Re: Amazon to debut Kindle e-book reader

Well, if nothing else, this story has certainly gotten ebooks a lot
of prominent mentions in the news in the past day or so!  From the
advance description, it's definitely hard to predict how much success
this new device will have.  However, Amazon has had the benefit of
being able to see how the Sony Reader has fared.  I understand that
it's selling well enough that Borders will be starting to carry it.

I had a chance to look at the new $299 Sony Reader model a couple of
days ago at a Sony Style store and found that I really liked the
medium-size font and the ease of switching between font sizes.
However, the lack of the ability to highight and annotate text (all
you can do is bookmark pages) and to search the text of the book for
a specific word were serious drawbacks from my standpoint. I also
found the menu navigation somewhat cumbersome compared to my REB 1200
and GEB 1100.  We'll see how the Kindle does in those departments.

As for proprietary formats, it would be surprising if the Kindle
doesn't use Amazon's own Mobipocket format.

I presume that the Kindle will be available in quantity when the
official announcement is made.  If so, Amazon will catch the
Christmas market, which is extremely important.  The $399 price point
is certainly high, but not beyond the range people will spend for the
latest cell phones, and wi-fi is certainly a convenience.

And I presume we'll have immediate information on how well the Kindle
is selling from its Amazon sales rank!

John Landahl
InfoStrategist.com
Seattle, WA


--- In [email protected], "auwg" <auwg@...> wrote:
>
> http://www.news.com/Amazon-to-debut-Kindle-e-book-reader-Monday/
2100-1025_3-6218\
> 828.html?tag=nefd.lede
>
> Definitely no thrill here.
> High price ($400 or so) and likely proprietary formats, as usual.
> Hope this isn't an attempt to recreate Gemstar's failed ebook biz plan.
> Ed Howdershelt - Abintra Press
> Science Fiction & Semi-Fiction
> http://www.AbintraPress.com
> My Fictionwise Ratings: http://tinyurl.com/26v45
>



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