Amazon is enjoying what are touted to be good sales of the Kindle 2, and the rumor mill is going full speed that a new, larger Kindle is to be announced this week. The buzz surrounds a deal that Amazon has supposedly inked with The New York Times to provide a Kindle with a large screen for viewing periodicals like newspapers. I am afraid they may run into some harsh realities if they release such a beast.
The rumor was sparked by an invitation that some journalists have received for a press event:
We’d like to invite you to an Amazon.com press conference scheduled for Wednesday, May 6 at 10:30 am ET. The press conference is scheduled to take place at the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University, located at 3 Spruce Street, New York City. Doors will open for registration at 9:30 am ET.
This has desperation written all over it. A large Kindle is not going to stop the death-spiral that newspapers are firmly in the grasp of, no matter how cool. Who is going to carry such a large Kindle around with them? No one, and that’s a big hurdle to overcome. Couple that with the cost such a device would require, and it’s game over before the starting buzzer. The littler Kindle costs over $300; this one would possibly have to run a good $500, and who’s going to pay that to read their favorite newspaper they are already reading free online?
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