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Old 06-24-2010, 12:52 AM   #17
eboyhan
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Posts: 104
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Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Florida
Device: kindle dx, kindle touch SO, kindle fire, kindle fire hd8.9
I am a KDX owner; I have gotten good value for my money out of it. Nevertheless, today it is probably not particularly relevant in the marketplace, and it is certainly mispriced.


The market for KDX-like devices is not dying: I think Amazon will make another run at a device targeted at business and educational users. This latter group was the initial target of the KDX, and Amazon was not universally successful here. Amazon did however, get a lot of very valuable feedback on the needs of these specialized users.

I believe in the months ahead that Amazon will come out with a wifi-only low priced reader (at $149 or lower), and a second generation device targeted at the business and education community.

For this specialized device to be successful it needs to be priced somewhere in the pricing hole between $189 (K2 price) and $499 (entry iPad price). It will need to have a screen size larger than that of the KDX (something approaching 8.5x11). It will need to have a PDF reader as good as Adobe's, and will need to incorporate many of the UI suggestions they received from the university pilot of the KDX (audible menus, audio recording of lectures, easier highlighting, and note taking, user selectable fonts, stylus input, etc).

I don't think the KDX-like marketplace is dead, but it does need to evolve to better handle customer needs. There is ample room for differentiation between what the iPad does, and what a business executive, or a college student might find optimal for their needs.
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