Amazon’s method for delivering e-books to its Kindle readers may present a new use for mobile data networks…
New York — Amazon.com, the world’s largest Web retailer, said on Monday it will begin selling an electronic book reader with wireless access, the latest attempt to build consumer interest in portable reading devices.
“Amazon.com is not the first company to sell an electronic book reader with an easy-on-the-eyes E-Ink display, but its method for delivering those books may have opened up a whole new use for mobile data networks…”
Although the market for e-books is limited, and competing devices have yet to catch on, one analyst said Amazon’s book reader could eventually evolve into one that is able to capture all of the company’s many offerings.
Amazon’s new Kindle e-book reader is a perpetually connected Internet device that comes automatically configured to connect to Amazon’s Kindle Store through Sprint’s EVDO network. The Kindle has built-in access to The New Oxford American Dictionary and seamless access to Wikipedia and its collection of over two million articles.
“Kindle does not need a PC to be loaded with books, blogs or papers – instead content arrives via wireless.”
The portable reader weighs slightly more than 10 ounces, and has a high- resolution, 6-inch diagonal electronic paper display that Amazon says reads like real paper, even in bright sunlight. The device is slightly more than a half-inch thick.
The battery-operated Amazon Kindle will sell for $399 and let users wirelessly download books, newspapers, magazines, blogs and other digital content from the online retailer’s store. It can carry about 200 books downloaded from Amazon.com at about $10 each for new releases.
“Amazon said 90,000 books, including bestsellers priced at $9.99, were available for Kindle at launch.”
More than 90,000 books are available in Amazon’s Kindle Store, including most current New York Times Best Sellers. Most books are priced at $9.99, and monthly subscriptions for newspapers run from $5.99 to $14.99, magazines from $1.25 to $3.49, and blogs for 99 cents each.
Users of the Kindle can select and buy books with the device and download them in less than one minute, according to the company. They can also buy the day’s newspaper on the spot or subscribe to daily newspapers, magazines and blogs for a monthly fee. Newspapers are delivered overnight and blogs several times a day.
Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said the company has been working on Kindle for more than three years. “Our top design objective was for Kindle to disappear in your hands — to get out of the way — so people can simply enjoy reading,” he said.
“We also wanted to go beyond the physical book,” Bezos said. “Kindle is wireless, so whether you are lying in bed or riding a train, you can think of a book and have it in less than 60 seconds. No computer is needed — you do your shopping directly from the device.”
Content is delivered to the device via the EVDO wireless network – this could limit the gadget’s overseas appeal as the technology is not widely used outside North America.
Owners of a Kindle do not have to pay to use this wireless network, Amazon pays the access costs and only charges for any content downloaded to the reader.
In doing the latter, Amazon decided to design the reader so the user can buy content from the device, without having to connect to a home computer. The device’s wireless delivery system, called Amazon Whispernet, uses the same nationwide high-speed data network EVDO as advanced cellular phones.
Newsweek’s Senior Editor and Columnist Steven Levy, the first journalist to get his hands on the Kindle, described Book 2.0 as shorthand for a revolution — one that many believe is already in progress — that will change the way readers read, writers write, and publishers publish. As the leading online bookseller, Amazon is strategically positioned to move things forward. And Bezos seems to be taking the challenge seriously.
The device has built-in access to “The New Oxford American Dictionary,” which contains over 250,000 entries and definitions, so readers can look up the definitions of words as they read, and online encyclopedia Wikipedia.org.
It also has a standard-layout keyboard for searching the online store and stored content, and for adding annotations to text and for book-marking pages for future use. The device requires a battery charge every other day, if the wireless connection is left on. With the connection turned off, the reader can run for a week without recharging the battery.
Users can e-mail pictures and Microsoft Office Word documents to their Kindle e-mail address for 10 cents each. Kindle supports Word, HTML, TXT, JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP files. It does not support Adobe’s popular PDF document format.
Kindle’s features include paperback-size dimensions, being able to change font size into an instant large-type edition, and the ability to hold several shelves’ worth of books, plus hundreds more on a memory card and a limitless amount in virtual library stacks maintained by Amazon.
To deliver all this data, Amazon is using Sprint Nextel’s 3G (third-generation) cellular networks. But Kindle owners will never see a bill for that service, because the cost will be included in the price of the content. It’s a rare move that might be repeated as content providers and mobile operators look for successful formulas for making money off high-speed data networks.
The Kindle is always connected to Sprint’s EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized) network unless it’s outside the coverage area, in which case it switches to Sprint’s slower 1x system. Users can also turn the radio off with a switch on the back of the device, said Charlie Tritschler, director of Kindle at Amazon. That extends the battery life from about two days to one week.
Books download quickly because they are not very big: 500K bytes to 800K bytes on average, depending on length and the number of pictures. A newspaper is about the same size, he said.
Users can also buy books online and “side load” them to the Kindle. In any case, every book is backed up on Amazon along with any bookmarks or notes the user added, Tritschler said. There is a small music player on the device for background music while reading, but Amazon is not selling music over EV-DO, he said.
Customers can search, browse, buy, and download from this wide selection wirelessly from the Kindle Store. The same Amazon shopping experience customers are accustomed to is offered, including customer reviews, personalized recommendations, and 1-Click purchasing. Additionally, Kindle customers can download and read the first chapter of most Kindle books for free.
Amazon is not the first company to produce an e-book reader. Many other companies have tried similar devices but all have failed to win over large numbers of customers.
In launching its new e-book reader, Amazon follows by about a month and a half Sony’s introduction of a similar device. The latter Reader Digital Book does not have a wireless connection, but costs nearly $100 less.
In early November, Sony released the second version of its Reader that also sports a digital ink screen. The first version of the Reader was criticized because of the restrictive digital rights management system it used.
Also this month, Epson Seiko showed off a prototype e-reader only three millimeters thick. There are no announcements about when, or if, that gadget will go on sale.
Other rivals in the e-book market include iRex Technologies, which makes the iLiad. The device has a touch screen that enables the user to make notes with a stylus, and includes a Wi-Fi connection. The iLiad costs $699.
Most e-book readers use a display technology called E-Ink in their high-contrast screens. The technology is licensed from E-Ink Corp. The devices in general are considered a niche market attractive mostly to avid readers. For that to change, analysts say, prices for the device will have to come down considerably.
Seattle-based Amazon began as an online bookseller but has since grown into the world’s largest Web retailer and second-most-popular e-commerce site behind eBay Inc, selling everything from scooters to diamonds to groceries.
In recent years it has beefed up its spending on technology; but pull-backs in spending in the past year and resulting improved profits have caused Amazon’s share price to nearly double since January.