Amazon To Rekindle Interest In Ebook Readers Monday
Duncan Riley
33 comments »
Amazon will launch its ebook reader, called “The Kindle” Monday, according to News.com.
As we wrote in September, The Kindle will be black and white ebook reader that includes WiFi and EVDO. List price is expected to be around $399. The Kindle won’t support open standards, with Amazon using their own proprietary format from Mobipocket, a company they acquired in 2005. The device will be linked into ebook sales pages on Amazon for a seamless experience.
Ebook readers aren’t new with Sony having a product on the market for some time that has failed to capture the public’s imagination. Amazon believes that content is the key to success in the ebook reader business and in this regard they’ll have one big card to play in an age of environmental awareness: newspapers. Reports suggest that Amazon has signed between 50-100 newspaper publishers that will deliver electronic editions of newspaper print editions to The Kindle, including the New York Times and The Washington Post.
It’s an interesting move by Amazon, a company that has single handedly changed an industry that could itself have future growth restrictions as paper goes out of fashion, both on environmental grounds and as the internet replaces traditional print. The few people I know who own the Sony Ebook reader swear by the concept, but I don’t see a lot of appeal, particularly in getting an electronic edition of a newspaper…isn’t that what websites are for? The Kindle will have a lot of resources and content behind it so if anyone can make this work you’d think Amazon could. If it fails Ebook readers can go straight to the deadpool.
Presumably you’d want to get a daily newspaper on your ebook reader as opposed to the internet so you can read it on your morning commute without wifi. Just download it before you go, and sit with it on the subway or train. I can see this being huge with commuters.
The first eReader that will be extremely successful will support the PDF Standard and support standard page sizes. The most successful eReader to date, the Sony PRS-500 doesn’t support standard page sizes for PDF. If you can support both it means that you can use the ton of pirated ebook from any of the P2P networks and BitTorrent. Once you get people to buy the underlying hardware, you can start selling them pay ebooks. This is no different than Napster and how it drove the adoption of MP3 players.
sratchiti
it comes with EVDO which means mobile internet access.
I must have this to read Rigged by Ben Mezrich! When the Tech sector drops, we have no choice but to drink lots of shots of Tequila….
Ebooks aren’t that popular, and then Amazon decides to only support a single format on an expensive player? Doesn’t sound like a winning combination.
@scratch: about the commute part, Palm Pilots could do essentially the same thing 5 years ago…and I don’t think the demand was that great then either.
@duncan: The resolution of this thing will be much higher than traditional computer displays. Thus making reading much better on the eyes.
@5 damien. The display is much larger than on the PDAs
Duncan, EVDO isn’t going to help us subway commuters. One COULD probably download these newspaper articles the same way you’d download an ebook, which again is a win for commuters. I really see that as the market here.
I really wanted one, kept my eye open when I was in the states but didn’t come across one.
My main problem and I think their problem is the price point for the reader. $399 or $299 for the sony one is way to high. The sony ones come with a lousy amount of memory etc. My guess is the screen tech must be expensive still. They get it down to £100/$200 and actually release these devices in the Uk and I will buy one.
Why don’t you get iPhone/iPod touch and go to textonphone.com? It is free with large selection of free books and novels. iPhone makes for a perfect book reader with its large screen and textonphone.com caches pages in the background as you read so it works ofline quite well.
Not see this as a great business
Again, don’t know amazon ’s business directions, they are a lot of stuff, no focus!
$399 is too high and I refuse to buy DRM stuff anymore. If they can lower the price (maybe $199) and ditch the DRM, I’ll take one. Maybe two.
“Why don’t you get iPhone/iPod touch and go to textonphone.com?”
Bad idea, iPhones are major poluters and have been causing global warming for the past 8 years!
Why don’t you get iPhone/iPod touch and go to textonphone.com?
Because I love my kids!
nice engadget rip off
http://www.engadget.com/2007/1.....on-monday/
at least u changed the title.
I was in the Sony store in NYC recently and saw the ebook reader and was pretty impressed. It’s amazingly clear to read. I thought it could use a few more viewing options, but still thought highly of it. I don’t read enough to get one, but if I did, I don’t think I’d flinch at it. It’s much easier to read than something like an iPhone. It looks like text on paper in comparison, just softer on the eyes.
I hope this comes to stores as I’d like to check it out in person.
I agree with others though, it’s probably too high of a price point to be successful.
I think I’m going to increase my position in Lenscrafters.
I wrote my master’s thesis at Boston University in 1984 on ebooks, which at that time were available on videotex only and were called “electronic novels.” The very first one was written at a trade show in 1983 and available for download for a fee to videotex subscribers. Although the interface has improved a thousandfold since then, my contention in 1984 holds true 23 years later - people prefer non-fiction information electronically, and want to settle down with an old-fashioned book format for fiction.
Been using my Sony Reader for going on 2 years now. I’ve gone through about a book a week. You people have no clue what you’re missing.
Linda, I think you’re 100% correct. And also because sometimes it’s just nice to have good works of fiction on your bookshelf. But I don’t need the world to know I’m reading “7 habits of highly effective people.”
What does everyone think about the razor and blades business model being applied to ebooks? A company with Amazon’s cash-flow could afford to hand out the hardware at a loss. Amortized packaging and distribution costs for the “blades” could plausibly hover about the pennies. Combining this with a cutthroat revenue agreement heavily favoring publishers, it could offer up a compelling discount to buyers (upwards of 25%, if this ends up resembling MP3 album downloads).
For a nominal amount of money upfront (Amazon Prime is pretty popular for something that costs $79 a year), end-users would get the convenience of wireless on-demand access to a vast library of books. The provider would get a unique product with a locked-in user-base. It’s a risky investment but a very interesting and game-changing one.
As an aside, Amazon has recently been angling toward the essential middleman position with things like S3, EC2, Fullfillment by Amazon, and their Marketplace. It wouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility for them to pull off something like this…but I doubt it. Their shareholders would kill them.
Since Amazon is going to all the trouble to make its device wireless, it’s too bad they couldn’t make it more standards compliant and open. The first ebook hardware device that builds around ebook standards and allows readers to interface with web-based content will rise to the top.
One of my friends has a Sony and it is amazing. It is so much better than reading on the computer because of how friendly the display is on the eyes. These devices are all about mobility and not having to tote around a full computer when all you want to do is read a book/magazine.
thats hot
Woo, the haunted world of Madison Avenue. Google Book Search is on the verge of collapse and now Amazon enters this world with no clue at all. Sad day.
Failure!
I won’t be carrying two devices for the same purpose!
My laptop is enough!
When Apple delivers the next laptop without HD, thin as paper and start selling books for 99cts in iTunes then the world will understand how to do business that appeal to consumers. Again.
Meanwhile, keep trying…
I have a large quantity of existing PDFs bought from places like Pragmatic Programmers and APress. So, I guess I need the iPod of e-book readers. Something that can display my current books (like playing MP3 on an iPod) and can sell me new books (iTunes).
I can’t really buy this since it ignores my existing collection. The Sony reader handles PDFs so poorly (Sony - mostly great hardware - pathetic software) that I can’t read them. I don’t want to use a PDA or even the iPhone because of battery and eye fatigue issues. Price isn’t even the issue, these things seem to be in my iPod’s range. I am fine with that. I just want the iPod of eBook readers. Is it really that hard?
I agree with the pricing and other issues raised here and elsewhere but I think another another important issue is often ignored in this debate: There’s little, if any, value in simply porting the paper product to an e-device. Where e-content can shine is when it truly takes advantage of being digital. A printed book is a static, albeit effective, product. An e-device opens things up to a much more dynamic experience. Let’s tap into that and create some really exciting products!
Btw, sure, you *can* read on an iPhone, but would you really *want* to, especially for hours and hours at a time?! If so you can bet optometrists everywhere will cheer all the extra business, new glasses, contacts, etc., they’ll sell as we straining our eyes like never before!
Joe Wikert
Publishing 2020 Blog
http://www.joewikert.com
More products, more manufacturing, more pollution, more junk in the landfill…
climate change - a yes! we are eco friendly…
my ass!
I can buy an awful lot of books for $399, that probably equates to 20 hardbacks, or even 50 paperbacks.
After buying the reader, I still then have to pay for my e-books, which are DRMed so I can’t even sell them on once I’m done with them.
I don’t see why anyone would do it.
I am on my second palm, and own somewhere around 800 ebooks, and pickup around 5 a month directly from the publisher.
No DRM, and the one’s I really like, I buy in hardcopy for the library.
I’ve been on a mostly ebook diet since about 1999.
-Bubba
I won’t buy DRM crippleware.
Not for $1 and certainly not for $10.
I can buy real books for less.
WTF are they thinking?
FAILURE.
PS - it’s ugly as sin
I think I’m going to increase my position in Lenscrafters.