Any news if Amazon plans on rolling out a Kindle 4.0 soon?

[Dopedangel]

Originally Posted by CleverClothe

But there are plenty of devices for viewing movies and listening to music. When the Kindle came out, the market for acceptable ebook reading devices was very limited. And so we see the success of the Kindle and other eink based devices.

True but Apple is forcing amazon out of Apple devices and many people prefer multi purpose devices compared to plain readers. Amazon will loose many customers to Ipad so its better for them to introduce a tablet. Another thing is at the moment all Android tablet manufacturers are pricing their product very high almost equal to the Ipad. So their is a huge market for someone that brings a good tablet in the market at cost and Amazon is in the best position to do so.

[Adriaan12452]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

The KDX is a specialty reader/document viewer that will either evolve into a textbook reader or vanish altogether.

I don't think so. A 6 inch screen is adequate for people who want to read novels, for scientific books it sucks. Since there is obviously a market for larger ebookreaders, probably even a bit larger than the DX, in my opinion it would be foolish to stop whit producing those larger ebookreaders. If anything I expect competitors to also produce larger ebookreaders.
Don't forget that the weight and the size are not an issue when you put the ebookreader on your desk, table or on your lap. I don't expect that that's an issue at all to the target group, you would have to do the same with an ordinary book, paper etc.
Even for novels a 6 inch screen is often too small to display an entire page, if you want a decent lettersize. I already heard a linguist complain about the fact that he finds it more difficult to read the texts because he can't see the division of the text in alinea's.

[fjtorres]

Some people do prefer multi-purpose gadgets: for them, Amazon makes Kindle apps--they run just about everywhere.
For people who want an optimized reading experience, they make Kindle readers.

Amazon sells groceries--doesn't mean they'll be selling Kindle microwave ovens any time soon, even though I'm sure somebody out there would buy an ereader that also made popcorn.
(Cue in Steve Martin with the floor wax skit...)

The day Amazon can deliver a video-capable color reader with weeks-long battery life that is outdoor-viewable with good contrast and weighs less than a pound for current Kindle prices they will. But that day is nowhere in sight.
Until then, as pointed out above, they are not likely to sacrifice the K3's selling point features for a few incremental hardware sales.

One.
More.
Time.
Kindle is about ebook sales, not hardware sales.

[Adriaan12452]

Originally Posted by Dopedangel

True but Apple is forcing amazon out of Apple devices and many people prefer multi purpose devices compared to plain readers. Amazon will loose many customers to Ipad so its better for them to introduce a tablet. Another thing is at the moment all Android tablet manufacturers are pricing their product very high almost equal to the Ipad. So their is a huge market for someone that brings a good tablet in the market at cost and Amazon is in the best position to do so.

It makes sense if Amazon would also start producing tablets but I expect that if that happens the tablets will coexist with the different sizes of ebookreaders since tablets are not as useful for reading books as ebookreaders: tablets cannot produce a stable picture while ebookreaders can.

[snipenekkid]

never mind...oopsie!!

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by Adriaan12452

It makes sense if Amazon would also start producing tablets but I expect that if that happens the tablets will coexist with the different sizes of ebookreaders since tablets are not as useful for reading books as ebookreaders: tablets cannot produce a stable picture while ebookreaders can.

huh? care to elaborate this one?

[wyndslash]

Originally Posted by snipenekkid

huh? care to elaborate this one?

maybe they meant this?

"No aperture ratio loss: LCDs have tiny black gaps between each pixel, but E Ink screens have 100% aperture ratio. The blacks and whites on an E Ink screen are uniform, improving image quality."

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

maybe they meant this?

"No aperture ratio loss: LCDs have tiny black gaps between each pixel, but E Ink screens have 100% aperture ratio. The blacks and whites on an E Ink screen are uniform, improving image quality."

D'oh!!

what was I thinking!! Thanks

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Until then, as pointed out above, they are not likely to sacrifice the K3's selling point features for a few incremental hardware sales.

One.
More.
Time.
Kindle is about ebook sales, not hardware sales.

They sacrifice nothing if a new device is an expansion to their range rather than a replacement and if they think they can make more money by also offering a multi-purpose device that would be the primary target for non-ebook content such as mp3s, videos, magazines in the same way that the kindle is their primary target for ebooks then they will do one.

Now obviously it isn't their only option and closer partnerships with other hardware makers is just as possible, but declaring there is no chance of them going down the route of their own hardware is fairly ridiculous at this point.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Crowl

Now obviously it isn't their only option and closer partnerships with other hardware makers is just as possible, but declaring there is no chance of them going down the route of their own hardware is fairly ridiculous at this point.

I didn't say there is no chance.
I said it is highly unlikely they'll do a Kindle-branded multifunction device any time soon.
(Which works out about the same but leaves a bit of room for some magical new tech to appear.)

If Amazon were a CE manufacturer like Sony or a hardware vendor like Pocketbook they would be remiss if they didn't look into a mediapad device to exploit their brand name. But they're not.

They're a content retailer and a very efficient one that wastes no effort on anything. They got into the Kindle business to promote ebook sales and carve out as big a market as they could for their proprietary format (at a time when only proprietary formats were in use). They were seeding the market. And building up a brand name to the point that some people see an ebook reader and instantly assume its a Kindle, as if no other competitor exist. That is a very effective brand association to be messing with, tying it into devices that aren't readers (even if you can read on them).

In the tablet space there is no shortage of players. Any Amazon product would perforce be a "me-too" product whose only distinction would be a preinstalled Kindle reader app. Well, Velocity Micro is already shipping a tablet with Kindle reader app pre-installed.
http://www.amazon.com/Velocity-T301-.../dp/B004CFF6ZI
Others may follow.

Now, what is more efficient? Paid placement to get a few high-profile tablet (as well as cell-phone and laptop) vendors to pre-install your app or going into the hardware business to seed a market that is already well-seeded with compatible devices?

There is little added gain for Amazon from getting into the tablet *reader* business and it's just not a very efficient way to address the multifunction reading market as, right now, all the non-Apple Tablet makers are allies, not competitors. And even Apple may find itself persuaded to relent on its expulsion plans.

I submit that Amazon will not get into the tablet *hardware* business until they know for a fact that their piggyback strategy is not working. Which they would know since using their Android app requires connecting it to a user account so they know exactly how many people have K4A installed. So their most likely approach is to help the Android tablet category grow with a curated app store, which is what they're doing, and getting Android tablet vendors to carry *their* market app. And then promoting the heck out of K4A that way. Way more efficient.

And, anyway, since such a hypothetical device would *not* be primarily a reading device I submit it would *not* be branded as a Kindle even if Amazon does deliver one. (Kindles are outdoor readable. Says the pretty girl in the commercial. )

As for their video business, getting on Roku-class STBs and on connected TVs is more critical than going for the personal video space. More to gain, less effort.

[elemenoP]

Why I think Amazon will come out with a color Kindle/tablet this year:

- Nook Color has been successful
- ipad has been HUGELY successful and I think Amazon would love a chunk of that
- There is the issue of the Kindle app and in-store purchases: Apple plans to take a cut of any ebook sales on the Kindle app on ipad. Not sure how this is going to play out but wouldn't Amazon rather get those eyeballs directly on their OWN devices?
- Wasn't there talk of Amazon starting an app store?
- Amazon is going big in video. See: free streaming videos for Amazon prime users (this is happening now). Wouldn't it be great to have a tablet that seemlessly plays all those free streaming videos?

eP

[Nexutix]

I think the new kindle will lose its firmware and ship with a modified android Gingerbread; on which apps can be added and that's where hybrid linux (Android) takes over the reading world.

[Andrew H.]

Amazon would be stupid to spend *billions* of dollars to try and develop a tablet to compete with Apple when: (1) established tech companies are already crashing and burning trying to compete with Apple; (2) Apple already has key components locked up in multi-year contracts; (3) Amazon has no particular expertise in this area; and (4) Amazon's content (which is what Amazon sells, after all) is already available on existing tablets.

Even if Apple drops the Kindle App, making the app available on android tablets is as good or better than selling their own tablet - and both cheaper and less risky.

The reason that Amazon came out with the Kindle is because the e-reader market at that time (mostly Sony) could only read Sony branded .lrf books. None of the e-readers would read Amazon books, so Amazon's only choice was to develop its own reader that would read its own books.

But Amazon never felt the need to develop their own MP3 player despite being the (distant) number 2 in online music sales, since all existing mp3 players could play music bought by Amazon. Since other tablets can already use Amazon's Kindle App, Amazon has no need to develop its own tablet, and would face *substantial* risks if it did so.

I mean, I'm a fan of Amazon, but I don't see the value proposition for me - what would an Amazon tablet bring me that I can't already get on an existing tablet?

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

Why I think Amazon will come out with a color Kindle/tablet this year:

- Nook Color has been successful
- ipad has been HUGELY successful and I think Amazon would love a chunk of that
- There is the issue of the Kindle app and in-store purchases: Apple plans to take a cut of any ebook sales on the Kindle app on ipad. Not sure how this is going to play out but wouldn't Amazon rather get those eyeballs directly on their OWN devices?
- Wasn't there talk of Amazon starting an app store?
- Amazon is going big in video. See: free streaming videos for Amazon prime users (this is happening now). Wouldn't it be great to have a tablet that seemlessly plays all those free streaming videos?

How is any of that helped by having an Amazon-branded tablet, rather than an Amazon app running on any tablet?

[Hellmark]

Yeah, I don't see that Amazon will release a tablet anytime soon. They may release a color eInk version at some point, but they have their apps on everyone else's tablets.