Comments on: Larger Kindle Rumored to Be Announced This Week

By: Stephen Feger

Stephen Feger — Wed, 06 May 2009 15:08:50 +0000

Oh boy was I wrong. It literally is just a larger version of the Kindle 2. What a complete letdown.

Honestly, unless you have a dying need for native PDF support, absolutely require a larger screen, or thing that the vendor-limited text-to-speech feature is a necessity, I would suggest going out any buying a used Kindle 1. I had one, it was just as good as the the 2 or the 3.

By: ZeroDefect

ZeroDefect — Tue, 05 May 2009 07:23:07 +0000

Where is the India and China strategy from Amazon? When will they see a Kindle? Will Jeff Bezos start to think of India or China only after exploiting and completely exhausting the US and Europe markets?

These two countries are too important to be ignored – come up with a dead cheap Kindle, a large selection of good books, backed by a good service and I see no reason why folks in ‘developing’ countries would not buy! If Microsoft can do it with XBox and Sony with PS, why cant Amazon with Kindle?

By: Chuck

Chuck — Tue, 05 May 2009 02:39:55 +0000

You guys should also check out the front page of the print Wall Street Journal Marketplace Seciton this morning. It talks about publishers trying to nuture competition to the Kindle. One of the money quotes, which shows in my view that the print media just doesn’t get it is: “Some publishers regret not charging people for newspaper and magazine subscriptions on the Web. They believe mobile devices-whether it’s the iPhone or e-readers-are new enough that consumers won’t balk at paying for the digital content.”

By: Stephen Feger

Stephen Feger — Tue, 05 May 2009 00:07:29 +0000

Ok, so what do we think this thing is going to look like? Where’s the guessing game? This is a new gadget. But it’s not replacing an old gadget since the Kindle 2 is not old. So what will it have that makes you want to buy it while not sabotaging sales of the Kindle 2?

My take? Sprint EvDO for sure. No Bluetooth. No keyboard. Touch. Better web capability. Battery life lower because they expect it to be used daily and to be online more often. Possibly better music focus (Amazon music downloads). Here’s a thought.. What if it’s not e-Ink? I actually think it won’t be e-ink. Too much overlap with Kindle 2. Might be capacitive, but could just as easily be resistive. Color screen, yes, color. Very expensive, so they’ll use a subscription model to subsidize costs.

I’m just guessing blindly of course. But still… what say you?

By: Who?

Who? — Mon, 04 May 2009 22:07:21 +0000

Why would the new Kindle be significantly bigger than the current Kindle? There’s plenty of space on the current Kindle from which to increase the screen–remove the stupid keyboard in front, for starters.

What this is is a slate tablet for those who don’t want a tablet. For jkontherun posters and fanatics, they already have a tablet, so this is unnecessary. But for people who don’t have or don’t want a tablet for whatever reason (they want a screen larger than 12 inches, they own a Mac, they don’t want to pay more for a tablet, etc.) this would be great. I’m looking forward to this device.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 04 May 2009 19:23:22 +0000

After thinking about this for a few hours, I think I would be interested in this new offering for use around the house… ie in my lazy boy. My needs for this include 1) satisfactory form factor, 2) subsidized cost, 3) need to be able to do crosswords and sudoko on it with excellent UI, 4) normal kindle book access (since this needs to supplement my k2).

By: James Kendrick

James Kendrick — Mon, 04 May 2009 18:38:32 +0000

One major contributor to the demise of the print paper- online editions get updated in near real-time. Check out the front page of the NYT site throughout the day and see how it keeps current. Print papers can’t do that and if they do launch an electronic reader for papers they’d better update in real-time too.

By: Pam B.

Pam B. — Mon, 04 May 2009 18:17:45 +0000

Very interesting debate going on here! While I do not and have never subscribed to a paper that gets delivered to my home, I have subscribed to the electronic edition of the NYT for a few years now and have been hoping a device just like this one would be released, right down to the subsidized price. IMO, a very thin, 8×10 sized e-ink reader is much more convenient than paper. Physical newspapers are cumbersome to carry around (too thick), to fold to focus in on the article you’re reading, to keep around if you haven’t gotten to the paper on a particular day but still want/need to read it, and then to recycle/dispose of. In addition to dealing with those issues, a device like this brings the other advantages of e-ink over LCD displays that we are all aware of (i.e., lack of eye strain). So for folks like me who value newspaper content, who enjoys reading the paper in its traditional format, and who despises reading newspaper websites, this could be a very compelling device.

I would also like add that much of the fall of the newspaper business is related to its quick and not fully thought-out embrace of technology in the form of giving away their valuable content for free on the web. This may just be an opportunity to use technology to help them stay in business. It is a step in the right direction of getting us to pay (at least for some) of the news content we rely on to stay informed citizens and to make informed decisions.

I think this is a very good idea and only hope the execution of it is as good.

By: Robin

Robin — Mon, 04 May 2009 18:16:23 +0000

I completely agree.

Moreover and with all due respect, I think James is coming from a consumer perspective. There is a business market that would kill to tote their large documents on an e-Reader in addition to news content, but the smaller size is just not practical.

Amazon is not the only e-Reader manufacturer that is tuned into this. It’s not all about books and newspapers. It’s about the enormity of electronic reading.

By: Sam Hill

Sam Hill — Mon, 04 May 2009 17:46:57 +0000

You may be right — my tech prediction skills are abysmally poor. But these new devices appeal to me (this is probably a good early indicator that they will fail).
:)