Comments on: What's new about the Kindle 2? Not a whole lot

The upgrades to Amazon's e-book reader are pretty routine: faster, better battery life, better screen, bigger storage capacity. That still won't be enough to make everyone rush to get one.

Even as a non-business person, but an avid reader, I would love to have a Kindle, and the Kindle 2.0 stokes (dare I say "kindles") that desire even more. But I just can't bring myself to pay that much for it. My price point for serious consideration would be around $199.

[upStomp]

Seconded. As nice as this device might be to have, $350+ for a one-trick pony is unreasonable. I'll wait until it gets under $200 before I begin pestering my wife to let me buy one.

[sarajgno]

I would love a kindle, but I agree that $199 would be my maximum price point for this type of device. Even though I'm an avid library user, if I could get a less expensive kindle I would start buying books again.

[ranjix]

Hmm... even $200 for an e-book reader is too much. I''ll wait till it gets towards $100, no DRM books, A LOT more books in the kindle store, and the possibility of getting used ones... Ok, probably I'll never buy one.

[rbrice1981]

i can certainly say i'd love to pay only $199 for this brilliant device but if you think about it, it really is more than just a e-book reader. It's a traveler's electronic assistant. It's a librarian. A movie-finder. That nerdy friend that you can ask anything and get a non-abridged answer to. It's your personal stock expert. Your weatherman. Your inbox-on-the-go. They don't make any money each time you check your GMail. The only $ they make from you after purchase of the Kindle 2 is for purchasing books, subscribing to newspapers/blogs/etc, sending documents to the Kindle 2 and stuff of that nature.

I also have to step out of the quasi-conservative circle to which I belong and on to the Green Soap Box for just a moment. You're using VERY LITTLE energy to read (literally 2 weeks for the avid reader) and we're not chopping down as many trees.

Yes, Kindle 2 is an evolution from the original Kindle as opposed to a revolution. However, a revolution could be imminent soon to come. Imagine all of your textbooks for lesser cost, all in one location (and easily restored if your Kindle is lost, stolen or becomes corrupt), and ...get this... TEXT SEARCHABLE! I can't remember how often in my graduate studies I could remember a phrase or a word that I needed to study up on and couldn't remember where the heck it lied inside of the thousand-plus-page textbook which I was holding. Ya, I admit the library in my office would be a bit barren - but changes are necessary in all revolutions. In fact, when it happens that my texts can be downloaded, I plan on it. Next time I need to find the x-ray characteristics for achondroplasia, I'll get there a lot quicker!

[rshimizu12]

I agree the Kindle is still way to expensive for a single purpose device. Personally I think the price will have to get down to $50 before before it becomes widely used.

[billstewart]

Kindle 1 was much more than a one-trick pony - the web browsing capability made it into a portable web reading device and not just a book reader, which would have been immensely cool if the browser weren't so lame - filling out forms was very difficult, it didn't do a lot of things, and Google Maps didn't work. Enough people pay $30/month for cellphone web access that would pay for a Kindle in a year. I haven't seen the Kindle 2 browser - it sounds like they may optionally be providing non-free web access which you can use for non-book-buying browsing.

[assman]

By reading the changes and viewing the picture at the top.. it would appear to me that the changes are actually quite drastic, despite what the title suggests. It is half the thickness! Already stellar battery life improved 25%. It looks like it has a new prettier form factor, which is a huge improvement considering it was the main criticism of the first device. It looks like it also has a new keypad, according to the photo, which the first one didn't have at all. Higher gray-scale shades, meaning it will display photos much more accurately. Much larger storage space..

This is just what I've gleaned from reading this article. Probably has other improvements too. For me, this looks like a big upgrade, and makes the Kindle more consumer friendly.

[fleurya]

Even though I can't stand the Kindle overall, I have to agree with your assessment. If this were the next Macbook Pro, people would be hailing it as a great improvement. (And I own an MBP, so I'm not anti-Mac). It does seem like a great improvement, but I still don't like it.

The keyboard is overkill. I believe that in a world of device convergence, an e-book is one thing that seems to be one thing that just needs to be an e-book. Anyone who can afford an e-book probably already has an MP3 player and a portable computer or smartphone.

Also, the price is just insane. Can't people get good netbooks for that price?? And they want us to pay that much for a thing that is basically only for book reading. Outrageous!

[rbrice1981]

Right you are and a succinct summary at that. In addition to your observed improvements, there is also the ability to use "text-to-speech" to actually listen to your standard e-book (though with quality that lacks an audio-book's quality). You can now charge the device using the provided USB-to-micro-USB adapter. Now, it's not all improvements. Two major steps backs that exist include no SD expansion and omission of a protective cover. These two forgotten items will be sourly missed. I hope they have a reasonable "after market" protector. I don't see myself spending $30 for the one Amazon Offers with their logo conveniently placed on the front.

[assman]

I'll agree though that it is way too expensive. They need to cut the price in half at least in order for it to become mainstream.

[craigcassidy]

Did they drop the SD card support from teh Kindle2? I am a Kindle1 owner and fount this to be one of my favoite features.

[rbrice1981]

yes; sadly the SD-expansion-slot is as much a faded memory as Michael Jackson's fortune. Though this is sad, remember that you get 1.4GB Usable internal storage. That's enough for roughly 50 books + 300 of your favorite songs OR 500 books + 200 of your favorite songs. You can download any book from Amazon ad nauseum so you can make room for more music if that's what you're after.

[Vegaman_Dan]

It's got an awfully small screen for such a large piece of hardware. I know they keyboard takes up space, but considering you are only using the keyboard to look up and order books/content online, then an on screen keyboard would have been preferred with a larger LCD.

" The storage capacity has jumped from 256MB to 2GB, or about 200 to 1,500 books, and the electronic ink display has improved from a 4-color to 16-color grayscale. "

Point of fact- it's not color. It's gone from 4 levels of greyscale to 16 colors of greyscale. The memory boost is nice, but memory is so cheap these days that even this isn't that impressive. It's a far better amount than the paltry 256Mb though.

[rbrice1981]

I feel your pain, I thought the same thing. But when "readability" is an issue (and of course it would be for an e-reader), the designers are going to take all measures to make it easy on the eyes. A touch-screen would cause glare and (from what I understand) the technology isn't available for 16 shades of gray on a touch-screen.

[jbcahill]

It's still ugly and still over priced.

[rbrice1981]

nay for both.

[jomolungma]

The software and book offerings are appealing, the device and price are not. If they drop an iPhone app that opens their catalog to the iPhone, I'd be there in a heartbeat. Actually, probably quicker.

[blusky08]

Definitely.
As upStomp said, this is a "one-trick pony." Make the books available on third-party devices.

[hsujim]

reading a full size book on iPhone??? Not going there. And how many minutes will your battery last with constant scrolling?

[rbrice1981]

I'm with you hsujim. Take it from the guy who read part of the bible on his iPod Touch...that wasn't easy. and the ipod does great with battery life for all that is considered; however the Kindle completely pulverizes all devices that use standards for display technology. 2 weeks 1 charge? are you kidding me?

[dkbakker]

I have to agree that 359 for a reader only is a bit steep. If it came with a touch screen instead of the keyboard that would make it more appealing and less bulky. Itouch / Iphone as a book reader with Stanza is great. Does not use alot of power, and you have the option of playing games, watching movies, music etc etc . I have been reading ebooks for half a year on the touch and I love it. Slides into my pocket and is with me always.

Sorry Kindle, you are just not quite there yet, I will wait till maybe Kindle 4 or 5 when you are at 199 and have an 8 inch screen with no keyboard, adn expandable storage

[professionaladventurer]

It seems you got the title of the article wrong, I think you meant: "What's new about the Kindle 2? Some big improvements!" Such as you state in a well written fashion in your following article.

[john55440]

Yes, based on the article, the Kindle sounds much improved. Early techology adoptors always pay a premium price. In the coming years, Kindle will no doubt get less expensive.

[lodoss900]

If I could get my school books on a kindle, with features as highlighting and note taking, printing support

[pentest]

That is what it needs for widespread adoption. It is such an obvious market, but they insist on only appealing to travelers who like to have multiple books with them.

[rbrice1981]

AMEN Brother/Sister. I would love to download my previous textbooks for the simple ability to do wide-range searches. Like searching "thoracic duct" over all of your books to find out what is said about it in your large library. An awesome thing to come I hope! And what a way to SAVE YOUR BACK ... instead of carrying 4 1000-page text books in a book bag...carry 1 10.2-oz device with you wherever you go.

[cdwilliams1]

I bought an ebook for my marketing class this semester from McGraww Hill/Primis Books online to use on my laptop. What a terrible product it is. I was thinking maybe it would be a PDF or something. Instead you had to install their own ebrary software. It's terrible. Although it's in color all the images are downsampled to 8-bit color. Horrible dithering as well. The text is blocky at times and fuzzy at the others. It's like they are purposely using there own old school bitmap font. If you try to copy and paste text out of the book (I had intended to make flash cards, and copy the bullet points out of the end-of-chapter summaries) it charges you! You have to PAY to copy and paste text! I thought maybe I could get around this by just printing the whole thing to PDF (I own a copy of Adobe Acrobat Pro) but alas they install their own buggy print driver that takes over when you try to print from their ebrary app. It's terrible! The print driver allows you to pront each page once, after that you have to fill in your credit card and purchase "print credits". This was after I forked over $86 bucks for the book! The paper version was only $20 bucks more. The other ridiculous part is that I don't actually get to keep the online book. I get a 120 day license to view it on-line. What a RIPOFF.

I wish the Kindle could solve an issue like this. It seems like it would be the perfect solution for a college student like me. I don't think the textbook publishers will be on-board any time soon though.

[aka_tripleB]

It needs page turn buttons more like the Gemstar REB 1100. Something small to avoid, but easy to locate without have to look.

[hsujim]

Whoever came up with this "not much" title....must be very very hard to please. And has misguided notions on what a v.2 product should be.

It's not a brand-new product. It's version 2 of the same product.

Thinner than a pencil which always helps with the coolness factor, now it reads the books and newspapers too (by the way I see no mention of this voice capability in your article), better memory capacity, better battery capacity, and you call that "not much" in terms of improvement.... what did you expect? that it will do your laundry and pay your parking meter too?

To all those who are saying "if this were an iPhone...." try reading with one line of text broken down into three on iPhone? The screen is simply too small. That's why Kindle is a certain size: zoom and pan doesn't work well with lines and lines, paragraphs and paragraphs of text.

[Rick Mc Callister]

Those idiots need to think TEXTBOOK. An inter-active e-book with MP3/MP4 abilities that also plays music and films, that has a decent keyboard so you can answer question and has a limited word-processor to cut and paste text.
If it were reasonably priced --say $50, it would fly off the shelves. I imagine the present POS costs about $5-10 to make in a sweatshops, Even if they are poor business people and had to pay $200 to get it made, it would be an excellent loss leader if Amazon charged a minimal fee for preparing e-books that could be played on the machine and just gave the thing away.

[gigo1000]

Lower the price on the hardware - get more people involved in purchasing books - build a user base. The high initial price is a real roadblock in this economy. I see brand new Dell computers for just a few dollars more. This is a very expensive one-trick pony.

[Zoobie]

Is there any definitive information if kindle books are going to work on other devices? I know they are thinking specifically of smart phones, but I would love if the kindle library was available for the Sony e-reader.

[Dandy55]

I'll second this suggestion
I own Sony 505 e-reader, but Kindle bookstore is SOOOO much better than Sony's - first of all, size of the available library, second - prices are lower ~20% on average, third - more information about the books, reviews and all.

You can ask - why then Sony e-reader? Because it is localizable to other languages. You can download Greek, Central Europe or Cyrillc fonts and read books in Greek, Russian, Hungarian, whatever you like. That's why I got my Sony e-reader, not Kindle.

Jeff, please, please, take us in your bookstore!
Or - consider going international for your Kindle 3 version, . You will get plenty of new international users

[pentest]

The Kindle(who named this thing anyway?) will never have mainstream appeal. It is a niche product with very little appeal outside a small group of people.

[kehandley]

You mean a small group of bookworms.

[rbrice1981]

bookworms...people...anyway you look at it, 500,000 people does not describe a small niche.

[Magicland]

More interesting than the device are some of the criticisms. Color, how many books are written in it (once you get beyond Spiderman in your reading choices)? For what it is supposed to do, the Kindle 2 sounds like an excellent device, albeit at a God-awful price. For that price you can buy a netbook. In fact, if someone were to develop a netbook where you could fold the screen all the way from covering the keyboard to lying on its back (as in a tablet), you'd probably have a device that would fly off the shelves, even at a $359 price. Sort of a "big brother" to a smart phone, you'd have a device that could read books and magazines, edit documents (real editing, not just the precursory stuff you can do on a phone's tiny screen), watch video (another thing that's just not going to happen on a phone's tiny screen by any but the most masochistic among us), and, lord knows, maybe even play a game or two (and in wifi zones, keep up with all your social networking) AND still be portable enough that you don't realize you're lugging it around. However, until such a device is hatched, the Kindle is pretty much the best in its (overpriced) niche. As several others have mentioned, drop it below $200, and while it'd still be a niche device, current sales would probably quickly multiply. Now let's get the price of electronic books down to a fraction of the real, tree killing, energy sapping things.

[pentest]

Yeah textbooks about engineering, psychology, mathematics, economics, physics, chemistry, etc, etc, etc do not use color.

You just gave the reason why it isn't popular. That and you can't do all the things serious student do to their books.

[davidsmi]

Interesting thought, a bigger iPhone, a netbook with reversable screen - my own PC - this is a short lived market - like MP3 players - but shorter.

A service to sell the books online - but work on multiple devices would be more what most people would like (and there are many of these services out there).

If apple did a 7" iPhone you could put your Kindle in the closet next to your Beta player.

[rbrice1981]

color is one drawback, but the technology they're using (e-ink) sounds like it'll be hard to get as color. But maybe one day we'll see that. It seems like in the decision-making, a critical question was asked, "readability and function vs pretty colors".

[Inconnux]

I read a lot and I wouldn't even consider one. Price is FAR too much. No color? greyscale and that amount of memory, $50 max. I have a Palm TX that I can download books onto which is far superior (for about the same price!). I can't believe this hit the market.

[dcase99]

Why in the world would you want to read in color? Comic books maybe but serious reading? No.

[rbrice1981]

I second that dcase99...no one reads in color. $50 max...now I know you're not serious.

[RobertAPierce]

Think beyond just a casual novel -- you need color for illustrations and diagrams etc in technical documents. Sure, you don't need it for regular novels, but if that's the only thing you're buying the kindle for it's a big waste of money.

The Kindle is a nice product but not as handy for just plain reading books as it the Sony Reader.. The Reader is a good bit smaller and fits in your pocket .. but with the same size screen. The Reader takes memory sticks and sd cards for increased memory. Although the Sony may not have as many new books formatted for it as of yet, It can certainly read many, many free books and there are lots of converters to convert Rtf files to Reader files. For those of you who make comments about battery life being short because of page turns, It would be good to look up the kind of display the kindle and sony reader use. This kind of display uses no power once loaded there for battery power is much longer than say a laptop or plam/phone/blackberry or what ever. My Reader also plays MP3s so I can read and listen to music should i desire. .. To me the keyboard is worthless on a Book reader .. takes up space and runs up the costs. I just want to be able to turn the pages easily and go to my book mark .. The Sony Reader does this with ease. 16 levels of grey would be nice I suspose if you were reading a graphic novel but the fonts on the Kindle and Reader are much clearer and can be read with out backlightiing in daylight which saves eyes and battery power. The Reader comes in a nice leather case which looks and feels much more book like than the Kindle. Costs less as well .. I always said "untill someone makes an electronic book I can take with me to sit on the can, I ain't buying. " I got a reader.
jedodd

[No Man]

I look at this device and I still see a cutting-edge prototype. Its a category of electronics that I have no doubt will blossom into something amazing. But at the moment it remains, in my eyes, an overpriced, underfeatured novelty electronic. Keep working at it, Amazon... you'll win us over eventually. But not with this.

[gregorytga]

I agree. Its something that really interests me as I have a feeling it'll eventually be a must have. The best features right now is the auto push content through subscriptions of magazines which would be excellent. I imagine eventually this device will feature a bigger display with possibility of color one day, a better web browser, and touch controls (think virtual keyboard) to accentuate the screen. Oh, and do bring back the memory card slot.

[trisor]

I bought one for my partner for her birthday last year and she loves it.

Personally, I think if they put a real browser in it and changed the marketing they'd be better off. It does have a built in EVDO connection which some people I know pay $60 a month. A Kindle owner pays nothing extra for that.

[rbrice1981]

Right on. Better browser functionality would be good. But remember, many websites are interactive thus might not be very compatible with the Kindle technology. Not to mention the animations and ads would the battery, right?