which means they can share purchased book content. All devices can read the same book simultaneously as well.
One of biggest attractions to competitor Sony's Reader device was its high-resolution and high-contrast screen, which made it easy to read from. The Kindle screen is not backlit, but it will reflect like much like a piece of paper. Amazon says this will help to eliminate eyestrain.
Not everybody's sold on the Kindle, however. Some have already called the device a flop, pointing to its high price and what seems to be a general lack of interest among consumers for digital books. The Sony Reader has largely failed to catch on despite quite a bit of marketing from the electronics company.
"A lot of the comments remind me what was said when another ground breaking product was launched and folks called it 'an incredibly poor over priced device,'" JupiterResearch senior analysts Michael Gartenberg said, referring to Apple's iPod. Still, there's no denying the interest in digital music by the time the iPod made its debut; the same cannot be said for e-books.
Finally, a way to DRM books and prevent all of those dog-eared copies from be passed around.
/sarcasm
Score: 0
|i'm just not sold on the whole e-book thing. I did have some ebooks on my pda a while back and whilst it's ok to read books in bed with the screen on (no need for an external light) it's just not the same as reading a real book.
A real book you can take anywhere, give to anyone in a "hey look, this is a great book you'll love give it a go". or even "here's my old college textbook that I don't need anymore"
Books can be read on places, in taxis, at airports on the beach, in the sun, etc... Real books don't need batteries.
ebooks are.... well they'd be ok if they were cheap, really cheap - as they're an inferior product, less versatile and way cheaper to produce than real books. But they're not going to replace real books any time soon.
and as for Kindle.... how I laught when another company tried the ebook thing but it makes the reader 50 times more expensive than a single book.
so I can read the new york times on my Kindle wirelessly... big woot... but if got that delivered to my door I could take it on the train to work, read it on the train and then "Recycle it" by leaving on it my seat for someone else to read. I wouldn't be doing that with my kindle!
Score: 0
|"then "Recycle it" by leaving on it my seat for someone else to read."
Wonder if this could be seen as file sharing? :P
By the way, in an other post I said I would like a reader that would be just that, a reader. Put in an SD card book and voila, I start reading. An other thing I would like is a screen corner that would be hot like a touch pad. It would permit one to turn pages the same as a real book. This is would make the eading experience closer to a handing a real book.
Score: 0
|Wouldn't want to try reading it in the bath!
Score: 0
|On the toilet should be ok, though.
Score: 0
|I am a Sony eReader user for over a year and so do have some expirience with this technology. Here are my thoughts:
The cost of the device while prohibitive, is not the issue here- early adopters and tech geeks will go for it any way, it will also make a good present. What will be the undoing of this particular device is that the cost of the eBooks is not much less than the printed format. While you may share the printed book with your friends, Amazon's books aro locked to your device. Another issue is that This device will not allow you to copy your content to the reader from PC- paying Amazon for convertion of your documents is not a viable option. The way any eReader will be able to attract users en-masse is to open it for the users and release free SDK. I can see students using it in schools instead of sholder brreaking textbooks if only you could have it on open platform. It will also provide large market penetration and create large user base for the device in a very short time span.
Score: 0
|Im game for anything but another piece of crap Sony Ebook Reader style. That Sony PRS500 is a piece of crap, its cheaply built and as fragile as a raw piece of glass. Had it 2 months it broke twice and ive got a TON of portable gagdets and those have NEVER broke on me. Sony refused to fix it and im not filing a greavance with the BBB about it.
Score: 0
|"While you may share the printed book with your friends, Amazon's books aro locked to your device. "
Excellent point! That's exactly why I would never touch the damned DRMed piece of junk.
Score: 0
|Electronic books are a great idea... but Kindle? The price for the device is WAY too high. For eBooks to really take off the Reader device has to be functional and AFFORDABLE. The books should cost LESS in electronic format. A LOT LESS. HELLO? Are you publishers listening? The reader device should also be able to read ALL of the major eBook formats... not just one proprietary format.
Score: 0
|This is one of the thing I don't understand. The ebook cost as much as the printed book, if not more. Wtf were they thinking?
Score: 0
|I agree, the price should be really cheap like maybe $50-$100 then you charge $8 per book and you charge for magazines and such. For $400 its not going to be a hit. I would love to buy a reader and have all my books and such on it, but not at $400. Also it would be cool if you give your books to Amazon and they'll give you a digital version of it for free. I think books will make it big digitally, but not at the price of what readers are going for now.
I love the idea that a budding author can sell his/her work online through the gadget, maybe thats how they should market it? Don't market it as a reader and you can publish, but market it as a publisher that can also read books. There are probably a bunch of wanna be authors that would jump at a chance to get their great American novel out there and this would be a good way for them to do it. Then Amazon can take a portion of the money the author makes in sales.
VT100 you brought up a good point, not having gone to school in a while I didn't even think of that. If students could buy all their text books from the reader I think that would be a good selling point as well. I remember going to school and having a book bag that weighed about 50 pounds, if a student could just carry this and a notebook/laptop to take notes (or even use the Kindle to take notes on) it would be great. Also if they made it so you can highlight text and such that would be helpful too.
Score: 0
|You got to remember what you are getting here.
I agree with some of your points, but my issues are with the design more than anything..
http://edoswald.com/2007...ee-years-to-design-this/
(end shameless blog plug :))
Score: 0
|OMG!!! Ed's got a Blog! Hey, congrats, Ed!
I've just had a look at your blog, it's nice :)
Glad to see that you chose Wordpress (I'm also a fan of that blogging platform), but the theme you selected is a bit ... plain
Anyway, as if pestering you here on Betanews wasn't enough, I'm taking the opportunity to pick on your grammar ALSO on your blog :)
You may want to read the following page: http://wsu.edu/~brians/errors/its.html , and then check your blog's disclaimer ;)
Score: 0
|Amazon needs to look at this like the Camera/Film philosophy Kodak used to help personal camera's catch on back in the day. Cheap/Free camera and make up for the cost in film and development. This is much like a PS3...too expensive for the device and no reason to buy it with the exception that PS3 has no games and E-books offer the same as normal books but cost more. (Why?) It needs to be free, when you sign up for a 2 year contract of books for $30 per month. Then, only very heavy readers would be enticed but that would be better then none. $8.99 for a book on paper that requires no battery, or $399 + $9.99 + batteries...dumb.
(edit) 3 pages from the end of your book... Beep beep beep...batteries a low, shutting down now... and the guy beside you with the old trusty paperback just keeps reading.
Score: 0
|For that same $399 I can get a Asus Eee which will do a hell of a lot more than this thing and still allow me to read books. I just don't understand what they were smoking when they thought people would pay $400 dollars PLUS $10 dollars for the books.
Score: 0
|Agreed! I can't see why they simply couldn't come up with a reading pad that all you have to do is insert a flash card that IS the book. I'm sure it can be easilly copy protected. Instead of buying paper books you buy flash card books. Looking at the pictures, am I to understand it has a MONOCHROME screen??? And the thing costs $399.??? Give me a break.
Score: 0
|It's a relatively ugly piece of equipment too IMO. Maybe a color photo would/could do it more justice, but still.
Score: 0
|WAY too expensive. And a proprietary format again?! SCREW YOU, AMAZON.
Score: 0
|"Amazon will convert PDF files to the Kindle format if they are sent to the company via e-mail."
Heh. What?
Score: 0
|And Amazon will know what PDFs you have? No thanks. None of their business.
Score: 0
|so, I can use my multitasking PDA with a copy of uBook to read from, like I have for years.
Or an overpriced one trick pony.
Not much of a decision here for me...
Score: 0
|My sentiments exactly, for too expensive for how little it does.
Score: 0
|