New "top of the line Kindle" details coming next week

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

All *that* could have happened...
...if the market had been allowed to mature naturally.

The Agency Conspiracy and the four hour price war put an end to it in June 2010.
Now we deal with the consequences: walled gardens as far as the eye can see.

You can try to blame agency pricing for walled-gardens, but the truth is it's Amazon's natural business model. They learned from Apple who were able to monetize online-audio by erecting a walled-garden and tying it to a popular and exclusive hardware platform, just like Amazon. Amazon has never shown the slightest inclination to an open system.

[Rizla]

I don't know if Liquavista can compete with e-ink for monochrome clarity. Anyway, it's a weird in-between tech. Would it replace or compete with LCD tech? Would it be as good as e-ink for reading? How would it affect Amazon's current LCD and e-ink lines? I'm not sure how this would fit in. The only way I could see it working is if Liquavista was better than both LCD and e-ink and replaced them both. This seems very unlikely at this time. I would expect to see more development from other manufacturers by now if it was feasible.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Rizla

I don't know if Liquavista can compete with e-ink for monochrome clarity. Anyway, it's a weird in-between tech. Would it replace or compete with LCD tech? Would it be as good as e-ink for reading? How would it affect Amazon's current LCD and e-ink lines? I'm not sure how this would fit in. The only way I could see it working is if Liquavista was better than both LCD and e-ink and replaced them both. This seems very unlikely at this time. I would expect to see more development from other manufacturers by now if it was feasible.

Amazon have shown that it's possible to have a glass front to a high-end eReader by careful texturing of the glass (i.e. the Voyage).

Liquavista tech probably will use glass when it first becomes available, but I think it could prove to be a much better display than E-Ink, although it probably can't match high end LCD displays.

While I don't really notice the page turn delay at the moment on single page turns, it's obvious when trying to swiftly scan through a document. A much faster reflective display tech would go down very well with me, even if still only greyscale.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Rizla

Amazon has never shown the slightest inclination to an open system.

Other than the fact that they gave publishers the DRM no-DRM option from the start you mean? Had the publisher, in bulk, chosen the no-DRM option they could have set it up so that Amazon wasn't the sole place for the majority of people to get Kindle/Mobi books.

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by darryl

Other issues such as fonts, contrast etc. would presumably be addressed in software.

Yeah, you'd think, wouldn't you? It's a desirable feature that can be added at no cost. But Amazon refuses to add heavier / bold fonts. A clear case of disconnect from what the client wants. Odd in a company that is vaunted as so customercentric. Weird.

What's the bets they add heavier fonts? My money is against it.

[Steve H]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

TTS.
Audible book playback.
Voice controls.

Remember the lawsuits over Kindle accessibility to the blind?

Alexa on Kindle will sell, with or without Liquavista. Plus, this is for the premium model. Doesn't mean it'll replace the Voyage. They may be going to a four tier lineup.

Interesting angle with the visually challenged...Alexa would be great for that!
four tier -especially with a size option would be great.

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by darryl

Having said this, the Amazon acquisition of Liquavista is now some years behind us, and I don't think a commercial product was all that far away even back then. Having read the story of the Echo and Jeff Bezos's insistence on very high standards for that product, I would not be surprised to learn that a commercial product release has been delayed by similar demands. If Amazon were to release such a display now or in the not too distant future it would IMHO give Amazon a huge advantage over its competitors in the dedicated ereader market. The longer it takes to get this technology on the market the mpre likely it is that a competing technology will come along.

It seems unlikely Amazon is sitting on the tech because it doesn't fit into it's existing LCD / E-ink range. It seems more likely the tech is not ready (if ever), otherwise we would likely see some competing tech emerging.

One other possibility is the tech is ready but Amazon will not rock the boat until someone else does. Maybe the tech is sitting there, waiting to go to manufacture once a competitor brings a show-changer to the market. It's been more than five years since Liquavista predicted impending commercial production. They also stated existed (slightly modifed) LCD facilities could manufacture the tech.

[Jason90]

Well the prototypes looked fully functional but of course we don't know the ins and outs of the manufacturing process behind these displays,it sounds quite expensive to produce these.

I doubt it's going to be $200 if it does come to fruition,we're probably looking at a $400-500 device,which i'd still happily spend if it comes in a 9.7 " model with worthwhile features.

According to a SID conference back in 2011,the founding idea for liquavista was to merge the benefits of the iPad with an ereader,apparently they can drive down the refresh rate of the monitor to sub 1hz when reading static content and scale up dynamically when animation or video is displayed.

Ultimately it's going to be a compromise between both,it won't be as power efficient as eink for reading because it still needs to power static content ,even at half a hz that's still more than 0 for eink.

As long as they get the balance right and put a decently sized battery in there that lets say lasts a week vs a month to an ereader id be fine with that,I think a solar powered case would also greatly negate the loss of battery life ,although it too is probably going to be quite expensive,but hey at least it's free energy and saving the planet 'n all

[darryl]

@Rizla. You could be correct, but it seems to me that Amazon is not the type of company that sits back and waits for its competitors to act. I think that when the Tech is ready Amazon will release it and set the trend. I am not aware of any competing tech at the moment so it could give Amazon an edge for some time if it does prove popular.

The recent story about the development of the Echo indicated that there was some delay during the development of the product because Jeff Bezos was a perfectionist. in particular he insisted on only a one second latency for Alexa where most devices on the market had a latency of 4 seconds or more. His own team was aiming at 2 secs but apparently he insisted on 1. I suspect that something similar may be happening with the Liquivista technology, though it is certainly possible that there are difficulties and it is just not ready.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Odds are low but as Nate reported there are leaks about *two* Kindles. One, a new entry level, code named Woody; the other, code named Whisky, has non-haptic Page turn buttons and uses Paperwhite firmware. Neither fits the billing of "new, top of the line" so I suspect they are revamping the entire lineup and there is a third reader in the pipeline.

Very possibly.

The leak comes from NiLuJe's analysis of the latest PW3 firmware update. It is not unreasonable to assume a "new, top of the line" device would be different enough in the firmware that it wouldn't leave it's fingerprints in the PW3 (or Voyage) firmware updates.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Rizla

You can try to blame agency pricing for walled-gardens, but the truth is it's Amazon's natural business model. They learned from Apple who were able to monetize online-audio by erecting a walled-garden and tying it to a popular and exclusive hardware platform, just like Amazon. Amazon has never shown the slightest inclination to an open system.

Their market share dropped 45% from 2009 to early 2010. Then Agency and near-cost ereader pricing came in and the smaller Adept stores were squeezed out. (A matter currently in court. What is being litigated is the extent of the damage, not that the damage happened.)
Without viable alternatives to the walled gardens, interoperable epub faded into near irrelevance and without interoperable epub the generic readers faded.

Pretty straight line and fully documented causality chain.

Price fixing favors the large entrenched players and that is exactly what Agency did. Under Agency Amazon rebounded from 54% of a small but growing market to 67% of a much bigger market. It stayed thereabouts until Agency part Deux and now it is growing again.

With enemies like those they hardly need friends.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Shane R

"Alexa annoy the other riders on the train by reading a book out-loud to me."

[darryl]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

TWith enemies like those they hardly need friends.

And it's still going on. Outwardly the Big 5 still seem to show very few signs of even understanding, let alone meeting the challenges that they face.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by Rizla

You can try to blame agency pricing for walled-gardens, but the truth is it's Amazon's natural business model. They learned from Apple who were able to monetize online-audio by erecting a walled-garden and tying it to a popular and exclusive hardware platform, just like Amazon. Amazon has never shown the slightest inclination to an open system.

Audio already was monetized and growing when Apple belatedly entered the market.

What Apple brought was not new concepts, groundbreaking hardware, or better pricing. Apple brought a massive preestablished customer base and a monolithic public relations hype machine.

Some people discovered downloadable song purchasing through Apple, but had Apple not jumped into the game things would still reach the point where we are anyway.

[Cinisajoy]

Ok Jeff,
Have you got the information you wanted?