Amazon Enters Gadget Market with Kindle, an eBook Device

[kingtj]

re: iPod for intellectuals?

Nah, I could be completely wrong here - but I'm going to bet this one is generally regarded as a "flop", within 1 year from now.

The service itself might have more potential.... I think there's absolutely a market for electronic downloads of newly released books and magazines. If Apple was smart, they'd add this capability to iTunes, and incorporate a decent book reader with the iPod Touch and iPhone. Let you purchase e-books over wi-fi or EDGE network for them.

But "single purpose" electronic devices this large went out with the 1980's, more or less. Today, the goal is incorporating things people want in portable devices, all in ONE box. A cellphone is the most logical place for it all to come together, since it's useful enough that you're probably carrying it with you everyplace already. An ultraportable tablet PC type of device could work too, but only if it's a fully-functional "notebook computer substitute".

The electronic ink technology used in the screen is a plus, and related to that is the relatively long battery life. STILL, my guess is, that's not quite enough to make this hardware a "hit" with the public. As soon as I lug around some piece of electronics the size of a book, I start wondering if I can "surf the web" with it, "check my email" from it, "play a quick game on it", and more.

It will be the iPod/iTMS for intellectuals.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

So, now that we have official spec's, here's what's really good (great, even) about the device:

• No computer, cables or syncing are needed to purchase content.
• After a book is purchased, it is auto-delivered wirelessly in less than one minute.
• Kindle provides free book samples. A user can read first chapters for free before deciding to buy.
• U.S. newspapers include The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post; magazines include TIME, The Atlantic, and Forbes. International newspapers from France, Germany, and Ireland are available, including, Le Monde, Frankfurter Allgemeine, and The Irish Times.
• Kindle weighs 10.3 ounces.
• Kindle utilizes the same high-speed data network (EVDO) as advanced cell phones—it does not use WiFi or require the user to find a WiFi hotspot
• There are no monthly wireless bills, service plans, or commitments for the wireless service.
• The user can email Word documents and pictures (.JPG, .BMP, .PNG, .GIF) to Kindle.

• Newspapers: How much time do you have in transit that allows one to read the Times? This market is already owned by these papers via the rail systems in print. I can see the cost savings in print distribution savings by not having to publish and distribute around the globe: you can just have this readily available via the backbone. Having them available isn't that much of an incentive. We already can subscribe to this information via the Web and people won't read off this device from their home. They'll use their computer and it's massive display or just sit down and read the paper with their beverage of choice. Music Players since the Walkman original have been successful because one can multi-task, in transit, without their sense of perception being impaired. This device is an extremely nitch product.
• This means subsidized in a joint venture with Microsoft.
• How is this better than WiFi hotspots?
  • I don't use EVDO and I sure as hell don't want to up my cell plan to invest in a new phone with that plan. WiFi hotspots are at every cafe run by Starbucks.
  • Hell I've got hotspots at my local Mom and Pop Laundry shop in Spokane, WA. I've got probably 10 different local coffee chains that offer free Wifi. I've got Malls with hotspots. I've got hotspots all over the damn city.
  • I've got a hotspot in my damn house.
  • Guess what? I'm not going to be randomly downloading my eBooks in bloated Word Format because I'm stuck on a plane or on a train, or in my car.
  • If I'm not in transition I'm most likely not chillin' out at home using my Cell Plan to surf the net.
• This is DOA technology without 802.11 g/n.

 

[agore]

this is so ugly -.-. oh my god..

how can this relate to iPod??

the Design...the UI.....

the keyboard??? LOL....gosh.....

But if it works, and if it sells, watch Apple introduce a reader that is smoothly integrated int the rest of its product line. Oh, and better looking while we're at it.

 

[Unspeaked]

As far as im aware, it is BW hi res pen input screen with lower power consumption.

Am i wrong???

Yes, it has nothing to do with input of any kind, pen or otherwise.

It's simply a different type of electronic display that uses a film.

"Kindle uses a high-resolution display technology called electronic paper that provides a sharp black and white screen that is as easy to read as printed paper. The screen works using ink, just like books and newspapers, but displays the ink particles electronically. It reflects light like ordinary paper and uses no backlight, eliminating the eyestrain and glare associated with other electronic displays such as computer monitors or PDA screens."

 

[w00master]

Amazing so much of the anti-amazon comments just continue to prove my point:

If it ain't made by apple, people on this board will just think it's crap.

Also, all of these anti-amazon comments so remind me of the iPod launch. Oh, the irony.

Personally, I think this is an amazing 1st step: great interface, sweet online wireless purchasing, reads pdfs/word docs, purchases stored on Amazon's servers, no subscription EVDO (how awesome is THAT?).

Yeah, it costs $400. But it's relatively competitive with other ebook devices, the $9.99 New York Times prices should pay for itself for someone like me fairly quickly.

Wow, big deal, it isn't made by Apple, but guess what? I think it's awesome.

 

[lampdeskchair]

I'm veryveryvery interested in this product.

I read around 2 full books a week as well as newspapers and magazines all the time. I am tired of lugging handfuls of books around and waiting for books to arrive from amazon or going to a bookstore is inconvenient for me. I'm really hoping the screen is as good as they say. Gonna try and get a friend/family member to get one so I can try it out first.

I LOVE the fact it has a free 3G wireless service so I can download a book anytime, anywhere in under a minute, and I LOVE the fact every book is marked down to like half price of a new printed copy. The unit will pay for itself after saving money on 60ish books/magazines/newspapers haha.

I'm really excited for this thing. It may not be as sexy as an ipod but DAMN it looks awesome if you're a huge reader like me.


Edit:: Agreed w00master, heh we posted at the same time and have the same opinion.

 

[agore]

I love books and have over 3,500 of them.
But they are damn inconvenient to carry with me when I go somewhere
I would get a device like this if it worked well and let me read my books.

An obvious early-adopter market for a device like this is for students. Textbooks are heavy, expensive and frequently updated. The ability to do Spotlight-type searches in textbooks would be solid gold. The ability to use external links out to the Internet would be useful for many types of learning material.

 

[jhande]

I said it before and I will say it again I would give my right *cough* to have Apple come out with an e-book reader. However after the review of the latest Sony E-book reader it is pretty obvious that while the text of e-ink is ready for prime time and is almost if not AS good as printed text....there are still some serious issues with e-ink. Namely flashing the screen every time you change a page or even trverse menus. This wouldn't be a complete deal killer if it was for the fact that at least in Sony's implementation it also takes 2 seconds to flip a page, traverse a menu, change a setting, etc. Again from what I understand this is an issue with e-ink itself at the present time and not simply Sony's implementation.
So I think I know why Apple has maddingly stayed out of this market that is in the EXACT in every way, shape, and form to where the MP3 market was prior to Apple coming onto the scene. Crap designs with too many buttons, and real though in the design, crap software to integrate the hardware to the computer in an easy fashion, crap format support, and realistically crappy book support.

You want to see a grown man soil himself? Have Apple come out with an e-book reader that resolves the above issues along with allowing easy markups and highlighting

I've had a Sony Reader since they came out (had to get it from the US, since it's never been on sale in Europe), and while I would like to have mobile computer based on E-Ink, which is basically what you are describing, the SR is actually not bad.

Yes, there is a flicker when you turn the pages, but it's nowhere near 2 secs, and after a couple of minutes you get used to it. If you've loaded a ton of books, yes, it can take a couple of seconds to switch from one book to the other -- but definitely not to switch pages.

There's an active community around the device, have a look at MobileReads forums, and they've solved most of the problems the device has/had.

However, PDF's suck. Some of then can be automatically reflowed by 3rd party software, but a straight pdf viewed on an A5 screen will be too miniscule.

The only problem with the Sony Reader is.... well it's Sony. If Apple makes an E-Ink device, with a reasonable library (iTunes, natch), I'd buy it.

 

[Schtumple]

For the people that need this
this is a really good product
for the people that don't
move on

Captain Obvious saves the day once again

 

[Nicolasdec]

How dose this have anything to do with macs or Apple? Looks cool thou.

 

[Orng]

It doesn't need to sync to a computer, so personally, I think this would be an awesome device to just abandon at the cottage, loaded up with all those cottagey books you want to read on the deck or to distract your kids on a rainy day.

Also be awesome for plane trips, or just kicking around. I'm a big reader and I'd love to have one of these.
Too bad I can't get one. Is it really so hard to pull off an international rollout in this day and age? it's not 1986 anymore!

One question remains, though; how easy is it to hold whilst sitting on the toilet?

 

[Clive At Five]

If we're looking for a revolutionary eReader, this is not it.

I'm thinking to myself, who would benefit the most from having all their books digitized? and the answer is definitely students. I know not everyone was a physics major, but most people have experienced thick science books. For me, there would be days where I would have to bring 3 heavy physics books and a laptop to campus and carry them around with me all day. At day's end, my back would kill. Having a eReader of my science books would've been a back-saver.

The thing about science books, though, is that so many of them have color illustrations that are instrumental in conveying information. I would not be able to imagine a Physics 101 book without them!

But it's not just science books, and it's not only college kids. Even young middle-school kids have thick books to carry around, and while they usually have lockers nearby, the back strain on such little people can't be healthy.

While wallstreet types may be a large market, I think schools and students are the ones to aim for. Until eReaders support color illustrations and are priced where they can be afforded by students and schools, they won't be good enough for the mainstream market. Once an eReader does breech that barrier, however, you can expect widespread adoption to shortly follow.

-Clive

 

[nemaslov]

One of the first things people will complain about is battery life. 30 hours isn't that much for all the reading you'll do with this thing. Using e-ink, this should be getting 50 hours.

i don't know ANYONE who would read 30 hours straight or could. Plug it in a night. What's the bog deal.

 

[kingtj]

The DRM is a good point....

I don't know if anyone will have the foresight to do it properly, but I'd think an "adequate" solution to the DRM problem might be tagging the e-book with some kind of "authorized to view" key at the time of initial purchase/download. This would presumably be a key based partially on your hardware's unique serial number.

If you wanted to "give the e-book away to a friend" after you were done reading it, you could do so by going online and requesting a "transfer of the book" to their account. This would essentially revoke your unique auth. key while issuing a fresh one to your buddy, which they'd receive the next time they connected to the online store. (Your xferred e-book could be there waiting in their "shopping cart" for free download.)

(Just like a real paper book, you can only give it away to one person, and then you no longer possess it. But they can give it away to a 3rd. person whenever they're done, etc. etc.) This mechanism would also let you swap books with somebody, if you decided you didn't care for one you bought, and you'd rather read what they have to give away. A forward-thinking online e-bookstore would facilitate this with forums just for the purpose, as a "customer service" benefit.

As for it being a "deep experience", I don't know... I find that scrolling down is just as good, if not LESS distracting than flipping pages. Maybe a book reader with a forward and back arrow button you could easily press to "flip" one page up or back would be even better. Worst case scenario: This is just something you'd have to "get used to" over time using e-books, since you have to un-condition years and years of learned behavior flipping real pages.

I personally never saw the point in releasing eBooks. Whenever I get across a .pdf scientific paper, I tend to print it out, if it really is interesting.

Considering the amount of text I can read in a book (which basically shows really sharp contured letters and adequate size - with approx. 1400 dpi), and comparing that to the hassle of scrolling and clicking on my laptop, I'd rather carry the book.

Next thing for me is the DRM-related stuff. You see, I can buy a book, and after I have finished, I can pass it on to a friend. Basically if you do the same with digital data, you are alleged of copyright infringement.

Last but not least, reading a book is a very deep experience (if the author is good). The page flipping movement is so embedded in our spinal cord (due to years of training), that it doesn't distract you. But I think scrolling and page flipping are way a distraction from the plot, as they steal concentration.

 

[jaydub]

It looks like they just sprinkled the keys on there haphazardly. After using a few smartphones with small keys, I've found that key placement is very important to the usefulness of this device.

Then again, I'm not sure anything can replace the tactile sensation of flipping through the pages of a book.

 

[gwangung]

• Newspapers: How much time do you have in transit that allows one to read the Times? This market is already owned by these papers via the rail systems in print.

• 
  
  Right here, I think you miss the mark badly. With the urban sprawl increasing each day and commute times of 45 minutes to an hour each way, I think there's sufficient time. Whether this device would fit that market, I don't know...but I know that the papers themselves don't think they own this market.

 

[morespce54]

I read a lot of paperback novels, just bought one on the way home from work today in fact. Can't see myself using something like this, it's just technology intruding where it's not wanted...

My point too...
Although, it might be a good idea for newspapers (having 10 newspapers in one every morning could be nice for some people) but I read paperback on the bus and in the subway and I just can't see myself reading a book on this using both hands...

 

[mdriftmeyer]

I'm veryveryvery interested in this product.

I read around 2 full books a week as well as newspapers and magazines all the time. I am tired of lugging handfuls of books around and waiting for books to arrive from amazon or going to a bookstore is inconvenient for me. I'm really hoping the screen is as good as they say. Gonna try and get a friend/family member to get one so I can try it out first.

I LOVE the fact it has a free 3G wireless service so I can download a book anytime, anywhere in under a minute, and I LOVE the fact every book is marked down to like half price of a new printed copy. The unit will pay for itself after saving money on 60ish books/magazines/newspapers haha.

I'm really excited for this thing. It may not be as sexy as an ipod but DAMN it looks awesome if you're a huge reader like me.

I probably have $50k in books. I've bought quite a bit of my technical books from Amazon.

I sure as hell don't buy them because they are "half-off" the current list price. I buy them because they are the top books in their field and I buy them USED.

Those USED prices range anywhere from 50-90% lower than retail.

The books I buy are always in Hardbound. That means I don't buy brand new. I want a library.

My API books in various development languages are very fluid. I no longer waste time buying books that are roughly 20% design and 80% API reprints. I can get my In a Nutshells already via the chm, pdf, djvu or other formats on my Development Systems.

If I'm reading Clive Barker, Stephen King, Terry Brooks, Jaqueline Carey (Kushiels Series) I'm reading on a couch for pleasure.

What makes the iPod so useful is how handy the device is for one in transit, its interfacing with your car audio, your exercise regimen and your home sound system or just on a mass transit system--the one area this device has in common with the portable audio player market.

This device is a stationary device that is portable.

This isn't a Blackberry (crackberry), iPhone, iPod Touch, etc.

This is for the tech geek who wants another gadget.

$400 for 4 level gray scale is a very expensive nitch product.

 

[chr1s60]

I think the potential for a product like this is huge. Just think, if they were to make it possible to put text books in one of these, students everywhere would be interested. It may be expensive, but students in jr high all the way through college would prefer carrying this instead of heavy text books. I think that is where the real money and potential is in this type of product.

 

[ckurowic]

Right here, I think you miss the mark badly. With the urban sprawl increasing each day and commute times of 45 minutes to an hour each way, I think there's sufficient time. Whether this device would fit that market, I don't know...but I know that the papers themselves don't think they own this market.

I'd personally rather remain vigilant on a long commute using public transportation instead of having my head buried in a book or on those Kindle things. Last thing I need is for some thug to take stuff out of my back pack because I was too busy reading the latest Stephen King book on my way to work.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

Right here, I think you miss the mark badly. With the urban sprawl increasing each day and commute times of 45 minutes to an hour each way, I think there's sufficient time. Whether this device would fit that market, I don't know...but I know that the papers themselves don't think they own this market.

I rode the Cal Train for 2 hours a day. When I did this route I read novels, technical books or caught up on what I need to do before I get into work. This is a nitch product.

 

[Teddy's]

If it ain't made by apple, people on this board will just think it's crap.

Quote of the day.

 

[ckurowic]

I think the potential for a product like this is huge. Just think, if they were to make it possible to put text books in one of these, students everywhere would be interested. It may be expensive, but students in jr high all the way through college would prefer carrying this instead of heavy text books. I think that is where the real money and potential is in this type of product.

Are you in college? Most of us would NOT prefer this. Somtimes you have to have multiple books open at the same time with the ability to highlight, scan pages, flip back and fourth quickly. Also consider the outrageous level of book theft in college. Someone steals your Kindle and your screwed in ALL your classes, not just one or two.

Also, think about this. I'm a senior in college so I sort of know what goes down regarding books. Most people can't even keep their damned TI-calculators charged up much less a device with ALL their books on it. And no matter how you look at it, a text book is far more durable than a piece of electronics.

 

[bit density]

As far as im aware, it is BW hi res pen input screen with lower power consumption.

Am i wrong???

E-ink in this case is a display technology that uses balls with black on one side and white on the other, magnetism moves the ball around and it is very low power because it doesn't use power to display. It works very well in well lit areas, and is useful for extremely low power devices and stuff like signs.

 

[Ted13]

They have to make a way that they screen can contrast correctly for reading. Simple as that. I don't expect to be outside reading much. Hell, I don't see many people that go outside to read. But it would be good if there was some level of outside readability on this fantasy Apple device that we are creating.

I strongly disagree -- a lot of reading happens at the beach, at the park, on vacation, on the deck, in the back yard, etc. For an e-reader to fly, it HAS to be readable in sunlight.

So far as the Kindle is concerned, can we just call it the Missfire? For a device that doesn't do e-mail or word processing, it needs the fugly keyboard why?? I don't have a problem with a dedicated e-reader, but if that's what it is, it should be a screen only, light, thin device.
The "can download directly to the device" concept? Not much of a feature. Unless you want to keep your entire book collection on a portable device without a backup, you'll need to sync to a PC sooner or later.