Last time Amazon had a press conference they released a little something I like to call the best ebook reader in the whole wide world. Well, we’ve got a seat at another conference on Monday, February 9 and unless they’re announcing a Bezos-themed amusement park in the Ukraine, I’m pretty sure we’re going to see the Kindle 2.
As Michael wrote before the holiday:
The images that surfaced of the new Kindle in October are real – it’s a longer device but not as thick as the original Kindle, and fixes some of the button issues that plague users (like accidental page turns). A larger-screen student version is still scheduled for the first half of 2009.
The event will be at the lush Morgan Library & Museum which seems to suggest something to do with books. If our sources are correct, the new Kindle will be quite a bit nicer than the original model. It was originally described as being what the iPod Touch was to the original 1st gen iPod – a quantum leap in gadget styling and technology.
I *really* hope the student version works well and that they’ll have thought about issues discussed in the past like the ability to sell a book once you use it and don’t need it anymore. They either need to allow it, or sell the ebooks at a price where that’s factored in.
Personally, I’d love to get a Kindle, especially if I can get all my textbooks on it. My other question will be what I’ll do for normal books because I usually go to the library to get them. If I have no choice but to buy them, that’ll be a disappointment to me.
While I bring up these concerns, keep in mind that I think the Kindle is simply amazing. It has the potential to change the way people read books.
You won’t want all your school textbooks on the kindle because its very hard to scan through them quickly. Generally the kindle is only good for reading page by page.
Are you insane? Being able to search for specific terms and jump to them in the text isn’t easier than having to flip through paper pages scanning them visually for what you’re looking for?
I agree with you… But digital libraries are bitter sweet – whilst the barebones data approach is extremely efficient and opens previously improbable possibilities, they suffer from this approach too… Human memory is not like a computer… I may remember that the exact thing I was looking for was about 3 pages after the glossy diagram two thirds in on a bright blue covered faded yellowish paged text book which I always put at the bottom of the pile of books on the right side of my desk… But I may not recall the name / author of the book, nor the page number, nor the exact ’search term’ I’m looking for… You get my point?
Digital collections still have a long way to go… And no, ‘coverflow’ is not the solution, although it’s a step in the right direction even though I dislike it / don’t use it myself…
Gaines, I’m betting you’ve not spent a lot of time using a Kindle with textbooks.
Pull out keyboard would reduce size of the kindle.. Keyboard is not much used, so pulling it down when required would make a lot of sense..
“…like the ability to sell a book once you use it and don’t need it anymore. They either need to allow it, or sell the ebooks at a price where that’s factored in.”
Interesting point @Ankit Gupta! I’d lean towards the latter… Reselling ebooks is tricky – it either requires tricky DRM handling, or is open to widespread abuse (What’s to stop someone ‘reselling’ the same DRM-free ebook again and again?).
I could imagine communities getting together and each buying single a DRM’d ebook, then and simply passing them (and their respective licences) around under the guise of reselling… I think we’re purchasing the intellectual property not the bits and bytes! So yes, the price needs to reflect the lack of physical product and much cheaper marketing / distribution systems… Bring it down, way down!
“My other question will be what I’ll do for normal books because I usually go to the library to get them. If I have no choice but to buy them, that’ll be a disappointment to me.”
Moving the public library concept into the digital age poses some real tricky questions. Traditional libraries are local, and copies of individual books are few. In a digital library, copies are infinite and immediately available, nor are they bound to physical locations.
There are already ways to get library books on the Kindle by using a script that gleans the PID from the Kindle (a necessary unique device number for borrowing). The books expire just like they’re supposed to do. I know it’s detailed somewhere in the forums at mobilereads.com. It would be nicer if Amazon gave us the native capability to utilize the “overdrive” system (which is what a lot of libraries use). I think their sales of the Kindle would go through the roof.
We might get that capability by version 3 because right now, I think Amazon is still focused on getting us used to the concept of BUYING the e-books they produce.
Price point is another issue that is a concern. Somehow, people got the $9.99 stuck in their heads like it was a promise set in stone from Amazon. Amazon said that most (not all) NYT Best Sellers would be $9.99, and to my knowledge, they still are.
The problem with textbooks – I looked at digital texts from one publisher and it was more like a digital rent (the book only stays active for 1 semester (or 2 if a year-long course) and then expires, and the price wasn’t that much lower than the dead-tree version. Besides that, as lots of textbooks utilize lots of color pictures, graphs and tables, it might be quite a while before grahic-heavy books are readily available in kindle format. The text-heavy tomes will be there though, and probably well-worth not having to lug the DTB (dead tree book) around.
I’ve had my Kindle since June and I have never regretted buying it. I’ve never been a library person or a used book person or a book trader, so books tend to accumulate in my home. The Kindle is a pleasant reading experience and when I’m done with a book, it’s just a click away from being gone, and even if not on my Kindle, I can always get it back from Amazon if I want it – kind of like my own personal library.
Oh, one more thing. Each digital copy comes with a certain number of licenses. The norm is 6, which means that a digital copy can be lent to 6 devices at a time, and some books confer a lesser number of licenses. So, a library can run out of copies it’s authorized to lend. In fact, if you look at your library’s digital lending page, each item should show how many copies are currently available.
I guess I’ll shut up now :)
I’m looking forward to the Kindle release, but now that you mention it, I’d MUCH rather see that Bezos-themed amusement park in the Ukraine! Thanks for the morning chuckle.
The student version could be successful, but they need to subsidize it somehow to knock the initial cost down.
If they could build in ads to the textbook downloads to make them substantially cheaper than their paper counterparts, that could be the key.
The kindle is changing how to view a book, it’s becoming electronic, it’s not changing the book itself though, if that makes sense.
Here’s my point – if ads could bring down the cost of books to the consumer, wouldn’t that have already been done? The kindle is a test on a specific task – making books electronic. It’s not trying to change the revenue model of selling a book and getting money by adding in advertisements.
I’m not saying it can’t work, but I don’t see them trying those things till a later point, maybe once the Kindle is what everyone uses like an iPod today. Once it’s popular, they can definitely experiment with it.
Also, why would the student version need to be subsidized? Students spend probably between $300-600 on textbooks every semester and they don’t have an issue of spending a little more to make things digital. Music isn’t *much* cheaper on iTunes than a CD bought in a store, students still purchase that, and they also bought an iPod that wasn’t subsidized.
Ian, you might be right on both points, I just don’t see it happening right away myself.
“Here’s my point – if ads could bring down the cost of books to the consumer, wouldn’t that have already been done?”
No, mostly because the high cost of books is due to the college itself. You think they pay anywhere near 150-200 bucks a text? It’s hyper-inflated because of a need to keep tuition down (which is ironic and unfortunate, since grants and loans usually take into account tuition more than book costs, leaving a lot of lower-income folks in a bind).
Hmm nice, lets hope this one is more popular.
I would think that e-book versions would be cheaper to begin with, but then again I can’t come up with a single reason my Chem 130 book was 200 ^@$# dollars in the first place.
A 12 credit hour load ended up at about $500 bucks in books, and I managed to re-use two from last semester (otherwise, I’d have had to buy those as well). If they can cut the cost of textbooks by 50%-66%, the Student Kindle would pay for itself in one semester, forget “selling” back texts.
But definitely, keeping down initial costs, especially in the current economy, will be key. Failing unit costs being low, they NEED to make sure there a cut in book costs sufficient to justify the product.
At this point, there are not enough textbooks available in this format for most students to use a Kindle as replacement for dead trees. I’m a EE major, and have found none of my required texts on Kindle (ironic b/c my senior design involves e-paper!)
Even if they were available, I would agree that the pricing is too high for most students to see Kindle as a viable alternative. My texts cost ~$150 apiece. I skip the used hardcover and look for international editions first (~$30). Without that level of discount, I certainly won’t buy an e-textbook.
Has anyone else heard any rumors that the next Kindle will be cheaper than the past model? I almost bought the first gen one, but after looking at the prices of the ebooks, I decided it’s not all that good of a deal.
Yeah I heard it was going to be less expensive as well but even as is, it’s cheaper to buy the actual books you want. Although it does have some pretty cool features.
I love my kindle and unless I lose it I probably won’t upgrade to the second gen version, even though it does look sleeker and is probably thinner with better battery life. Maybe when they come out with the touch screen gen 3 with virtual keyboard and a pdf reader, I’ll make the jump.
Hammer,
I know that the Kindle documentation says that it doesn’t handle .pdf files, but I’ve been sending and reading .pdf files on my Kindle for months. You just send it to your …@kindle.com account and more than 95% of the time there is no problem. It isn’t perfect because the formatting sometimes leaves a bit to be desired, but it’s almost always readable.
Hammer,
I know that the Kindle documentation says that it doesn’t handle .pdf files, but I’ve been sending and reading .pdf files on my Kindle for months. You just send it to your …@kindle.com account and more than 95% of the time there is no problem. It isn’t perfect because the formatting sometimes leaves a bit to be desired, but it’s almost always readable.
Ebook readers still have a long way to go, especially in pricing. The Kindle price is still to high for something that only does text. In addition, I’m not going to pay full price for an ebook version of something. If I’m paying $20 or more, I better get the hardback, not an electronic version that requires a special reader, batteries, etc. When you get ebooks down to the $5 range, I’ll start thinking seriously about a Kindle.
You generally pay less for a kindle copy of a book than you do for a paperback or hardcover. A new release book can be bought Kindle version for $9.99 – while the hardcover is $24.99.
You can also mail your kindle account pdf files and it will format them for kindle. (As well as .doc and .txt). Other e-books are able to be read on the Kindle, as well as audio books.
THANK YOU!!!!!
Why should I pay for the publishing, physical distribution (gas&labor), and stocking fees when it is electronically produced and ignored once?
$5 would be the mark for making me a customer. The kindle price is not stopping me; the book price is….
Look through the catalog of Kindle books. There is a wealth of material available for less than $9.99. Only the newest and most popular books are $9.99. I can count on one hand how many books I’ve spent $9.99 on, and I’ve bought over a hundred since I got my Kindle back in June.
Amazon sometimes offers free books – promotions from authors who are looking for new readers and most of them have been very good books, some by well-known authors. There are also a lot of sites that offer out-of-copyright books for free! Feedbooks, mobileread, gutenberg and mnybooks are four of the most popular. You can get lots of the classics from Amazon at a nominal cost also, but most of the free versions are just as good and sometimes come from the same free sources.
The Kindle may not be for everyone. There are still holes in the content available and some authors are adamantly opposed to the digital format, so if you are a stickler for a particular genre, you might want to make sure your kind of reading material and the authors you love are readily available.
I’d say that I fall into the same category – if books were $5 or less, I’d love to have one of those. I don’t mind the up front device costs as much as I do the ongoing costs. The reason is that I feel like I’m getting nickled and dimed over time when I have to pay decent chunks of cash in a monthly fee or cost of a book. I use an iPhone and love it, but hate the $30/month I have to spend for the data plan. I would rather have an unsubsidized phone and get a cheaper data plan.
Also, one thought about Amazon, they should open up their book selling tools to companies like Sony and Apple. I would almost expect Apple to have been working on ebook readers just like Amazon has been, but Apple doesn’t have the experience that Amazon does in selling books, especially now that Amazon has been doing it over dedicated purpose devices (Kindle). As a shareholder, even if they don’t win the ebook reader market, I’d like to see them be a part of whoever does win by being the medium over which books are bought and sold.
Last point – once prices of books come down and I have a device like a Kindle, I see myself doing a lot more reading on a daily basis. The book publishers don’t want to give up short term revenue, but in my opinion, they’ll do well in the long term because people like me will consume more books.
I’m really hoping it comes to Canada
I absolutely love my Kindle. I think that it is one of the best devices I have ever used. All elements of it are very well thought-out. I never had the issues with the buttons that any one has ever stated.
I also think that it has the potential of becoming a great tool for kids with all of its lookup features and ability to display additional information about what you are reading. I find myself using the lookup feature when encountering a word that is outside of my knowledge.
Having said that, I think it is one of the worst priced device to have come out in years. Its price is its major barrier to market. Not many people are willing to spend around $380.00 for the device and that is before the price of books. While I know that you make up the difference in the price of the book, but it is still very expensive for the average person to purchase.
I believe that for this device to become a mainstream book, magazine, and newspaper reader, Amazon needs to either lower the price or offer plans that will lower the cost of the device, but ensure revenue from books. I remember a while back, audible.com was able to expand their business by subsidizing the price of the devices with plans that locked users to pay $19.95/month for 2 books. The other way to lower the cost would be to also give an option of either using the Sprint cellular connection or a WiFi connection (one would have to be built into the device), or non at all. Many users are used to having to connect a device to a computer to sync it (i.e. iPod). Doing the same with the Kindle will be a good idea to lower their cost.
I truly hope that they work this out since I would hate to see this device fail due to improper marketing.
How about Kindle software? I already own an iPhone and a laptop. I don’t need to carry another device. I would be willing to pay money for a Kindle application, though.
Do you seriously want to read a book on the iPhone? A laptop on the other hand might be a different story…
Plenty of people read books on the iPhone. The convenience factor of it fitting in your pocket makes it ideal in certain situations, and I’d argue, makes it better than reading a paperback even when convenience isn’t a factor. (automatic bookmarking, reading in the dark, easier to hold in one hand, the list goes on)
Plenty of people are talking about it from this post at Teleread (http://www.teleread.org/2009/01/25/one-click-away-from-abandoning-my-kindle/) to Walt Mossberg (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123198329968084069.html)
This is a looking a little better than the first one.. but really not much has changed in terms of design
And can we expect some support outside the US?
Us Canadians like ebooks too!
“the best ebook reader in the whole wide world.”
Somebody give this man a Sony Reader.
I would tend to agree but I just really like the service, not the device. sadly, they’re tied to each other.
I started using the local library last month. I can’t see buying a book for personal use again. I go online, place a hold on a book, if they don’t have it at my local branch they get it from one of the other local branches. I stop by the next day and pick it up.
I never actually touched a Kindle with my own hands, let alone seen one… until yesterday. The thing is smaller than it looks and the display is beautiful. What has kept me away from purchasing version 1 is the price of the device itself. Price Kindle 2 right and you will get me as a buyer.
Of course, considering
I ordered a gen 1 around Christmastime – 11 to 13 weeks backordered which means early March. Thinking now about cancelling that and waiting for gen 2 to release.
I bought my wife a kindle over the Holidays and there was a back log. Expected shipping date for her Kindle is March (and I bought it in December). Does anyone know if they will ship the new kindle II to her or will they keep making kindle I?
i’d recommend it
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I want a Kindle, but price kept me away. Over $300 and I’m still away; under $200 and I’m definitely in whether I have a job or not. In between, I’d have to think about it…
Amazon is certainly proposing the best wireless ebook service in the world. But the Kindle itself is far from being the best device.
One pretty good device is French: the Cybook. I got it from booksonboard and the device is damned thin, light and stylish. The UI is intuitive and works great with an opened ebook format called Mobipocket. I love it!
it’s not *the* Ukraine, it’s just … Ukraine
Love my Kindle. This doesn’t look like the kind of upgrade that will make me regret being an early adopter too much, unless it’s significantly lighter. I would like more screenspace (especially vertical), so a Kindle that’s the same size as the current model but has a touchscreen (rather than a screen and keyboard) would be immensely tempting.
The price of the Kindle is reasonable to me because it comes with wireless service. Many people seem to overlook the value of this.
The Sony reader can’t even do wireless, which makes it useless in my opinion. Can’t even compare the two. JMO.
I can’t see it myself. You can get the same material for free in a better format (paper) at the library.
Paper books are sturdy; you don’t have the worry and annoyance of dragging around a piece of delicate, expensive electronic device with a scratchable display. You can drop books on the train. If you lose one, it isn’t a big matter usually, especially if a paperback. You can stuff a paperback in your pocket. You don’t have to charge a paper book or change batteries. Copyrights can be secured with paper printing.
If the economics of paper printing become prohibitive, it is still hard to predict what will dominate in the future. Securing intellectual property is still waiting for a solution. Presumably libraries would still offer books for free, but ebooks. Why buy from Amazon when it is just as convenient to download from a public library? Why buy a Kindle when you can get a netbook for the same price with much greater capability? I suppose there would be a niche market for dedicated readers as there is for dedicated word processors, but not a big niche I wouldn’t think.
About time. I have been waiting for this announcement for… well… a few weeks at least.
Do people actually buy these things? Why?
Troyce,
My novel Ella the Vampire is available for the Kindle for $4.40.
I’m am somewhat thankful that I bought a Kindle V1, since I’m not that fond of the appearance of K2. Still, I’m curious about the features of the textbook version of the K has to offer. I’ll upgrade and give my K1 to a relative, if the textbook version has a decent textbook variety, allows users to create folders, and if it supports more formats.
In reply to Miguel: Ereaders is a matter of convenience. The ability to store hundreds of in portable device. Books take up a lot of space and the kindle allows people to continue to buy books without having make more room for them. Also this device is ideal for readers that frequently travel or live in the dorm.
Personally, I use my K to read store and store my class notes (saves me a lot on printer ink).
For those who are looking for kindle books with a 5 dollar or less price range check out:
http://www.jungle-search.com
This site allows you to do a price specific search in kindle store. I typically search within the 3-5 dollar price range.
I think this is great for newspapers. People read them and throw them out all the time. This way it saves you from making more waste with all the papers.
On can buy an netbook for less money.
Slightly larger, but with full keypad and real computer functionality.
“a little something I like to call the best ebook reader in the whole wide world.”
Unless you live in that small part of the whole wide world that isn’t the USA.
A color screen would be a definite improvement.
I created an illustrated guide to my historical novel “Brazil” cross-linked to Kindle text and hosted on my website:
http://erroluys.com/Kindle/KindleIllustratedGuide.htm
Besides color, a more user-friendly design platform.
Errol
The New Amazon Kindle 2 Has Arrived
Price: $359.00 & this item ships for FREE
hXXp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00154JDAI?tag=tophit-20