The new Kindle DX: the iPod of reading materals?

[Baraka_Guru]

A really quick summary:

Kindle Goes Deluxe With The DX

Posted May 7th 2009 1:01AM by Deidre Woollard
Filed under: Gadgets

Care to read your newspaper on a Kindle? Amazon has unveiled the Kindle DX (the DX stands for deluxe) that has a 9.7 inch screen with graphics (still black and white, no color). The new Kindle DX will cost $489 but as our sister blog Daily Finance reports, if you subscribe to the New York Times, Washington Post or Boston Globe, it will cost less. The exact amount less hasn't been determined yet but instead of having your paper show up on your doorstep each morning it will be waiting for you on your Kindle.

The latest Kindle has 3.3 GB of storage which can hold up to 3,500 books and there's no monthly cost for the 3G wireless access. So for there is no release date but you can pre-order on Amazon. When it does begin shipping Amazon will also launch trial programs at several universities to put textbooks on the DX this fall.

Kindle Goes Deluxe With The DX

So this is pretty big. Everything this new Kindle can do makes sense, even though it comes with a price ($489).

It's incredible that you can access the 3G network at no cost to purchase books and newspapers and access blogs and Wikipedia. It has a built-in dictionary to look up words at anytime, and it now reads PDFs natively (a huge improvement).

The larger screen is incredible. This opens the doors to other markets beyond books: newspapers, magazines, textbooks, business documents, etc.

• Do you think this will further open the doors to electronic reading?
• What impact will this have in the further growth in ebook sales?
• What impact will this have on newspapers and magazines?
• What hangups do you have on using a device such as this?

Personally, I'm excited for this kind of device. I'm a bit biased since I work in publishing, but as a techno-geek and reader, it goes beyond that. I really think Amazon is getting it right here. They're helping build a market for electronic reading materials, which is certainly a boon to them. The market seems to be focusing on Kindles, and so now I'm wondering why we're not hearing as much from Sony and the other manufacturers. With this new Kindle design, they certainly have a lot of catching up to do...and I have a feeling the screen (e-ink) technology has much room for improvement. It will be interesting to see the technologies for these devices develop.

Is the Kindle becoming the iPod of reading materials?

[snowy]

I read an article about this in the New York Times the other day. You can see the article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/te.../07kindle.html

The part I found interesting was the bit about textbooks on the Kindle. In the NYTimes article, the Government Accountability Office estimated that the average university student in the United States spends about $900/year on textbooks; the textbook industry contends the figure is closer to $650. Based on my experience, I'm going to go with the GAO's number. University textbooks are expensive! Suffice it to say, if the Kindle made them cheaper, I would be all over that in a heartbeat. I'm pleased to hear that three major textbook publishers have already agreed to release texts for the Kindle.

I would love to have a Kindle. It certainly wouldn't stop me from buying books; I love the physical feeling of a book. But like the iPod, I like the idea of having lots of books at my fingertips, in a device I can carry around with me.

[Baraka_Guru]

A quick estimate, snowy: I'd say students could stand to save at least $0.30 to $0.40 for each dollar spent on textbooks if they went electronic. So, an electronic textbook would cost as low as $60 compared to its $100 paper counterpart. This is a conservative estimate. Paper, distribution, and sales make up most of the savings.

So...would the $489 price tag on the Kindle make it worth it? Probably...especially for a 4-year degree.

[snowy]

Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru

So...would the $489 price tag on the Kindle make it worth it? Probably...especially for a 4-year degree.

Yeah, I think so. I can easily spend that much on a single term's textbooks, and I imagine there are students who end up spending more than that. Sure, it's a big initial investment, but I think it's worth the future savings, not having to carry heavy books around, and getting a really cool gadget out of the bargain isn't bad either It also sounds like it has some textbook-friendly features too, with highlighting and annotation. I often have to buy used textbooks, and I hate it when I end up with a book with lots of highlighting. Having a Kindle would allow me to start with a fresh copy and export what I want to. That is very appealing.

[ASU2003]

Once it has color, it will be a lot better. I would get one then.

[filtherton]

I don't think kindles will will see any wide scale textbook adoption until they have color displays. Pretty pictures make complex subjects easier to understand.

That being said, if I could have gotten all my textbooks in kindle form, I totally would have.

[Charlatan]

I like where this is going and would love to have a Kindle. That said, I can see it being a big pain in the ass for those of us outside of the US. Just as music distribution isn't especially helpful here, I can see the print publishers being just as bad (eg there is no iTunes store here, I have to use my Canadian account to buy music online).

[djtestudo]

I have the Kindle 2, and it does everything that the Kindle DX apparently can, except it has a smaller screen. Right now, you're essentially paying $130 for 3.5 diagonal inches of screen.

I love the thing, though, and use it every day both for books and for my daily news"paper".

If they can work out some of the technological issues, like touch-screen technology and color e-ink, as well as some of the physical issues with screen sizes for different types of media, this could end up being the next major revolution both in media and in overall computing.

[Manic_Skafe]

I don't get it. I picked up an eee pc with a ten inch screen and almost ten hours of battery life (if I were using just to read a book) for $89 less than a Kindle. When fully-featured ultraportables can be had so cheaply, why would anyone shell out for one of those?

[djtestudo]

Originally Posted by Manic_Skafe

I don't get it. I picked up an eee pc with a ten inch screen and almost ten hours of battery life (if I were using just to read a book) for $89 less than a Kindle. When fully-featured ultraportables can be had so cheaply, why would anyone shell out for one of those?

Because we aren't looking for a "fully-featured ultraportable"

Right now, the technology is such that it doesn't do much. However, it does the things that it does really well: display text in a way that mimics real paper while using almost no power (I can hear the Text-to-Speech feature right now laughing at your "ten-hour battery" ), and increasing visibility (especially outdoors) while lowering eyestrain and other issues from the computer monitor screen.

It's like the first people who purchased a laptop or an MP3 player.

[Wrexify]

Does anyone have any more details on the 3G connectivity? Are there any limitations or hidden caveats? I wonder how they can offer unlimited connectivity for no monthly fee.

[Xerxys]

I'm with Manic, a great Dell right now at walmart (just got it for my mom for mothers day!!!) is $378. Cool huh?

As for text books, ever since I discovered the internet, I have never paid more than $20 for printing them out.... Gosh, I'm so BAAAAAAD ...

[Baraka_Guru]

Originally Posted by Wrexify

Does anyone have any more details on the 3G connectivity? Are there any limitations or hidden caveats? I wonder how they can offer unlimited connectivity for no monthly fee.

I'm guessing the limitation is that you can't browse on it openly; you can only access the online store and Wikipedia (which is still pretty cool).

[Wrexify]

Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru

I'm guessing the limitation is that you can't browse on it openly; you can only access the online store and Wikipedia (which is still pretty cool).

That is very cool. Consider me intrigued!

Unfortunately for me, that feeling usually results in my spending needless amounts of money on a new gadget

[Manic_Skafe]

Originally Posted by djtestudo

Because we aren't looking for a "fully-featured ultraportable"

Right now, the technology is such that it doesn't do much. However, it does the things that it does really well: display text in a way that mimics real paper while using almost no power (I can hear the Text-to-Speech feature right now laughing at your "ten-hour battery" ), and increasing visibility (especially outdoors) while lowering eyestrain and other issues from the computer monitor screen.

It's like the first people who purchased a laptop or an MP3 player.

Fair enough, textbooks on a laptop aren't exactly comfortable but I'd like to see these things loaded with a tablet-style screen and the ability to share documents via bluetooth or a local network. That'd eliminate the need of textbooks and notebooks, revolutionize the classroom and be awesome for the environment.

But, to answer the op, I don't see students lining up to shell out 5 bills over one of these.

[Destrox]

The ipod of reading materials? That means there will be cheaper, yet better and more feature packed products to buy? :P Sorry, had to.

All in all, I'll never buy it. Rather cool gadget though.

[YaWhateva]

Originally Posted by Manic_Skafe

Fair enough, textbooks on a laptop aren't exactly comfortable but I'd like to see these things loaded with a tablet-style screen and the ability to share documents via bluetooth or a local network. That's eliminate the need of textbooks and notebooks, revolutionize the classroom and be awesome for the environment.

But, to answer the op, I don't see students lining up to shell out 5 bills over one of these.

once they get color touch screens that let me write notes and stuff on them, I will totally be getting one...that might be some time off though.

[djtestudo]

Originally Posted by Manic_Skafe

Fair enough, textbooks on a laptop aren't exactly comfortable but I'd like to see these things loaded with a tablet-style screen and the ability to share documents via bluetooth or a local network. That'd eliminate the need of textbooks and notebooks, revolutionize the classroom and be awesome for the environment.

That's really what I think the endgame is for consumer computers: a device that combines the advantages (mostly readability, writeability and power usage) of paper with the advantages (mostly access to and storage of information) of a computer.

Honestly, I'm not sure we're that far away between the first-generation e-ink readers and the netbooks and the advanced smartphone/MP3 players.

[vanblah]

Originally Posted by Manic_Skafe

Fair enough, textbooks on a laptop aren't exactly comfortable but I'd like to see these things loaded with a tablet-style screen and the ability to share documents via bluetooth or a local network. That'd eliminate the need of textbooks and notebooks, revolutionize the classroom and be awesome for the environment.

But, to answer the op, I don't see students lining up to shell out 5 bills over one of these.

Princeton is already running a pilot program in which a Kindle is given to several students. If colleges and universities adopt the Kindle as the means by which students receive textbooks and other documents then we'd see the cost worked back into the tuition. Plus, they'd probably offer an academic discount to the school buying them.

Once they have color "ink" and students can easily take exams using them (such as they can with apps like WebCT/Blackboard or Moodle) then I'll be excited.