[Update: Amzon did indeed confirm the rumoured details, specifying that the Kindle DX has a 9.7inch screen, is a 1/3 of an inch thick, and 4GB of storage. Other features are listed in the official press release appended to the end of this article] Hot on the heels of February’s Kindle 2 [pictured above] release comes
rumours that the definitive e-book reader is headed, once again, for an
upgrade. Perhaps taking a page from Apple’s book, Amazon is adopting the
some-what controversial model of one-uping early adopters. The first Kindle
launched November 19th, 2007 and just over a year later a new and
improved version was announced and released all in the same month. Sporting a
better battery life, faster refresh rates, a thinner form and more memory, Amazon
once again proved that good things come to those who wait with the release of the Kindle 2. And if you bought one just two short months ago you may find yourself wishing you’d taken the old adage seriously.
Known simply as the Kindle DX, this new version in the
series sports a 9.7-inch screen as well as the added ability to add
annotations. This additional functionality has sparked whispers that the ‘new’ Kindle could in fact employ
a touch screen, something that would no doubt up its usability. And speaking of
usability, the DX is said to (at long last) bring PDF support to the Kindle
line, opening up a whole new realm of reading possibilities. What’s more,
Amazon is purportedly taking connectivity to its logical conclusion by
including a fully functional web browser.
Early reports state that the DX will have a more narrowly
defined target audience: students and textbook publishers. As the Wall Street
Journal reports, some computer science and chemistry students are on a
short-list to receive these tweaked e-book readers. Schools cited in the
article include Case Western, Pace, Princeton, Reed, Darden School at the
University of Virginia, and Arizona State.
While tapping into the rather lucrative market of college
students (especially those nerdy ones) will undoubtedly help spread the word on
e-book readers, the Kindle still remains a relatively elusive sight in the
wild. Personally, a year and half after its release, I have only come across
one Kindle in a non-contrived scenario. I found these sentiments resonated as I
took in an interview by famed book cover artist Chip Kidd, who responded to the
possibility of a complete migration of books to the digital medium
dismissively, citing the hype surrounding the Kindle as overshadowing its
actual consumer uptake. And that’s Amazon’s biggest challenge; translating hype
into sales.
You can’t argue that consistently and continually updating
your product is a viable method for grabbing headlines as well as a means of maintaining relevance
in the marketplace. But there’s also the risk of alienating early-adopters who
can feel jilted upon hearing about version x+1 so soon after making a purchase.
Such tactics engender hesitancy in consumers who want to see the value of their
products hold, say, past the five month mark.
We’ll keep you posted on new details as Amazon is set to release an official statement later today. But if the rumours hold true, look out eBay, ‘cause here comes
the Kindle 1.5
Official Press Release from Amazon:
Introducing Kindle
DX-Amazon’s Large Screen Addition to the Kindle Family of Wireless Reading
Devices
Large Kindle DX
Display and New Features Provide Enhanced Experience for Reading a Wide Range of Professional and Personal Documents
The New York Times,
The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post to Launch Trials Offering Kindle DX
to Subscribers Who Live in Areas Where Home Delivery is Not Available
Leading Textbook
Publishers to Offer Textbooks in Kindle Store
Five Universities to
Launch Trials with Students Using Kindle DX in Fall 2009
SEATTLE—(BUSINESS
WIRE)—Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today introduced Amazon Kindle DX, the new
purpose-built reading device that offers Kindle’s revolutionary wireless
delivery and massive selection of content with a large 9.7-inch electronic
paper display, built-in PDF reader, auto-rotate capability, and storage for up
to 3,500 books. More than 275,000 books are now available in the Kindle Store,
including 107 of 112 current New York Times Best Sellers. New York Times
Bestsellers and New Releases are $9.99 unless marked otherwise. Top U.S. and international magazines and newspapers
plus more than 1,500 blogs are also available. Kindle DX is available for
pre-order starting today for $489 at http://amazon.com/kindleDX and will ship
this summer.
“Personal and
professional documents look so good on the big Kindle DX display that you’ll
find yourself changing ink-toner cartridges less often,” said Jeff Bezos,
Amazon.com Founder and CEO. “Cookbooks, computer books, and textbooks –
anything highly formatted – also shine on the Kindle DX. Carry all your
documents and your whole library in one slender package.”
New Large Display
Kindle DX’s display
has 2.5 times the surface area of Kindle’s 6-inch display. The larger
electronic paper display with 16 shades of gray has more area for graphic-rich
content such as professional and personal documents, newspapers and magazines,
and textbooks. Kindle reads like printed words on paper because the screen
works using real ink and doesn’t use a backlight, eliminating the eyestrain and
glare associated with other electronic displays.
The New York Times
Company and Washington Post Company are launching pilots with Kindle DX this
summer. The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post will
offer the Kindle DX at a reduced price to readers who live in areas where
home-delivery is not available and who sign up for a long-term subscription to
the Kindle edition of the newspapers.
“At The New York
Times Company we are always seeking new ways for our millions of readers to
have full and continuing access to our high-quality news and information,”
said Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., chairman, The New York Times Company and
publisher, The New York Times. “The wireless delivery and new value-added
features of the Kindle DX will provide our large, loyal audience, no matter
where they live, with an exciting new way to interact with The New York Times
and The Boston Globe. Additionally, by offering a subscription through the
Kindle DX to readers who live outside of our delivery areas, we will extend our
reach to our loyal readers who will be able to more readily enjoy their
favorite newspapers. Meanwhile, we are continuing to work with Amazon to make
The New York Times and The Boston Globe experiences on Kindle better than
ever.”
Kindle DX’s large
display offers an enhanced reading experience with another category of
graphic-rich content-textbooks. With complex images, tables, charts, graphs,
and equations, textbooks look best on a large display. Leading textbook
publishers Cengage Learning, Pearson, and Wiley, together representing more
than 60 percent of the U.S. higher education textbook market, will begin
offering textbooks through the Kindle Store beginning this summer. Textbooks
under the following brands will be available: Addison-Wesley, Allyn &
Bacon, Benjamin Cummings, Longman & Prentice Hall (Pearson); Wadsworth, Brooks/Cole, Course Technology, Delmar,
Heinle, Schirmer, South-Western (Cengage); and Wiley Higher Education.
Arizona State University, Case Western Reserve University, Princeton University, Reed College, and Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia will launch trial programs to make Kindle DX
devices available to students this fall. The schools will distribute hundreds
of Kindle DX devices to students spread across a broad range of academic
disciplines. In addition to reading on a considerably larger screen, students will
be able to take advantage of popular Kindle features such as the ability to
take notes and highlight, search across their library, look up words in a
built-in dictionary, and carry all of their books in a lightweight device.
“The Kindle DX
holds enormous potential to influence the way students learn,” said
Barbara R. Snyder, president of Case Western Reserve University. “We look forward to seeing how the
device affects the participation of both students and faculty in the
educational experience.”
New Built-In PDF
Reader
Kindle DX features a
built-in PDF reader using Adobe Reader Mobile technology for reading
professional and personal documents. Like other types of documents on Kindle,
customers simply email their PDF format documents to their Kindle email address
or move them over using a USB connection. With a larger display and built-in
PDF reader, Kindle DX customers can read professional and personal documents
with more complex layouts without scrolling, panning, or zooming, and without
re-flowing, which destroys the original structure of the document. Everything
from annual reports with graphs to flight manuals with maps to musical scores
can be viewed on a single, crisp screen with Kindle DX.
New Auto-Rotation
Kindle DX’s display
content auto-rotates so users can read in portrait or landscape mode, or flip
the device to read with either hand. Simply turn Kindle DX and immediately see
full-width landscape views of maps, graphs, tables, images, and Web pages.
New 3.3 GB Memory
Holds Up To 3,500 Books
With 3.3 GB of
available memory, Kindle DX can hold up to 3,500 books, compared with 1,500
with Kindle. And because Amazon automatically backs up a copy of every Kindle
book purchased, customers can wirelessly re-download titles from their library
at any time.
Incredibly Thin
Kindle DX is just over
a third of an inch thin, which is thinner than most magazines.
3G Wireless, No PC, No
Hunting for Wi-Fi Hot Spots
Just like Kindle,
Kindle DX customers automatically take advantage of Amazon Whispernet to
wirelessly shop the Kindle Store, download or receive new content in less than
60 seconds, and read from their library-all without a PC, Wi-Fi hot spot, or
syncing. Amazon still pays for the wireless connectivity on Kindle DX so books
can be downloaded in less than 60 seconds-with no monthly fees, data plans, or
service contracts.
Syncs With Kindle for
iPhone and other Kindle Compatible Devices
Just like Kindle, Kindle
DX uses Amazon Whispersync technology to automatically sync content across
Kindle, Kindle DX, Kindle for iPhone, and other devices in the future. With
Whispersync, customers can easily move from device to device and never lose
their place in their reading.
Massive Selection of
Books-Plus Newspapers, Magazines, and Blogs
The Kindle Store
currently offers more than 275,000 books, including popular books like New York
Times Bestsellers, New Releases, and fiction and nonfiction released in the
past several years. Dozens of newspapers and magazines are also available for
subscription or single-edition purchase. BusinessWeek and The New England
Journal of Medicine are available in the Kindle Store starting today, and The
Economist will be available soon. Subscriptions are auto-delivered wirelessly
to Kindle overnight so that the latest edition is waiting for customers when
they wake up. Over 1,500 blogs are available on Kindle and updated and
downloaded wirelessly throughout the day.
Kindle DX includes all
the other features Kindle customers enjoy every day, including:
Wirelessly send,
receive, and read personal documents in a variety of formats such as Microsoft
Word and PDF
Look up words
instantly using the built-in 250,000 word New Oxford American Dictionary
Choose from six text
sizes
Add bookmarks, notes,
and highlights
Text-to-speech
technology that converts words on a page to spoken word
Search Web,
Wikipedia.org, Kindle Store, and your library of purchased content
No setup
required-Kindle comes ready to use-no software to load or set up
Amazon Kindle is sold
through Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
