Size Matters: Introducing a Larger Kindle

Amazon announced its latest version of Kindle today in New York, featuring a larger screen, a new built-in PDF Reader, auto-rotation and a much larger memory than the existing Kindle e-reader, as it prepares for a Kindle textbook university trial project to be launched this fall.

Six universities will take part in the Kindle trial project. A few hundred students will use Kindle as their textbooks in the coming semester. Barbara Snyder, president of Case Western Reserve University, one of the participating schools, said they are very excited about the project and the school will observe how Kindle affects students’ way of reading and taking notes. “The e-book technology may prove to be even more transforming,” Snyder said. “Students do not need to carry heavy textbooks. Kindle will help our students stand taller.”

Amazon has reached agreements with three leading textbook publishers, Cengage Learning, Pearson, and Wiley, to provide e-textbooks for the device. That will expand the number of the thousands of textbooks already available on Kindle. The Kindle textbook prices are still under discussion. “The prices of the textbooks will be a la carte now,” Laura Porco, director of Kindle Books at Amazon, said. “But it is reasonable to expect the digital version will be cheaper.”

Kindle DX has the feature for highlighting and bookmarking. Students can also take notes on the page and store the highlighted part and the notes into a clipping file on Kindle. The new PDF Reader comes with Kindle DX supports documents like annual report, industry report, and sheet music, in PDF format.

Amazon is accepting pre-order for Kindle DX now to be delivered over summer at the price of $489. “Current Kindle users will not get order privilege,” Steve Kessel, senior vice president of WorldWide Digital Media at Amazon.com, said. “Kindle DX is not a replacement for the 6-inch screen Kindle. We are building a Kindle family here.”

When Kindle DX arrives the market in summer, it will come with 37 U.S. and international newspapers including New York Times, Washington Post and Boston Globe, at a price from $5.99 to $14.99 per month. The New York Times Company and Washington Post Company are also launching pilot projects with Kindle DX this summer. The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and the Washington Post will offer the Kindle DX at a discounted price to readers outside the home-delivery areas.

“The project is an excellent example of the convergence between print and the Web,” Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr. chairman of New York Times Company, said. “This is to showcase how we can best use of new technology to offer quality newspaper experience to the readers, providing access of the Times and the Globe whenever and wherever they want it.” The price for the discounted newspapers has not been decided, but it will be in the range of $9.99 per month, according to the people familiar with the matter.

Amazon.com carries over 275,000 titles in Kindle version from major publishers. Since the first Kindle e-reader was introduced 18 months ago, the unit sales of the Kindle version have increased to 35%f of the sales of the physical books. That is to say, Amazon sells 35 books in Kindle version every 100 physical books it sells under the same title. “Amazon.com has been around for 15 years. That is an amazing increase given the short time that the gadget was introduced to the market,” Kessel said.

Will Kindle Save Journalism

Amazon launched kindle 2.0 this Monday, the latest electronic display gadget. What they failed to mention was the new product might soon have a negative impact on industries from paper mills, furniture manufacturers, shipping companies, to people like librarians. But it might save journalism.

As Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com, said his vision is to have "every book ever published in any languages available in 60 seconds." As of today, there is a selection of over 200,000 books ready to be downloaded into Kindle.

Using Amazon's current database, the largest of its kind in the world, it is easy to find out what people want to read and that's where Kindle is starting with --- the bestsellers. "But eventually we want to move to the long tail," Bezos said.

Compared to Kindle 1.0, launched 14 months ago, the newer version has a 16 shades of gray versus 4, pages turn 20% faster, battery life is 25% longer, process is stronger and it reads to you.

If Kindle 2 reaches the mass audience, it will overhaul industries that heavily rely on the print. If there is less printing, a lot less paper will be needed; there won't be need for bookshelves; newspaper/magazine delivery services will be out of business; in a long run, we won't need a library and librarians might need to find new jobs.

But on the other hand, publishers of New York Times and the New Yorker could cut down printing cost substantially and still be able to charge the same amount of money for their Kindle versions. As a matter of fact, print publishers are so excited that a whole list of newspapers and magazines have already released their Kindle editions from Time ($1.49 per week) to the Wall Street Journal ($9.99 per month). NYT's Kindle edition costs $13.99 per month, the most expensive news publication on Kindle.

Kindle, a new platform where there is no need to print but readers still pay, might save a dying industry.