Amazon Kindle 2.0 to be launched on Feb 9th?

[TheJohnNewton]

Well Amazon is now loading its Kindle Store with free public domain books. Could there be some tie in with the library’s collection being digitized and put on Amazon or something? Would be a much more interesting announcement than a new color scheme for the Kindle :-P

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Availability. Open it up for the European and Asian market, see how much more potential customers you'll have...

That would be great as long as they have the store to back it up. It seems profoundly stupid, but digital rights are still tied to countries and regions. The ebooks on amazon.com may not be legal elsewhere.

[TheJohnNewton]

And what about the ability to supply product to those new markets? Unless the announcement includes the opening of some new screen fab facilities.

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by TheJohnNewton

And what about the ability to supply product to those new markets? Unless the announcement includes the opening of some new screen fab facilities.

Good point. They already can't keep pace and their big limitation is screen availability. After Oprah had her show with the Kindle and they sold out again, so many people were bashing them saying "How could they not see this coming? They should've increased production more." Like that's always possible. Even when it's possible it can't always be done quickly.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by TheJohnNewton

And what about the ability to supply product to those new markets? Unless the announcement includes the opening of some new screen fab facilities.

I don't have a clear idea of how long it takes to stockpile enough devices for a new product role out, but the holiday shortfall might have been because lots of the screens were in warehoused Kindle 2's.

All the EInk reader vendors except Amazon are already in the UK market (for example), so Amazon may have to get into the game soon if they want a major share of that market. The strange thing about UK publishers is their shunning of MOBI. This means that only the Sony is really viable if you want new UK releases. I can't imagine publishers doing this if Amazon is going to release the Kindle 2 there with AZW (MOBI) as its primary format. So either the Kindle 2 will support ePub, or the Kindle 2 isn't coming soon to the UK (or my imagination has failed me yet again). Note that the Kindle 2 would not be supporting Secure Adobe ePub, but rather ePub with Amazon DRM.

[astra]

I doubt it will be announced in the UK in 2009.

[DaleDe]

Computer world just posted an interesting article on this subject. See http://www.computerworld.com/action/...&source=NLT_PM

Dale

[TheJohnNewton]

The only interesting thing in that article is "And he's aware that more than 1 million Kindles have been sold..." Where did that figure come from?

They seem to equate success with mass market. Perhaps there are other measures of success?

[Sweetpea]

E-readers still need to find the mass consumer market, which includes, "for lack of a better description, the 'Joe Sixpack' who comes home and watches football," Baker said.

I think that "Joe Sixpack" wouldn't even know how a paper book looks like...

What I think he left out in his equation is that the fact that people are reading less (even though it might be improving lately). You should compare the sale of an electronic reader + electronic books to the sale of paper books.

Until then, Baker wondered how Amazon.com and other e-reader makers can grow much beyond the mobile professional crowd, which tends to include early adopters who generally love to flaunt their tech purchases to friends, and even strangers, during long trips.

A lot of technology would have been dead if the creators hadn't had a long breath. Everything that is new, is expensive. And everything that is new will have its early adopters. But as more people buy it, more people will want to buy it (it's cool, you must have it and look what you can do with it!), and the prices will go down. And suddenly you'll notice that it is common technology.

Anybody remember the replacement of CD's instead of LP's? Or the DVD instead of the VHS?

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

I think that "Joe Sixpack" wouldn't even know how a paper book looks like...

What I think he left out in his equation is that the fact that people are reading less (even though it might be improving lately). You should compare the sale of an electronic reader + electronic books to the sale of paper books.

I agree. These aren't like digital media players. Most people listen to music and watch videos. Sadly most people do not read books. I think when the screen technology improves and you can have ultraportable, multi-function tablets that also work very well as readers, then you will see mass adoption. Every student and every business person will have one. When they become cheap enough people will have them for fun. As long as they're still pretty much a single function device (Yeah, I know they play music and you can painfully try to web surf on a Kindle but the current e-ink readers are really only good at one thing: Reading.) they're only going to appeal to a small group of people. Until we get to that mass adoption phase, all the iPod comparisons are of very limited relevance.

[coolcat1901]

Why would they release a new one while the old one is still back ordered until 2nd week of March? Makes no sense, cuz all the outstanding orders would get cancelled I would assume.

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by coolcat1901

Why would they release a new one while the old one is still back ordered until 2nd week of March? Makes no sense, cuz all the outstanding orders would get cancelled I would assume.

I think if they did, they would offer to switch people to the new Kindle. If they had existing Kindle 1 stock, maybe they could lower the price so the offer would be something like switch to the new Kindle at the same price or get the old one for $300.

Still, I'm not sold on the idea that there's going to be a new 6" product right now. I don't see much benefit in it. Sure, I'd like it if my Kindle had the faster controller but, while they might roll that into the current model, I don't see it mandating a big press conference. Most of the really compelling new hardware isn't ready for mass production from what I've heard. I'd be happy to be surprised and have them blow me away with some great new concept. My guess is it's a new service offering or partnership or a larger-format reader.

[CTH]

Well releasing a new reader now could be a good marketing decision. Perhaps the fact that no screen larger than 6 inch will be available before 2010 made them release a new 6 incher. Sony just released a new one and more and more companies is starting to release new readers (samsung to name one). Amazon prob hoped that they could release a reader with a larger screen but when that wont happen soon enough they was a little bit forced to release a new 6 inch reader. A 3G version would be pretty good guess, 3G is a pretty hot topic now, with the iphone 3G and all and it works in europe also.

But hey perhaps they will release a device with larger screen, then I will buy one

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by CTH

Well releasing a new reader now could be a good marketing decision. Perhaps the fact that no screen larger than 6 inch will be available before 2010 made them release a new 6 incher. Sony just released a new one and more and more companies is starting to release new readers (samsung to name one). Amazon prob hoped that they could release a reader with a larger screen but when that wont happen soon enough they was a little bit forced to release a new 6 inch reader. A 3G version would be pretty good guess, 3G is a pretty hot topic now, with the iphone 3G and all and it works in europe also.

But hey perhaps they will release a device with larger screen, then I will buy one

EVDO is 3G.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Alisa

EVDO is 3G.

It is indeed. The previous poster probably mean the GSM version of 3G; UMTS, is it called? Plain old GPRS, however, (which is available on all GSM networks) would suffice for electronic delivery of eBooks - they are not large files.