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As another holiday season begins, another company has ventured forth into the tenuous e-book reader market. Amazon has released the Kindle, a device which can download books, newspapers, and web content wirelessly, without the annoying step of connecting to a computer. The Kindle, which retails at $399.00, hopes to revolutionize the e-book market and become the iPod for avid readers.

For years technology companies have worked on “digital paper” prototypes to respond to consumer’s complaints about the strain of reading from an electronic screen. The Kindle has incorporated a display from E Ink Corp. that requires no backlighting and mimics the experience of reading from real paper, even in direct sunlight. The screen also has a zoom functionality that will allow readers to increase and decrease the type size of their books. Though many other companies have explored the e-book reader market, including Xerox, Philips, and Barnes & Noble, sales numbers for these devices haven’t been impressive. E-book sales have also been disappointing, at a mere $25 million annually, compared to an estimated $25 billion for traditional books. Will Amazon’s Kindle be able to turn the industry around?

If the Kindle is able to catch on with readers, it stands a good chance of becoming a major revenue source for Amazon. The device will be connected to Sprint’s network, but users will not be billed for wireless access. They will use the network for fast, on-the-go downloads of content, which can cost up to $9.99 for new titles and bestsellers and as low as $1.99 for classics. Though the prices might seem high, they are significantly less expensive than traditional books. Newspapers and magazines (like The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and Fortune) can be downloaded for monthly subscription fees. The cost of access to Sprint’s network, while not directly billed to consumers, will be passed along in the form of blog and email fees (to the tune of a dime per email!). If the iPod is any barometer, though, Kindle will drop in price shortly and become a better deal for the money.

The Kindle is sparking comparisons with Sony Reader (pun intended). Reader is less expensive, lighter weight, and slightly smaller, but it does not incorporate wireless functionality into the device. E-books for Reader must be downloaded on a computer and subsequently uploaded onto the device. Sony is not running scared, however. They claim that Kindle will increase sales of e-book readers period, and they’re hoping it will bring much-needed attention to the new technology available in the field.

True bibliophiles might balk at the idea of an e-book reader and vastly prefer the look and feel of holding a real book. I sympathize with that sentiment, but I also love the idea of taking this lightweight device on an airplane instead of a heavy hardback book. Amazon also plans to make out-of-print and hard-to-find books available through the Kindle, which would be a major selling point for traditionalists. Imagine, any book ever published available in a 60-second download? The concept is excellent, but time will tell if the execution is good enough make Kindle a breakthrough product like the iPod.

Friday, November 30th, 2007 Both comments and pings are currently closed.

By Haley January Eckels