Speculation thread: How will Amazon react to new Nook and Kobo?

[Blossom]

No it has Text sizing they didn't remove that one. No Landscape bothers me but I seldom use that feature on my Pocket Pro before I got my Kindle.

From B&N Site:

Read Your Way

Make the text bigger or smaller. (See demo) Choose the font style you like. You can even add bookmarks and highlight passages while you read.

I love my Kindle but I don't like the keyboard or the weight and size of the K3. Keep in mind my previous reader is very small and weighs practically nothing but the Kindle is far superior to that reader. I love dictionary support on the K3 when I am reading old regencies. I don't like the 5 wave button and would love that part to be touch. Page turning buttons could be smaller but I love to be able to tap the side of the screen to turn the page. The back of the Kindle could be nicer too. I like The Nook rubberized backing and a SD Card support would be awesome!

I plan to get either Nook or Kobo Touch to replace my Pocket Pro for my library books I just don't know which one yet.

[chas0039]

I'm just going by a report over at Kindle World. Very possible they have it wrong or are talking about zooming. I stand corrected on that point.

[OtterBooks]

Originally Posted by chas0039

As I said over at the Nook forum, I am beginning to think that the stripped down Nook is more in response to bad financial circumstances at B&N as opposed to any serious marketing plan to threaten Amazon. The list of features they took off is long (no more 3G, no MP3, no landscape mode, no user replaceable battery, no web browser, no text sizing), and they missed the $99 price point. I think they are working on looking good to a corporate buyer.

Will wait and see.

I wouldn't call the Nook stripped down. If you mean stripped down as cost savings, the most expensive aspects of it were built up or added. Most of the features they removed turned out to be pointless for most consumers, though the absence of a 3G model surprises me a bit. I don't think they missed a price point. $140 seems to be fairly accurate for the time being. May be a while til $99 is the ereader price point in this market.

[jondelfin]

Honestly, I'm not sure if I like the idea of a touch screen. For me it is far easier to flip pages with my thumb which is already over the next page button rather than moving my finger to touch the screen every time i flip a page. Perhaps touch screen for some stuff but do not take away some sort of next page button - besides, i spend enough time trying to keep the screen.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Hence my non-interest in touch-screens.
I barely have to flex a thumb muscle with current technology... now they want me to use two hands and swipe with one of them? Nah.

Not a problem. You'd adjust in a very few minutes. One hand, at least on the 6 inchers.

The real question is size. Touch gets rid of the physical keyboard.

Personally, I prefer touch to buttons. I have both, & find myself trying to do stuff on my Kindle by touch.

[johnnyb]

and i prefer the keyboard over touch (from Sony to Kindle) because typing is just twice as fast (and I write a lot of comments)... Also, one thing that only the Kindle allows for is highlighting over one page, something that is not implemented in any other reader and the lack of it is a nuisance... If they are replacing their Kindles with keyboard-less ones that lack all the advantages the ones now have then byebye Amazon...

[OtterBooks]

Originally Posted by Stingo

When they upgraded the DX to the graphite all that Amazon did was upgrade the screen and change the bezel color. No other improvements. Don't underestimate Amazon's willingness to settle.

Upgrading the device's primary technology isn't quite settling imo, and that's what I think they're gonna do next gen. I doubt enough people are willing to trade in their K3 by the millions to get rid of the keyboard. Even people who dislike it have acclimated to zone it out. Amazon needs to hit a home-run with the Kindle's primary experience.

They want to assert unequivocal superiority, and merely matching their competitors with a touchscreen and new CPU won't do. Just IMO; time will tell.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by OtterBooks

Upgrading the device's primary technology isn't quite settling imo, and that's what I think they're gonna do next gen. I doubt enough people are willing to trade in their K3 by the millions to get rid of the keyboard. Even people who dislike it have acclimated to zone it out. Amazon needs to hit a home-run with the Kindle's primary experience.

They want to assert unequivocal superiority, and merely matching their competitors with a touchscreen and new CPU won't do. Just IMO; time will tell.

I think you are right about this. It seems to me that at the low end, Kindle competes on price & convenience, not on features like touch. They pretty much own convenience, so that leaves price. They seem to be competing on price with the K with Ads. Adding new features would probably mean making it harder to compete on price. I'd love it if the basic Kindle went touch, but I don't think it will happen (and personally, I wouldn't replace my current K3 with it unless my current one breaks.) Instead, I expect the K with Ads to continue to be the lowest priced EBR.

Amazon's objective is probably to move the one Kindle-owning family to the multiple Kindle owning family. That's done best with (1) keeping the price of the basic Kindle lower than every other EBR, and (2) coming up with a premium Kindle to sell to people who already own a Kindle. The low priced Kindle puts a Kindle in the kids' stockings for Christmas. A premium Kindle is, well, a nice toy for mom & dad.

Right now, there is no real premium Kindle. The K3 with 3G is not it - no one who owns a Kwifi will buy a new one just for 3G. But the KDX isn't the premium Kindle either - too costly for no color, and it lacks wifi. I have a KDX and I rather like it, but I acquired it when I lost my original K3, figured I'd try out a bigger Kindle, then found out that if I had just one Kindle, it really should be the smaller one. I kept the KDX out of inertia, mainly.

I'm thinking that the next Kindle offering will be (1) a K3 sized (i.e. 6 or 7 inch screen) color tablet Kindle, but with touch and wifi, for around $250, and (2) a DX sized color Kindle, also with touch and wifi, at $399. I think that the combination would seize a large part of the premium market from both B&N and Apple, while enabling Amazon to get a Kindle in every reader's hands at the low end.

The only thing I have no clue about is whether either or both of these hypothetical devices will have 3G as well as wifi. I kind of think that the larger size might.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by scheichxodox

Hi folks,

let's tell fortunes what Amazon's next step will be after Barnes and Noble released their new Nook and Kobo their new Kobo Touch. I'd say Amazon has to come out with something completely new. They can't only mimic the same IR touchscreen feature alone. So I predict they will launch the first reader based on plastic display (again exclusively only for Amazon for at least a half year) with a better resolution (300 dpi), with touch, no keyboard, for $99 (they always undercut the prices with a new reader) in the autumn.

What's your guess?

Greetz

Scheich Xodox

I've read a lot of posts and from folks in other forums (not Kindle, of course, lol) that now Amazon and their customers should be afraid of the competition but I do not see why. New Kobo and Nook readers will have a direct impact on Sony's numbers, but the Kindle 3 already had a decent battery life, good set of features and about 8oz of weight (fantastic for most of Kindle users)

Will the touch screen affect Amazon sales? I don't think so. Of course, is a nice feature, but besides being able to use the dictionary in a faster way I do not see any another advantage. I pointed before that highlighting on my iPad is sometimes slower and not so accurate than on my Kindle 3.

But I welcome the reduced weight and even Nook's new look. Not enough though to make a change from my Kindle 3 but maybe good enough for 1st gen Nook users or people who were going to spend +200.00 on a Sony reader.

[PharaohsVizier]

Originally Posted by jocampo

Will the touch screen affect Amazon sales? I don't think so. Of course, is a nice feature, but besides being able to use the dictionary in a faster way I do not see any another advantage. I pointed before that highlighting on my iPad is sometimes slower and not so accurate than on my Kindle 3.

The touch screen is the natural progression, it shaves off size and weight, it reduces the amount of buttons required and overall it is simpler and more intuitive to pick up. Needless to say, it isn't perfect and there are flaws, but I think the touchscreen would be very appealing to a lot of users, myself included.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by PharaohsVizier

The touch screen is the natural progression, it shaves off size and weight, it reduces the amount of buttons required and overall it is simpler and more intuitive to pick up. Needless to say, it isn't perfect and there are flaws, but I think the touchscreen would be very appealing to a lot of users, myself included.

I would not mind that change (in case is finally implemented) if hardware buttons are also provided. Otherwise it will be like a "forced" change. If I am not mistaken, that's how has been implemented on the new Nook: touchscreen plus hardware buttons.

But I would not replace mine for a touch screen Kindle. My wife is thinking about getting one if comes soon, but that would be different, would be her 1st eink device and Kindle. She is also thinking about getting the new Nook but she does not like the black color, she wants it white, like the existing Kindle 3. The absent of 3G on the new Nook is one thing that keeps her thinking...

[DiapDealer]

The touch screen is the natural progression, it shaves off size and weight, it reduces the amount of buttons required and overall it is simpler and more intuitive to pick up. Needless to say, it isn't perfect and there are flaws, but I think the touchscreen would be very appealing to a lot of users, myself included.

I think Touch would alienate some users, too. My seventy-three year-old father would throw a touch-screen e-reader across the room (I saw him do it with an iPhone that his one of his grandchildren thought he would use). But he absolutely loves reading on his Kindle 3. Why would you alienate that entire demographic by requiring more manual dexterity to operate it (in the case of reduced size and the number of buttons like you suggest)? Just keep a basic, non-touch e-reader available--in addition to the latest & greatest whizbang--and everybody will be happy... no?

[kranu]

So I'm sure that most of us agree that sooner or later, a Kindle will come out with touch screen support. However, many people, me included, like using the physical buttons on the keyboard.

I think a good compromise would be to only include these buttons:

• Turn Page Forward/Backward
• Home, Back, Menu
• Five Way Controller

The menu that opens could be modified to have options to choose the font style and open the keyboard (navigated similar to how the Sym button works now). I hope that Amazon keeps the slider because it's much nicer than the 'modern' lock button that many devices use.

If designed well, these buttons would take very little room (maybe one row), and provide people with enough buttons to use the full functionality of the Kindle without ever having to utilize the touch screen.

Practically every feature would be available just as easily except for creating notes and buying books. So if you skip the whole social commenting stuff, you will only have to use the on screen keyboard once every several hours (on average).

People who are willing to utilize the touch screen will then have the ability to more easily browse the web, select books/menu items/etc with greater efficiency, and play new types of active content. (With most current active content games, I feel like I spend more time trying to select what I want than actually thinking and enjoying the game.)

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I think Touch would alienate some users, too. My seventy-three year-old father would throw a touch-screen e-reader across the room (I saw him do it with an iPhone that his one of his grandchildren thought he would use). But he absolutely loves reading on his Kindle 3. Why would you alienate that entire demographic by requiring more manual dexterity to operate it (in the case of reduced size and the number of buttons like you suggest)? Just keep a basic, non-touch e-reader available--in addition to the latest & greatest whizbang--and everybody will be happy... no?

I think that the compromise that I mention in this case would be fine with your father. Reading a book will be just as easy (if not easier, because of size) as before. Only the situation of buying a book will be slightly more complicated (I'm assuming that your father does not tweet about his books).

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Originally Posted by holterzoff

No need to react, but i don't have a need for a touch screen. A week ago i made a dictionary lookup speedcontest against a friend of mine with a sony 650. 9 times out of 10 i was faster with my kindle. So everything is bright on the kindle front and no smudges on the screen.
regards

Is your friend handicapped or something? Because I don't see how else you could be faster then simply double-tapping on the word.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by kranu

I think that the compromise that I mention in this case would be fine with your father. Reading a book will be just as easy (if not easier, because of size) as before. Only the situation of buying a book will be slightly more complicated (I'm assuming that your father does not tweet about his books).

Absolutely. That's a beautiful compromise. Buying the book isn't an issue as my father finds it much easier to purchase books on his desktop computer and then send them to his Kindle. I tend to do the same thing. I think I bought one book from my Kindle to make sure it was possible.

There's just no reason that it needs to be an either or situation (unless someone really wants to fight over the keyboard). You should be able to go to your home page, browse for a book, open a book, and read that whole book entirely with Touch, or entirely without Touch. You know... user's choice. Surely that's not such an outrageous request?

(all predicated on the assumption that a separate non-touch device is just not in the cards)