Amazon Kindle slimming down in August?
By Ross Miller 
posted May 28th 2010 10:41PM
posted May 28th 2010 10:41PM
Color might still be out of the question -- both now and far into the future -- but Amazon seems fit to take out some of the Kindle's fat. Bloomberg has it on word that the company will debut a thinner version of its e-book reader in August, and the new workout regiment will also enhance its screen sharpness and responsiveness. No word on if this'll apply to current models or be an entirely different variant, but in addition to no color, we do hear it lacks a touch screen. Bummer, but if the price is right, we'll bite.
I dunno man, it's pretty thin already... I have no complaints.
Responsiveness could definitely be improved.
@kumquat
yeah, is the size of this thing really what they should be concerned with?
@kumquat
The new improved Amazon Kindle: Feels like you're holding nothing at all! Nothing at all!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL4iVQyp9L4&feature=related
@kumquat Agreed. Already thin and light enough. Needs a price drop though. Honestly assumed they'd do a touchscreen to get rid of the buttons. Didn't they buy a company with touchscreen tech that doesn't harm contrast?
@kumquat Well that's just one of the thing that'll be better. More importantly is that it's getting a higher contrast screen that'll have sharper text. And if thinner=lighter then that's great, not to mention that if the device itself is thinner it won't be as bulky once you put a protective sleeve of some kind around it-it's not like people chuck their Kindles unprotected into their bookbags-it's usually a lot thicker by the time it's been clad in protection for the trip.
Now what I would want before I'll bite is a larger screen! My biggest disappointment with ebooks right now is just how little text they fit compared to a regular book unless you're willing to carry around some massive beast like the DX. If Amazon can bump the screen size up an inch and a half it'd probably be just about right.
@Becauseitsnotgoogle2
True, but it sure looks nice when I'm sitting on a park bench.
@Becauseitsnotgoogle2
Wow. Really? What are you going to use, an iPad? No, wait, you won't, cause it's made by Apple... Well you could use Android... No, I guess you can't, cause Android is made by Google... Well, I guess you could read books off your Win7 laptop......
@Becauseitsnotgoogle2
not yet anyway.
size and weight is the biggest advantage of the kindle over the iPad. If the display is even sharper than it already is, it will continue to be the better device if all you care about is reading novels.
Of course, the minute you need to read a PDF or play towerdefense, it is a total no-contest.
@DrDr
the new kindle update makes it easy to read pdfs. besides, it fully supports pdf already.
Now towerdefense.. that's a whole new story... but that's why I have my phone to play games with.. reading is something you want to spend alot of time on so I prefer not to have to give up battery life when the device I have can last nearly a month of just reading.
@MiketheVee
@MiketheVee the kindle battery actually doesnt last that long.
and no, the kindle totally sucks for reading pdfs.
@DrDr
the kindle battery does last that long. I charge it practically once a month, give or take a few days. Try turning the 3g off, it's not worth anything if you're not syncing stuff.
and reading pdfs on the kindle is not that bad. you're just being whiney about it.
I'd say it's been slimming down since the iPad was launched.
@techee44
I don't know what your trying to say.
I don't think you even know what your trying to say.
@Dustin
>.< his icon... :( I feel dumb, but nonetheless his comment was useless.
@Becauseitsnotgoogle2
Dude... I don't mean to hate but... first again.
e-inks provide 10x more battery efficiency then lcd's while maintaining readability in the sun and broad daylight. Plus the ipad is a hand breaker if you try to hold it like a book, ie its heavy. Plus like Penn said, the web, video, games and music are a distraction to reading. Academically savy people will choose this any day over the ipad
@Becauseitsnotgoogle2
Troll
@Becauseitsnotgoogle2
Why is this guy back again? Didn't you jump in the middle of traffic last time, exactly as I instructed you? Want a refresh?
Get off your ass, walk out of the basement, into the sunlight, gradually make your way towards the nearest highway during rush hour, jump in the middle of traffic, and rid the world of your trollish comments...
@Dustin
Have you ever read any of his comments on his old account before he got banned? He's anti-anything-not-Microsoft. Especially Google and Apple. Obviously you don't get it.
@Becauseitsnotgoogle2
I thought you jumped off a cliff and died on impact.
Are you people ccrazy? I have a Kindle 2 and it's ALREADY THIN!!! It's as thin as a pencil. I think the iPad is a LOT thicker than it, as it is. WHY would it need to get any thinner? It wouldn't be any more comfortable to hold.
@APV
As an example, the iPad is 1/2" thin, the Kindle 2 is 1/3" thin.
Exactly.
Still happy with current Kindle. Now if they would only improve the UI AND the organization of Amazon's Kindle Storefront for books
I needed something cheap and basic to read datasheets and PDFs along with take notes whenever ideas pop into my head. I seriously considered a Kindle, but...
... you know what really works for situations like these?
Older technology. You don't need some fancy-pants e-reader when there's technology already in place for what you need.
I purchased a dirt-cheap old tablet PC - for about $35 - a Mitsubish AMiTY - new in its box. During its' time it was a pretty damn good tablet PC - what with its' 133 MHz AMD processor, 32 MB of RAM, and 1.5 GB of hard disk space. Oh, and Windows 95, to boot.
Today, it's just what I needed: basic e-book reading (Notepad/Wordpad/etc), basic PDF reading (older copy of Foxit PDF), note sketching (Paint, WordPad insertions) - and hell, with the old Sierra 1xRTT modem I have, I can place phone calls with the blasted thing. Sure, the batteries may not be the newest. I can work around that. Sure, it may not run Flash or else run it slower than anything. I can work around that (like most of y'all iPad owners are).
As much as I'd like a Kindle, I can't really justify the price as it is (I'm broke ._.) when there's already technology in place that does what you need - even if it /is/ 12 years old.
@kapanak
HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Amazon needs to do only three things to ensure that the Kindle remains a viable product:
(1) Keep tinkering with the ergonomics.
(2) Improve content management.
(3) Get the price under $100.
Considering that the display and the 3G chip alone cost $100 a year ago, that might seem like a tall order.
But 3G is rapidly becoming ubiquitous in phones now (and there's certainly no need to upgrade the speed), so the cost of the module should have decreased sharply by now and will continue to do so in the future.
As for the display, increased responsiveness and resolution might be great, but e-ink will never come close to doing what LCD does, so it's a fools errand to attempt to compete on that basis. Instead, stick with the legacy screen in order to keep costs low so that a "IPad/Kindle" doesn't have to be an either/or proposition. The quality of the navigation ought to be addressed via a more efficient navigational scheme instead of marginal increases in refresh rate.
Am I the only one who thinks this thing is expensive? Is it still $259? I'd definately get it if it were about $100.
@n8equalsd
The Kindle DX is still $490? Are they nuts? The low end iPad is 10 dollars more.
@n8equalsd I got a broken Kindle 2 for $50 and Amazon replaced it for free. I love it, but I would absolutely not buy it for $260. They definitely need to make it cheaper, even if they eat the cost and make it back on more expensive books. $99 is the magic price point.
Am I the only one who thinks this thing is expensive? Is it still $259? I'd definately get it if it were about $100.
I'm not a Kindle hater but to me, the price has been so wrong thus far that I can't see it coming far down enough for me to consider it. The fact that I can order a dead tree book (from Amazon ironically) and have it shipped to my house for as much or less than they charge for the electronic Kindle version is just plain sad. I know, I know, you're paying for convenience but the price is still way too steep especially considering the initial cost of entry with the Kindle itself.
Amazon should've practically given these things away to ensure that every household had one or more before anyone else could get in the game. Instead, they reserved it only for people who absolutely love to read and travel often. I think they missed a huge opportunity with the Kindle.
Please note that I'm not bashing the actual device in any way as I'm being downranked into oblivion.
@Frogboy
That's a 1990s-style Tech-Bust business plan you've got there!
@Heelo
Seems to work for Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. If someone is buying your reader/player/console then they are interested in buying the content that goes with it. If they don't buy the reader, you don't get to sell them the content. At least Amazon expanded their penetration with the iPhone and iPad apps.
The cost to manufacture a physical book has to be far greater than a simple electronic file which has to be produced upfront in order to make the books in the first place. Everything about the book making process is extra cost.
Yes, I could also see charging 1/2 to 1/3 the price for the electronic books and keeping the Kindle the price that it is but getting market penetration gives you negotiating power. There's a reason that the PS2 got almost all of the good exclusive games and now the PS3 has lost almost all of them. They lost market penetration to the XBox.
I'm not sure how this is a 1990s-style Tech-Bust business plan when some of the largest companies and industries are doing this. If you make your money off content/accessories, make the cost of entry as low as possible. Apple is the only one I've seen go against this and pull it off so well.
@Frogboy
yea froggy, i mention somthing that u said before i read your post..
I completely agree. its all about the content. and economies of scale :)
@Frogboy What are you talking about? The Kindle versions of books are usually cheaper than the paperback. I don't even own a Kindle but whenever I go to buy a book from Amazon it shows the Kindle price and it's usually a lot cheaper than you can buy the paper version for. Of course there's no resale but if you keep your books then it definitely is cheaper.
@Frogboy
I completely agree. Those new fangled MP3s can't possibly compete with DVDs either...
@iperson
I'm not sure what that has anything to do with anything but you won't find me paying $1 per song for MP3s.
@Becauseitsnotgoogle2
Because its not google 2 = Name
Bing = Avatar
You = Hypocrite & Troll.
Wow, and the kindle is already thin enough. Coming in the near future: the Invisible Kindle.
Slimmer? By how much? It's already pretty slim...haha
No touch screen? Ugh, this device is for reading, not google maps. The only significant hardware change needed besides decreased size is e-ink page turn speed. That said, this thing is way faster than the nook in that category, so its hard to complain.
If they get rid of the useless (to me) included data and take it down to $100-$150 (or even less), I might buy one. Amazon can go to hell for wanting more than $200 for an e-reader, though.
The Kindle 2 is plenty thin enough for me. Better screen contrast and responsiveness would be a big plus.
My ultimate device would be one the size and weight of the current Kindle, with the resolution (or better) and sunlight friendliness of the current Kindle, touchscreen, color, and responsiveness of an LCD, plus low level glow for reading in the dark. (It ought to be possible for someone to figure out a backlight level that approximates the amount of light reflected under normal lighting conditions.
Since that's a few years away, yet. I'll just have to look forward to the next Kindle.
@EWTHeckman
IMO if Amazon wanted to add a backlight feature, they wouldn't need to necessarily make it an always on feature. Remember those watches that had a button to press for a light in order to read the time in the dark? IMO, a beefed up version of the same technology, which would allow the user to turn it on or off depending upon the level of lighting they're in, would be a nice feature.
But like I posted earlier, all I want is for Amazon to ditch the stupid location system and go to what I've heard the iPad does, and tell readers what page they're on and how many pages until the end of a chapter.
@GMUHistorian
That's pretty much what I was thinking about the backlight.
I can see their reasoning for the location system. Since the books are really just HTML which can adjust its formatting to fit the screen based on what size typeface is being used, page numbers are meaningless in the context of the Kindle.
I also see why people want to be able to refer to page numbers so you can relate where you are in the book to the dead tree versions. Maybe Amazon could come up with some way to let publishers mark where the page breaks occur in the dead tree version so you can find out the page numbers when necessary. I just don't see it being easy to do, or publishers properly taking advantage of it. Heck, publishers usually don't take advantage of current Kindle features (such as bookmark links, or being able to jump directly to the start of a chapter using the joystick) now! I even saw one Kindle book that didn't have any paragraph breaks!
Whoever wrote the Engadget article here needs to go actually *read* the Bloomberg article. The original source clearly states "The device will be thinner and have a more responsive screen." How Engadget gets "No word on if this'll apply to current models or be an entirely different variant" out of that information from Bloomberg is beyond me. This thing coming in August will be the K3, and it's going to be Amazon's device probably well in to 2011 or 2012. I don't see it getting replaced until color e-ink is a reality.
I'm really happy about the fact that Amazon has finally discussed the next Kindle. I own a Kindle 1, and because of the new firmware update that added a bunch of features I've been waiting for, I was very close to purchasing a K2, probably in June. I'll still probably purchase a K2 instead of this new K3 (but I'll get a price break once the K3's are released most likely), because something thinner than the K2 just isn't going to get me to pay an extra $50-100. A touch screen Kindle wouldn't have either. I like touch on my iPod Touch, but the buttons on the Kindle work well (as opposed to the horrid wheel on the iPods).
The one thing I want out of Amazon I'm probably not going to get in the K3 anyway, and that's the complete ditching of the "location" system instead of page numbers.
I think the Kindle should be made cheaper. I want it to succeed. The cost to aquire a kindle should be as low as possible like maybe 100 dollars or less. Because its all about the content not the the hardware.
After all the ipad is just a oversized ipod touch that fails to compete with computers at a similar price range. (not a computer? u judge read the definition below...
"computer, device capable of performing a series of arithmetic or logical operations. "
By being value leader. amazon will be forgiven by its loyal followers because its cheap...
i hope they will do this!
There have been several good comments here.
- Kindle sucks at PDF reading. True. Get Calibre and convert them to .mobi.
- Overpriced. Yes. Drop the price.
- Touchscreen. No thank you.
- Size. I'd like it small enough to fit in my inside jacket pocket.
- Battery life. Keep the radio off until you need it.
- Make the screensaver optional.
- Make the Audio work better than the jumpy audio on Kindle 2
- SET UP BOOK RENTAL.
- Put in an SD card for extra storage.
- Keep the simple copy to/from like a USB drive. This is great.
Thinner? Are you kidding me? Any thinner and it'll snap in half...
Then again, I never thought they could make the K2 as sturdy as it is while maintaining the thinness. Maybe they can pull it off again...