Amazon Kindle gets official
By Conrad Quilty-Harper 
posted November 18th 2007 4:52PM
posted November 18th 2007 4:52PM
[Thanks, Alex]
posted November 18th 2007 4:52PM
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"I can't stick it in my back pocket"
"DRM"
"It's too expensive."
People, can we stop with the mind-numbingly unoriginal comments? Every single one of these objections has been weighed ad infinitum over the past 10+ years by companies developing e-readers. Yes, it's very well known that "most people" aren't going to buy them in the short term. They're not trying to sell them to "most people." There are approximately 200 million people who can read in the US. If they were to manage to sell one of these to 1/100 of the reading population, it would be a tremendous success. But at this stage, even those kind of numbers are unrealistic, and they already know this.
Amazon is trying to get into pure digital distribution. Hence Amazon Unbox and their mp3 store. This is just one more plank. It doesn't have to be a runaway success. It just has to be a not-completely-abject failure so they can justify investing in the next iteration of the product.
Oh, I didn't know there were only people in the US.
You learn something new every day.
Incidentally, you can sell 100 items with $100 profit and make 10,000, or you can sell 10000 items with $10 profit and make 100,000.
The issue here is that e-paper seems a bit expensive to manufacture at this point but without a market with volume it doesn't get much cheaper in the short term, and to get a market with volume the price has to be right.
if i took a shit in a bag and stepped on it, then opened it up it would be a better "ebook" than this. another perfect example of a bunch of retard advisers trying to scam a bunch of civilians out of there hard earned cash for the sake of profit. hey jeffy did you really think you could force peeps into a corner? nice try
you get a F- on this one, next time build what we want, then you can make some $$
At first I thought this would be a good idea for school books, especially since mine are at least $500 per semester (electrical engineering undergrad is not cheap), and digital should make it cheaper. Then I looked at how I used the books. I am constantly shifiting between sections to reference formulas and examples that might take several pages each. Also I spend a lot of time looking at multiple books do solve a problem. Then there is the fact that the books can be used as basic reference materials once school is over. I would need several of these to be able to do school work in a decent fashion, and nothing leads me to believe that the publishers would make the e-book versions of textbooks significantly cheaper.
Everyone doubting the ability of this needs to go see E-ink technology in person. These displays are absolutely excellent! So much different than a LCD screen. The feel and ability to look at without hurting the eyes is much much closer to paper than any screen I've seen.
More importantly, once they can get rid of the glass screen and hard circuitboard, these devices will *REALLY* TAKE OFF! E-ink corp., Toshiba, Sipix, and a few others are already putting these super thin "rollable"/flexible displays into production. They should be available commercial sometime soon. They look AWESOME! it's like holding a few sheets of real paper in your hand. You can fold it up and go when you are done reading! I think they use some type of polymer (plastic) based IC tech.
Here is the wikipedia page on E-ink, which has a great picture of a prototype of one of these thin flexible displays.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_paper
http://www.sipix.com/technology/
many outside the US don't realise big problems, not all books are easily available. for me, in south-east Europe, paperback for 5-10$ is science fiction, in *many* other countries also. problems are; publishers are horrible (i.e. first edition neuromancer published in 2003), when they do print something it is so expensive (my neuromancer copy was around 70$, and it was a lousy translation), if ordering from outside/amazon when you pay the delivery and customs you get the same price, if not higher, so why bother at all ...
books in digital format are a blessing, however when reading i like to relax, it's not so easy holding a laptop or sitting in front of a desktop trough the night. i love these devices, unfortunately they are very expensive, but in the long term it would be a good investment considering that i've spent a fortune on books
It's really interesting to see how people are all discussing about e-book versus real books in this post... while they were just bashing the Sony Reader for the high price. I mean, e-Book readers aren't that new anymore and Sony already released its reader a long while ago. Also, the Sony's one is $100 cheaper, with about the same spec.
This website is just filled with Sony haters, seriously. Even the posts are biased...
Well it seems sony's corporate strategies are paying off then.
Leaked prices, store links, accessories:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16229
I got one for Christmas. I read 3-4 books a week and was really looking forward to using this. But I have a Mac, and no one seems to know how to make it work with a Mac. Even Sony help line was of no assist. Is there anyone out there who can help me? Mind you I am not a computer wiz so give it to me slow and detailed.
I did ask Mac support about it and they refered me to the internet.
"One thing's for sure, this is looking way more compelling a package than previous attempts at the eBook idea."
Why would it be better than the sony reader or something? This kindle is more expensive and looks terrible
> Oh, I didn't know there were only people in the US.
> You learn something new every day.
You'll notice that this product is being launched in New York. New York is in the US, yes? Also, the product uses Sprint EVDO. Sprint is a US carrier, yes? Finally, go to the Amazon.com Kindle site, and you'll see, not so surprisingly, "Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S." Now ask yourself was your sarcasm necessary or wise?
Not a single comment on engadget is ever 'necessary' really is it?
As for wise, yeah I only later looked up what EVDO was and it seems it's indeed designed to be used on existing american system networks, so you certainly got a good point there.
However, wikipedia says they are making EVDO available elsewhere, and someone did comment that amazon.co.uk also sells kindle books..
And obviously it is possible for amazon to change the tranceiver in the thing to use some other network/system and introduce it elsewhere, there are billions more customers in the world, and amazon long ago expanded their business to the wider world.
OR amazon could simply make use of the USB connection in europe and such, and have people download via an amazon 'itunes'-style application from their website for now.
After all this device does seem designed for the traveler and some americans will no doubt visit places outside of the amazon network.
Meh, I'd rather read eBooks on an iPhone.
Maybe I'm missing something but how is the Kindle like a book? This is a big piece of plastic that will break if you leave it out in the rain or accidentally spill liquid on it. A book will still work if you do either of those. Also, you never have to worry about the battery in a book dying.
One more thing. Amazon is trying to put to much into this so called e-book. The greatest thing about a book is the simplicity of it. All you do is read it. You don't have to worry about downloading the latest firmware or pressing buttons in the hope you open the correct book.
Amazon needs to take all the crappy fillers (i.e. RSS feeds, surfing the internet) out of the Kindle and stick to what it's supposed to be: a book. We can surf the internet on our cellphones and see RSS feeds on our cell phones and do much more than the Kindle can. So Amazon needs to differentiate its self and make an e-book that JUST an e-book.
They have a good idea, they're just trying to do too much.
Ah, another feeble attempt at an ebook reader and is exactly the same as every other ebook reader (except the wireless).
It's got a poor design with sharp edges, not in color, easily twice as much as anyone will pay, has too many buttons (doesn't ANYONE follow Apples brilliant lead on simple interface design), and the list goes on and on. As for college textbooks, having these on a slim light notebook would likely fair better than a dedicated device like the kindle. I believe the kindle with kinda fail.
Just another gadget to fade away. For one thing, I want to own the media and be able to print it or back it up. I don't like having it stored at "Amazon" and downloaded whenever. $400 is a lot of money for "just another PDA".
I think this is awesome technology that was too long in the making. However, it's one thing to have the ability to read digital literature, quite another to have digital literature available to be read. So my question is, "Is Amazon.com ready to offer all literature for digital consumption?". Will I be able to download the newspaper of choice, or will I only be able to download a few main US newspapers? I mean, it's great technology, but if all I will be able to download to read are 2-3 newspapers, Harelquin Romance novels and some comic books then it won't be worth the $399 price tag.
Is there a list of available digital material to purchase and download from Amazon.com, or can I assume that all literature listed on Amazon.com's web site will be available for download? If all material advertized on Amazon.com is available for purchase and download in digital form....tell me where I can buy one of these new ebooks.
Thanks
I don't think anyone has actually read the article. If you did, you'd be totally shocked:
* You can also subscribe to selected blogs, which cost either 99 cents or $1.99 a month per blog
* The Kindle, shipping as you read this, costs $399
* It has 167 dot-per-inch E Ink display, with type set in a serif font called Caecilia
* $9.99 for new releases and best sellers
* $1.99 for classics
* wireless connectivity, via a system called Whispernet. (It's based on the EVDO broadband service offered by cell-phone carriers, allowing it to work anywhere, not just Wi-Fi hotspots.) (Sprint only, from what I read from other comments)
So... this thing looks like it's doomed to fail from the start. In order to buy ebooks, you will need to subscribe to a Sprint wireless service, that will only work in the US. It looks like there is no way you can purchase an ebook if you are in an airport outside of the US.
If you subscribe to a blog, it's $2/month. How many blogs do you have subscribed via RSS? 5? That's $10/month on top of everything else you are paying for.
The DPI is about the same as the Sony reader, but what they do not say is the technology employed to scale the text when you zoom in/out. I've read good reviews about Sony's reader, and I think that is the real deal breaker. Everyone knows that all displays are not equal. Just look at the image quality of 42" LCD TVs, or any same sized displays (even those used for computers). Would you buy a "tech device" from an online store, or from an electronics giant which spends billions of dollars on R&D?
Anyway, I love books. I like to see the binders on my bookcase, and remind myself what I have read, where I read that book, what I got out of that book, etc. With ebooks, that's really going to be forgotten. Scrolling down an index list of titles is just not going to be the same. Same thing with CD cases and digital music. It's not the same anymore.
Isn't it going to be strange that one day, you will be telling your kids or grand-kids... "yeah, long time ago, we had books printed on paper..."
Love it, love it. My reaction to this was - wow, I'm getting one, I only wish it was slightly cheaper. I spend all my time reading, and mostly online. I travel on long 5-8 hour flights pretty often, and hate having to waste precious luggage space to carry six-seven books for each week-long journey. I like that I don't have to pay any monthly activation fee or anything, except for newspapers I already pay to subscribe to. I wish I could try it before I spent $400 on this. And yes, my big question is, this can only store 200 books - what happens in a few months? Do I need to delete my previous books to get new ones?
amazon always give me an impression of low price, but not this time...
i would rather use the $400 on something else...
I can see a use for it in academia.
First of all, it should make reading with reference materials to hand a lot easier - handy for undergrads struggling through Ælfric, Baudelaire or Kant. Also, I often find myself surrounded with about 30-40 books when writing and academic paper.
However, the read boon I see here is never having to print out a journal article, proceedings paper or draft chapter again. That would be a really big benefit for me.
Now, do they have it in a slipcase with the words "DON'T PANIC" inscribed in large friendly letters?
I read the article in Newsweek and discovered it has a highlight function. Granted. Here's something else to be said in defense of books even Newsweek neglected: bookcases are attractive pieces of furniture, and can even be a status symbol. Books are attractive. Shelves full of books are not only attractive and create a calming atmosphere, but the books themselves serve to remind me of their presence, and to therefore read them. Books don't, in fact, disappear, as Newsweek stated. Rather, their omnipresence is a valuable reminder of their immediacy and the need to read them.
Amazon has a good idea, someone else should implement it.
Kindle is a strong idea but only good [for now] if you're in the US. I like the news in the iLiad camp.
http://tinyurl.com/yssjo9
When it gets to $ 199 - I'm in.