(no subject)

[temporus]

 With yesterday's announcement, there are now three Kindle versions you can purchase for under $100.  Two are brand new, the third is the same model of Kindle 3 that I own, the wifi, but to get the Kindle for under $100 you have to take the Special Offers package, which appears to drop the price by about $40.  So your three models are:  The Kindle, which is now the line that comes without a keyboard, and just a few navigation keys, this is available now, and is $79.  The Kindle Touch, which uses a touch screen for the navigation, and the Kindle Keyboard, which was formerly known as the Kindle 3.  Both the Touch and Keyboard are $99.

So, now we have a major brand that has hit the "magic" under $100 price point.  Do I think this means that e-readers and e-books will explode?  Hmm... that's hard to say.  I think it's kind of obvious to anyone paying attention that e-books are already exploding.  So how much impact will these price points really have?   Hard to say.  We're getting to a generic commodity price range.  I think that's going to continue to a degree, though how much lower?  Hard to say.  Certainly this new price point, along with the fact that I can now borrow Kindle books from my local library, and all those free classics you can download, there's enough reading available for those who don't want to spend the money on e-books to read for a long, long time.  Frankly, I'm of the opinion that reading is on the rise.

And last, but not least, is the big announcement of the Kindle Fire.  The new Android based color Kindle.  Yay.  I know a lot of folks are writing about this device as if it's taking on the iPad.  And to any degree in which you can say a smaller, cheaper, wifi only tablet could take on the iPad, sure.  And while I don't think Amazon intends to shy away from that particular fight...I suspect this was aimed less at taking on Apple, and more at rival B&N's color Nook, which has been out on the market for a while, and is both a similar sized Android tablet AND in the same price point.  So, yeah, I don't view this as a iPad killer attempt so much as I do a 'keeping up with the joneses' attempt to stay parallel to B&N.   Which if you think about this for a bit, tells you a few things.  B&N is still a major factor.  Amazon is reacting now quite frequently to B&N and the ideas and technology they put out.   Amazon may have had an early lead, but B&N is not yet out of the picture, and I think for anyone to discount them would be a major, major mistake.   Even though all reporting thus far indicates that in the e-book sales marketplace that Amazon still sells more units than probably all other vendors combined (and I'm talking e-BOOKs, not readers here) they aren't so far out in the lead that they can't be challenged.

This is all to our benefit as consumers, as technologically, you can really see the effect.  The competition is pushing Amazon to keep pace.   Color, touch screen, library lending.   All these are technologies that earlier were cast aside by Amazon as not the direction they wanted to go.  And the presence of B&N pulling those off....has forced them to reconsider and address those concerns.  It's hard to say if I would be happy to give up my keyboard, and yet...I know I use it far less than my wife does.  Not never, but only on rare occasion.  

Progress.  It's taking us forward into the digital future, and that future promises to be interesting.

Of course, e-readers being cheaper, and even with free books available, cheap books, and library lending features, this doesn't mitigate the digital divide as discussed by seanan_mcguire.  

I said the future would be interesting, didn't say it would be good or fair.

Comments

[jongibbs.livejournal.com]

Even two years ago, the idea of a (relatively) cheap e-Reader was a distant dream, now we're knee deep in them :)

[temporus.livejournal.com]

I'm not much of a capitalist, but I think this is exactly the kind of argument one can make for a free market system. There was a need to be filled (even if we didn't all know there was a need) and the market took notice. Enough competition in the market space has driven down cost to the point where they really are affordable for average people.

Now we just need to make them affordable so that everyone could have one.

Fire

[blue-23.livejournal.com]

I agree that I think they are aiming the Fire at the Nook. With how easy it is supposed to be to root the nook, it was gaining a good share of folks who wanted to do more than the base Kindle could.

I've preordered a Fire, though without eInk for both ease of reading as well as battery life, I don't know if how much I'm going to use it as an ebook reader, rather amusing for something with the Kindle pedigree.

Re: Fire

[temporus.livejournal.com]

I think you'll be surprised at how easy to read things will be. Don't get me wrong, I like my eInk reader, and wish that a color version was more like that than just a plain old android tablet...that said, I think this is a nice device and will be good for your average reading experience.

Also, with the price coming down so low, it'll be the kind of device you won't get too nervous about when sharing with younger kids. I'd certainly feel safer handing my boys the Fire than an $800 iPad!

[koalutaj.livejournal.com]

Super-Duper site! I am loving it!! Will come back again – taking your RSS feeds also, Thanks.