Amazon Kindle

[Spooky]

How E-Ink works...

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/e-ink.htm/printable

[Spooky]

So, you can give your Kindle a name. I called mine Spookynomicon in reference to one of my favorite books 'Cryptonomicon' by Neal Stephenson. 

[Spooky]

Another great thing about the Kindle. I am at work with nothing to do. I have been reading my Kindle and no one knows! When I hear someone walking down the hall, I flip the cover closed and it looks like a day planner sitting on my desk. 

[Saxon]

Another great thing about the Kindle. I am at work with nuthin' to do. I have been reading my Kindle and no one knows! When I hear someone walking down the hall, I flip the cover closed and it looks like a day planner sitting on my desk. 

Oh my, Gingi would love that!

[Rosie]

Another thing that was problematic for me, even before the eyes started giving me trouble was the fact that my hands go numb just from holding a book. The idea of having something I don't have to do that 'hold the book open, flip a page' thing (which Gingi loves) is actually a plus to me.

Thank happened to me and it took a while to figure out why my hand was so sore. Apparently I hold the book open with 1 hand with my thumb and pinky holding each side.

I was reading a series that was thick so it required more effort.

Simple remedy, use 2 hands. I'm with Gingi, I love turning the page. I just love books.

[Saxon]

I'm hoping after my surgery my hands don't do that. I miss reading. I think the ease of having a 'new book' would be easily traded by Gingi though...she goes through books like a little 'book worm' devouring pages! lol.

In fact, yesterday she announced that she was almost done with her current book...a broad hint since we were all going out to do our shopping. heh.

[Spooky]

Verizon to help Kindle rivals
Posted on January 6, 2009 by switch11

Verizon Wireless is planning to help Kindle's competitors negate one of the Kindle's big advantages i.e. wireless downloads. Ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2009), Tony Lewis of Verizon spoke with Reuters and detailed Verizon's plans. Here's a snippet -

    "Competitors to the Kindle are out there and ready," said Lewis, who declined to name the company's e-reader partners. "In 2009 I'd expect them to come to the market."

There was a huge wireless spectrum auction battle between Google and Verizon and other carriers, and Google had managed to get part of the spectrum open for all wireless devices and applications. Verizon is saying that they're going to open that part of the spectrum to not only phones, but also ereaders. 

This is actually not the biggest Verizon news this week - Verizon will also make its 5.9 billion acquisition of AllTel Wireless official on January 9th, and become the largest wireless carrier in the US with 78 million subscribers.

Which means - The single largest wireless carrier in the US is opening up part of its wireless spectrum for ANY ereader (or for that matter any ereading application on any phone) to use for wirelessly downloading books and media. 

Amazon still has the biggest range of ebooks to offer and a lot of other advantages - however, if Verizon starts offering instant downloads to Sony and other Kindle competitors, things are going to become very interesting.

http://thekindle.wordpress.com/2009/01/06/verizon-to-help-kindle-rivals/

[Spooky]

http://thekindle.wordpress.com/2009/01/11/the-kindle-as-trojan-horse/

The Kindle as Trojan Horse
Posted on January 11, 2009 by switch11

The Kindle is just the first step in Amazon's strategy to create a direct channel to customers and go from being an Internet retailer to becoming an intrinsic part of every single sale - any time, any place.

Researching for my 2009 predictions post, I ran into one of the best Kindle posts I've ever found - David Berlind's Kindle Big Picture post at Information Week. This one sentence is the single best description of the future of the current kindle -

    By 2015, the Kindle (who knows what version by then) will be just one of many client-side arrows in Amazon's quiver.

Amazon found the least competitive niche.

Books are not sexy and the marketplace is not ultra-competitive. The competition in the games marketplace is fierce. Apple rules mp3s. The competition for movies is also fierce, and dominated by Netflix. On the other hand, very few people want anything to do with books because everyone considers it to be a dying marketplace.

Even though amazon has done some truly revolutionary things i.e. a device that is always connected, free internet, lower priced books (often times half priced), ordering through the device, delivery to the device - no one is really paying attention. Because it's just books and there's no sex appeal.

The Sales Channel can be used for anything.

What people don't fully understand is -

   1. Amazon means "buy" to people - just as Microsoft means Windows + Office, Apple means iPod + Mac, and Google means search.
   2. Amazon is selling a huge variety of items and more and more items - they're even letting people and other companies sell through them. Their sales are up even during the current recession.
   3. Once people get used to buying books via the Kindle, it's an easy jump to getting them to buy other products.

Amazon already has Amazon Remembers for the iPhone which lets people take a snapshot of anything and then buy it. The app also lets iPhone users shop and buy anything on Amazon. Why wouldn't they release it for their own device, the Kindle? Simple - they don't want to bring people's attention to the fact that they already have a direct channel to customers. You don't have to worry about the PC, or the browser, or the search engine. You own the whole link.

Discretion is the better part of Valor

Amazon isn't disclosing sales figures or future plans for the Kindle -

    They don't want to reveal just how big their plans are and scare/alert competitors.

Every kindle owner that buys books from Amazon is a potential customer that will buy music, and movies, and clothes, and groceries. The sooner Amazon starts highlighting this, the sooner competitors will understand the threat. That's why it's being dubbed as a simple ebook reader - who cares about an ebook reader - ebooks are a less than $1 billion a year market.

What people are missing is that Amazon is testing out (on a grand scale) the most advanced direct to customer sales, marketing and distribution channel ever created. Not to mention user behavior tracking.

Amazon has much bigger plans

Amazon has big, big plans -

   1. Amazon's DRM free music and low prices have already forced Apple to come out with DRM free mp3s.
   2. Along with Netflix, the other major player in video on demand is Amazon - signing deals with Panasonic, Sony, Microsoft, Roku, TiVo and many more distribution channels.
   3. Amazon's Cloud computing web services are the #1 service available.

Amazon is developing the infrastructure, know-how and channels to become the marketplace for everything bought and sold.

The Kindle is a huge part of this because its the first example where Amazon really does control its destiny. For the Kindle, Amazon is not just a retailer, it is -

   1. The Device Manufacturer.
   2. Owner of the Channel to the customer.
   3. It still is the retailer.
   4. Its also a publisher.

An entry into any other type of device category would have brought huge scrutiny - by doing it in the form of the kindle - an unsexy device in an unsexy niche - Amazon has managed to get all the feedback and experience, not to mention create a great sales channel, without raising too many flags.

What the next 5 years will bring

Amazon will  -

   1. Release at least 2 devices that will use Whispernet and lessons from the Kindle and target different niches. My money is on movies and music.
   2. Focus more and more on selling everything under the sun.
   3. Use the recession to buy up a few troubled device and technology companies. Not to mention websites that get a lot of traffic of good intent like review sites and niche communities.
   4. After hitting a few million kindles sold, start selling everything via the kindle.
   5. Continue to focus on being to buying, what Google is to searching.  If google is the king of Traffic of Good Intent, amazon is becoming the king of Traffic of Great Intent.

The Kindle is a small step towards a much, much bigger plan. All these years of single digit profits are just a stepping stone to Amazon's eventual aim - to earn a cut on every single thing bought and sold. Amazon want to become an integral part of the sales process - for everything - and at the moment it's looking inevitable.

[TinkTanker]

http://i.gizmodo.com/5140106/amazon-preparing-to-drop-kindle-2-on-february-9

If an invitation for an event at New York's, ahem, Morgan Library is to be believed, Amazon's new-and-improved Kindle could soon see the light of day.

The date meshes exactly with the previously assumed Q1 '09 release date, and rumored pictures of the new device have been flowing since before the holidays. And we generally know what happens when gadget makers schedule press events at literary-themed NYC locactions.

We'll be there, of course, to bring you all the news as it drops.

[Spooky]

Beat me to it! I don't like that the k2 looks bigger than the k1, but if it has cool new features I might upgrade.