How much is Amazon missing by not having a waterproof Kindle?

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

There's a difference between an after market treatment and an official product launch.

(Not to mention the cost is double.)

What cost? Who's cost.

Well now here is the way I look at this particular product. I would bet my bottom dollar that Amazon knows exactly how many paperwhites that waterfi buys.
I would also bet my bottom dollar that it is not enough to warrant the production costs.
If it was more than 50,000, Amazon would more than likely put out a waterproof device.

Now I am no business expert but if I sold a product and a third party wanted to "improve" it, I would most definitely let them go to the time, effort and expense to see if the "improvement" would be a wise investment. Especially since the third party has to buy the initial product from me.
I figure Jeff thinks the same way or he wouldn't make the money he does.
Note: he makes money from both the sellers and the buyers.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Why not buy one, then? The Waterproof Kobo Auro H2O has been around for quite a while.

I know. There is even waterproof PocketBook Aqua.

In the meanwhile I got several other very interesting e-ink devices and I can't justify a fifth one ;-).

So far, a ziploc bags (for beach) and a "clip on" food container (for transport and storage) work for me for those infrequent occasions when I am in hostile environment.

[John F]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Absolutely no reason not to feel safe. The H20 and the Aura One are both certified to a standard which guarantees them to remain waterproof after (this is from memory - I may be slightly wrong) 30 minutes' immersion in a metre of water.

EDIT: Yes, I was right. It's called "IP67" certification and guarantees 30 minutes' immersion in a metre of water, so dropping it in the bath would be no problem.

The Aura one is rated IPX8: one hour at 6 feet?

[barryem]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

You can learn that detail from their annual estimates.

And you can learn who the original owner of the car was and contact them and ask them about the car. Does that forgive the salesman?

Barry

[Tarana]

Referring to the original post and article, the article mentions "multimedia editions". Multimedia meant something different in the mid-90s. All our ereaders are multimedia now - accessing wiki, dictionaries and in some cases, switching to another form when reading (at least the magazines do on my Kindle Fire so that I can read them). BUT, multimedia then meant being able to click and maybe go to a mini-movie or photos and such. Well, we have some of those too, but they hog so much memory that it isn't really workable except on a laptop or desktop. Hypercard was one of the first attempts at this, I think.

So, has Amazon dropped the ball? My guess is that the market is so niche, that they don't really care. But I could be wrong. The walled garden is still in place.

As to the waterproofing, well, most people just use a Ziploc, but I think my sister would consider buying one once I tell her about it. She is a bathtub reader and now that she is older and occasionally dropping things, I think she has some valid concerns about dropping her device unexpectedly. She currently doublebags with a ziplock. She also COOKS with her device and that is also an issue with moisture.

[NickyWithNook]

I would love a waterproof Kindle. I lost a Nook after dropping it in the snow walking out to my car. I'm more into Kindles now, and I live someplace with a great deal of various kinds of precipitation. I just read on my phone when I'm out (waiting for kids someplace usually) and my phone is in a waterproof case.

[Barty]

We'll probably see a waterproof kindle next year simply because it's an easy to understand and easy to advertise feature they can add.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Barty

We'll probably see a waterproof kindle next year simply because it's an easy to understand and easy to advertise feature they can add.

I have heard that every year since Kobo came out with the H2O.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

Water and Weather proof is pretty misleading! Resistant is a better word! They all can fail, but a dry sack, while ALSO capable of failure is much less likely to fail than the devices themselves!

I presume with a dry sack you mean a bag where you put your device in which you then close up and no water comes in?

For me, that wouldn't be enough. I hate to use pouches of any kind on my devices that I take with me on a daily basis.

Originally Posted by HarryT

Oh sure - if you drop your rucksack in a river and leave it there for 5 minutes your reader is probably not going to like it!. They hold up just fine against even the most torrential rain though (and goodness knows we get enough of that in Britain ).

It's not only throwing your racksack in a river that can kill a device. I've drowned 2 phones, in my rucksack, while I was walking to my office, on a clear day. I always carry a bottle of water and sometimes the bottle cap would fall off (I'm using a Dopper now, so that won't happen again!). And twice my phone was in the same pouch (in the bag, it was a laptop bag with multiple watertight pouches, thankfully, as my laptop was still dry :P) as the bottle. And twice the phone had died due to the water. And these were Nokias from before the era of the smartphones.

Point is, water damage is very easy to get, you don't need a bathtub or torrential rainshower for that, a cup of tea could be enough (one of my keyboards I had to replace due to a cup of tea...)

Originally Posted by HarryT

To be honest, when I owned an H2O, I found the rubber flap that goes over the ports to make them waterproof a real pain whenever I wanted to connect the device to my PC, or recharge it.

Yes, that rubber flap can become annoying. Which is why I bought the One, as that one is waterproof without the flap

Originally Posted by HarryT

Absolutely no reason not to feel safe. The H20 H2O and the Aura One are both certified to a standard which guarantees them to remain waterproof after (this is from memory - I may be slightly wrong) 30 minutes' immersion in a metre of water.

EDIT: Yes, I was right. It's called "IP67" certification and guarantees 30 minutes' immersion in a metre of water, so dropping it in the bath would be no problem.

I still don't do it, but I do like the idea that if it happens, for whatever reason, I know the reader can stand it. And I don't have to completely dry my hands either when I hold the reader (what I always had to do with all my other books/readers before I got the H2O, I always read with books and electronic devices in a tub, without extra protection, but common sense)

Originally Posted by Cosimo

A reader being waterproof isn't something I (personally) find necessary.

No, not necessary, but it was an absolute plus in my list of positives and negatives when I got the H2O (and the One).

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

No, not necessary, but it was an absolute plus in my list of positives and negatives when I got the H2O (and the One).

Mine too. In addition to your list of where it's useful, I also like that I can just wash the screen if it gets something on it.

The flap doesn't bug me at all anymore. It was a little tricky to figure out the first time, but I have strong straight thumbnails and it's a piece of cake now.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by meeera

The flap doesn't bug me at all anymore. It was a little tricky to figure out the first time, but I have strong straight thumbnails and it's a piece of cake now.

The problem I had was that the case I was using covered the edges of the rubber flap, so in order to connect the H2O to my PC, or to charge it, I had to take it out of the case. I know that's the fault of the case design, not the H2O, but still a pain.

[disconnected]

The H2O rubber flap annoys me. Once it got caught on something and pulled out altogether; fortunately my husband was patient enough to call Kobo for me and work his way through several layers of support until he found a person who actually understood the problem and told me how to get it back together. I'm basically lazy anyway and the extra step every time it needs charging seems like too much trouble.

A six-inch ereader is better for me anyway. If the ridiculously named Aura Edition Two were really based on the original Aura with an upgraded screen and the addition of waterproofing it would have made me very happy. I'd also have been really happy if the Aura One also came in a smaller size.

I'd almost certainly buy a waterproof Kindle. Maybe market research hasn't found a large demand for it but it's also hard to believe that an awful lot of people had been anxiously waiting for a Kindle with most of its power in a removable charging cover. I do like my Oasis but it feels sort of over-designed to me and my particular unit is the the most unreliable ereader I've ever had.

[barryem]

You can get a waterproof Kindle Paperwhite from Waterfi, a company that takes Paperwhites and waterproofs them and sells them on Amazon. In this or some forum a couple of years ago there was a discussion of this in which a number of people said they'd had good luck with them, but that's really all I know about it.

According to their website, Waterfi disassembles the Paperwhite and puts some kind of waterproof coating on all it's parts and then re-assembles it. This means that water can get in and it can't hurt anything so they don't have to seal the unit as a whole. Therefore no plugs on the ports, etc.

As I understand it Waterfil then provides the warranty which I think is also one year. I have no idea how reliable they are but I've never heard anything bad about them.

I think they cost about $100 more than the device direct from Amazon. I also think I remember that they'll waterproof your existing Paperwhite for $100. I read their website a year or two ago so if you consider this read it yourself. I might remember some of this wrong.

Barry

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by barryem

You can get a waterproof Kindle Paperwhite from Waterfi, a company that takes Paperwhites and waterproofs them and sells them on Amazon.

The problem with those is they are double the cost.

Waterfi Kindle Paperwhite: $240
Kindle Paperwhite: $120

If Amazon sold their own, the price discrepancy wouldn't be so great. As evidence, look at the price of the waterproof Nook Glowlight Plus (which would have been a bigger hit if B&N hadn't already screwed up the Nook business so badly).

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by barryem

According to their website, Waterfi disassembles the Paperwhite and puts some kind of waterproof coating on all it's parts and then re-assembles it. This means that water can get in and it can't hurt anything so they don't have to seal the unit as a whole. Therefore no plugs on the ports, etc.

Yes, from what I understand, it's the same technique that Kobo is now using for the One. But I also didn't understand their decision to make a new reader less than the current one it would have replaced. It should have been a smaller version of the One, with waterproofing, good screen and natural light, only smaller.