Larger Kindle Panacea for Publishers?
UPDATE: It’s (semi) Official–Amazon will be holding a “Press Event” at Pace University on Wednesday, May 6th. Why choose a University? eTextbooks perhaps?
UPDATE 2: I have the image wrong–the one below is the rumored reader from Plastic Logic
UPDATE 3: As you are by now aware, they announced. And it is PRICEY!
Early morning readers of the newsfeeds may notice that many news sources are writing about the possible pending release, perhaps as early as this week, of a larger (8 1/2″ x 11″?) Amazon Kindle. This may well be the rumored “student version” but according to the article from which all others are based, the one from the New York Times, this Kindle is seen as the savior of the newspaper industry.
Brad Stone in his NYT article writes:
Unlike tiny mobile phones and devices like the Kindle that are made to display text from books, these new gadgets, with screens roughly the size of a standard sheet of paper, could present much of the editorial and advertising content of traditional periodicals in generally the same format as they appear in print. And they might be a way to get readers to pay for those periodicals — something they have been reluctant to do on the Web.Image from the NYT of the rumored larger Kindle.
This article understandably has a few missing tidbits. Will this new Kindle be the same price as the existing Kindles (over $300?) or will the price of these larger Kindles be subsidized (similar to the cell-phone model) by subscription plans to newspapers and magazines? In addition, will this larger Kindle also display Kindle books, or will it be only a device for reading periodicals?
These questions are quite interesting, especially since (if the rumor is true) they are releasing a new Kindle only months after the introduction of the Kindle2.
Hopefully we will know–this week!
I don’t get this larger Kindle. Students don’t want bigger. I don’t want bigger. The Kindle 2 is sized ‘just right’. Color would be an improvement. I won’t carry this around. Is this the publishing industry maintaining a ‘heads up their ass’ posture?
Just don’t ‘get it’.
I don’t know. The students I talk to say they would like bigger. Not sure how much bigger, but they would like to see the “full page.” Of course, I try to tell them that the notion of a “full page” goes away with the Kindle, but there is still that “sense” of layout that they like.
And, I must say, I am intrigued by the idea of something the size of a piece of paper, but not much thicker than a pencil. Make the device so that it provides a sufficiently large viewing area, with not much increase in the total device size, and I think they might have a run-away win here.
If the image provided is anything close to real, note that the keyboard is missing, and the device “seems to be” a touch screen. This could allow for a reduction in overall size with a larger viewing area. On the other hand, unless the model holding the “rumor-Kindle” is extremely petite, the device does look more like an 11×14 than 8 1/2 x 11.
Hell yes I want bigger. I’m a former stu of Steve’s and I can’t stand the tiny keys on my Blackberry and other small screens. I’m working on my second masters degree, and to this day I still print out much of what I have to read because I can’t “get into” reading a 600 page text off a pdf doc from a device or even my laptop. Only way I’d buy one of these things is if it had the traditional layout of a piece of paper but be thinner than the notebook computer.
O.K. in WSJ today . . . the unit will cost $489 and is bigger (a bit) and heavier (a lot).
But it also has “greatly improved capabilities.”
You can buy a netbook for a lot less, and get a real computer.
I think Kindle has just messed up their price point big time . . .
(I would snap up a Kindle 2 today at $99; even if my fears of being in an “entangling alliance” with the content providers. My expectation actually is that the Kindle should be free as long as I sing a contract with the content providers a la the cellphone model.)
OBTW I don’t really consider the maxi-chiclet keyboard of the Kindle to be that great. Again, I only got to fondle a K1 briefly just last week so my opinion should be discounted.
Consider me an “enthusiastic potential adopter” who sees “a weak value proposition”
Agreed–the little keyboard has something to be desired. Might I suggest you consider a “used” Kindle 1?
Also, some friends of mine are taking my little “macro” for editing the clippings file, and significantly improving and extending it–and making it work across OS platforms. If they are successful, you will be able to do some AMAZING things with that highlight/clipping file.
Alright, they got me. I have the Kindle 1, and was holding off on getting Kindle 2. Now, I’m glad I waited, because I think the DX is going to be great. Hope they start shipping in June as promised.
I for one am visually challenged and prefer a hard copy book where i canj focus very carefully on the words. Although I do read rapidly I just need my hard copy.