MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - I know the Kindle is new, but when do you think they will release a 2nd generation?

Zoot · 12-17-2007, 06:29 PM

Well, I wouldn't expect to see a new Kindle model until there's an advance in screen technology that's significant. So wait for the next big announcement from e-ink or whomever and then you can start asking when a Kindle with the new screen will be available.

Personally I think a color display would be a mistake. If you tell people it has a color screen then they'll expect it to look as good as their 16 million color LCD monitors and will want to be able to web-surf on it as though it were a PC. A fast way to kill off book readers would be to try to turn them into laptop/pda competitors with lots of features unrelated to their primary job of presenting text.

I can see cases where having a couple of highlight colors could improve some book presentations, but for the most part you can't display enough material on the 6" screen to make it worthwhile. I doubt I would feel a desire to upgrade if color were the main improvement, at least as long as what I'm reading are primarily text-only books to begin with. The Manga crowd may feel differently.

A larger screen could be a viable option, but that probably comes at the cost of making the whole device larger, and the majority might prefer the smaller and more portable size. Once you make the screen big enough to display something like a newspaper page in full color, then I'm not sure what the device is any more. It's certainly not a "book", and I'm not certain that there's a market there.

I actually bought a book yesterday for the Kindle that I own in hardback because the paper book is so large and heavy as to be inconvenient to read.

http://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-S.../dp/B000PAAH1W

Z.

12-17-2007, 06:29 PM	#12
Zoot Connoisseur Posts: 89 Karma: 34 Join Date: Nov 2006 Device: Amazon Kindle	Well, I wouldn't expect to see a new Kindle model until there's an advance in screen technology that's significant. So wait for the next big announcement from e-ink or whomever and then you can start asking when a Kindle with the new screen will be available. Personally I think a color display would be a mistake. If you tell people it has a color screen then they'll expect it to look as good as their 16 million color LCD monitors and will want to be able to web-surf on it as though it were a PC. A fast way to kill off book readers would be to try to turn them into laptop/pda competitors with lots of features unrelated to their primary job of presenting text. I can see cases where having a couple of highlight colors could improve some book presentations, but for the most part you can't display enough material on the 6" screen to make it worthwhile. I doubt I would feel a desire to upgrade if color were the main improvement, at least as long as what I'm reading are primarily text-only books to begin with. The Manga crowd may feel differently. A larger screen could be a viable option, but that probably comes at the cost of making the whole device larger, and the majority might prefer the smaller and more portable size. Once you make the screen big enough to display something like a newspaper page in full color, then I'm not sure what the device is any more. It's certainly not a "book", and I'm not certain that there's a market there. I actually bought a book yesterday for the Kindle that I own in hardback because the paper book is so large and heavy as to be inconvenient to read. http://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-S.../dp/B000PAAH1W Z.