Yes, Amazon announced the Kindle DX today, and it’s just what we thought it’d be. What interests us here, though, is what does Twitter think about the news. (And as we all know, Twitter created Heaven and Earth, such is its importance.)
@tariqi Very disappointed by the launch of the Amazon Kindle DX. Seriously, what’s the point? #kindle
@Howard_Scott nearly $500 for a Kindle DX? Come off it Amazon! That buys a hell of a lot of books before it pays itself off!
@sarahhaeger would love to get my hands on the new Kindle DX, but at $500 it’s a little steep
@noliberalbull seriously Amazon: Kindle DX waaay to expensive to justify for most people. I’d love to get one, but no way am I dropping $500 on it
@andreasceo Yeah!! Finally a solution for newspapers: Start throwing out your printing presses, reduce delivery cost – Amazon just launched Kindle DX!
@todesesser From the size of the Kindle DX I expect it to control the security systems of my volcano lair or order my private army to destroy James Bond
@Browntideguy How awesome would it be to read scientific papers on 9.7” Kindle DX? All it needs is a highlighter function. http://bit.ly/16HeuT
@L_Berry Dear Kindle DX, I don’t need you. But why do I want you so badly? Please lower your price and mail yourself to me. Thanks, Laura
@wmacphail Man, I think the Kindle DX is a dog. A one-trick pony needs to be easily portable, not a boat anchor.
And so on. The gist seems to be that, um, $500 to read New Yorker articles about race horses you’ve never heard of or 8 million words on why waterboarding is or is not torture may be a bit too much for most people.
I think this is aimed at Education where books run to much more than 500 dollars, though, then you do have to buy the books extra…
But my bag is broken from the weight of books as it is, so the real question is not about the price of books, but if the price is justified to save on weight problems on your bag and back?
I think so, now launch this in Ireland already!
My concern here is, let’s say you buy a DX with the aim to use it for school. Ideally you’d save yourself a bundle on textbook costs (presuming the publishers play nice), but what if there’s one or two books that you still need to buy? Now, not only are you out $500, but you *still* need to buy heavy and expensive textbooks.
DX is a great idea, but until the average university student can buy one knowing that *all* his books can be viewed on there, it’s still sorta meh. My opinion, of course.
That’s why god invented Scanners, Patience and PDF support ;-)
“And as we all know, Twitter created Heaven and Earth, such is its importance.”
Yeah, and techcrunch had absolutely nothing to do with that.
I’m more on the CrunchGear side of things (except for the occasional music-related post that may get cross-posted), so don’t blame me for all the Twitter coverage!
Kindle books are slightly cheaper than paper copies.
10 dollars versus 11, 15 or 18 etc., depending on what your buying.
So, Textbook vendors who are selling to a closed house, who must buy their book. Are they going to sell you their $300 textbook in electronic form for $25 or $250.
And first you have to buy a $500 toy.
Plus you can’t highlight it or take notes in the margin or book mark the pages for quick reference or study.
If it were given away free and the book was $50 rather than $500 then give me a call.
I’m buying my college kids paper!
Larger is nice, but certainly not innovative. I was hoping for features that might set the stage for launching Kindle 3:
http://www.innovationinpractice.com/innovation_in_practice/2009/01/the-lab-innovating-the-kindle-with-task-unification-january-2009.html
hi there
If I was still in academia, I’d jump on this at $500 (I’ve dropped $1500 on textbooks for a single semester). While I can’t speak for it’s ability to save the newspaper industry, I can definitely see this changing the way colleges assign reading.
Even if the device isn’t provided or required by the institution, I think students will see the value (so long as enough of the right titles are available, and the e-books are less expensive than the print versions)
Hard to imagine this being worthwhile for most people, though…
F twitter. F kindle. F oprah!
Ehhh, for $500 I would’ve purchase a PS3, eff books! However, I’m eagerly awaiting for the Kindle to blast in full color. Ohh, such naughty thoughts while reading People mag and indulging in Vanilla Bean ice cream.
I’m interested to learn what the price of textbooks will be on the Kindle DX. The savings for students and schools could be significant over the life of the kindle or even for just a 4 year college education.
should we have a Poll on how many twitter related stories will appear on Techcrunch in the next 24 Hours ?
I bet 3.
Must be a slow Twitter day. But that’s the great thing about Twitter, is TwitterCrunch can still post about Twitter by pretending to post about something else! Twitter twitter twitter twitter.
Well, if a bunch of strangers who probably don’t read much don’t like it then I don’t either. Idiots.
Since they are not discounting the books or magazines or news papers to any significant amount, they must virtually give these things away (30 bucks or less).
For $500.00 it better come preloaded with every book in the known universe, plus a free subscription to every magazine and news paper of my choice forever!
So, here we are.
Kindle, over priced.
Kindle books, over priced.
Kindle news papers, over priced.
Kindle magazines, over priced.
Go Away Kid, ya’bothering me.
The problem with the cost is the e-ink screen. The street cost is over $100 dollars and the components probably add up to over $200. Add-in margin the cost of the bandwidth for downloads and you have your price…
Personally, I would rather buy a netbook (with more functionality) for $300 and buy the e-books seperately for the same price.
So a link to a Twitter search on a topic is what passes for a story these days? Wow.
My thoughts exactly hahaha.
The implications of this device are well beyond the issue of price. Education publishing is a massive business. With this move, Amazon can have an impact on the business and profitability of the main players in the market: Pearson, McGraw Hill and others and to a smaller extent of the newspaper industry. Eventually, many titles will be available only online with clear cost savings on production, storage and distribution. And Amazon is now position to be the gatekeeper of that space.
This is potentially bigger than iTunes.
The price of the device will be subsidized and then will reduce over time anyway.
Way to go Amazon!
Less than half of the books I’ve bought in the past year for classes have had electronic copies. Seriously, spending $500 for a color-less reader, along with the ~$100 for the books that have an electronic copy and full price for the other half that only exist in paper format is pointless. I assume this will change with time if textbook publishers jump toward this format. Still, most of the textbooks I’ve used so far demand colors for diagrams and such anyway.
Until Amazon drops the price by, I don’t know, half, and adopts an LCD or color E-ink model, it just doesn’t seem worth it.
Lots of speculation about what the Twitterati had to say. Here’s the real breakdown of tweets, by topic:
Implications for Newspapers: 22%
Want To Buy It: 15%
Implications for Students: 14%
Too Expensive: 12%
Excited re: native .pdf: 12%
Other: 9%
Would Buy, Too Pricey: 8%
Other Criticism: 8%
More here: http://bit.ly/gvt01
who cares what twitter thinks twitter is useless and stupid anyone who uses it has no friends period.