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.

Netbook with detachable keyboard. Batteries and memory in screen with tiny OS. ASUS already has announced at TABLET netbook. At 3 lbs would it be too heavy? You would get lots more for your $350.

Brent

[rbrice1981]

touche', but the appeal of the Kindle is that it's a glorified e-reader. It does many of the functions that a netbook would do (admittedly not as great except for reading books). A netbook might be a great choice for many, but the tech-savvy bookworm is going to need the kindle.

[RobertAPierce]

With a $359 price tag and still no color screen, this device is simply waaaaay overpriced. That, and the fact that the vendor (amazon) can easily and instantly yank your access to all the books you've purchased for whatever reason makes it essentially a very expensive rental viewer. No thanks.

[hatmon]

I really want an ebook reader but if I have to buy my ebooks in a format that becomes useless the minute I change the device then they should be a damn sight cheaper than they are. Why isn't Amazon passing on any of the substantial savings that are being made through the use of an electronic format instead of paper? Why isn't Amazon selling them without DRM making them worth only the life of the kindle? Book sellers simply hate technology and would rather squeeze every penny they can out of a few people than offer sensible prices and get a little money out of a lot more people.

[othereyes]

It'll be interesting to see if this does anything for online electronic sales overall. Over the holiday season and in January, traditional electronics retailers' (like Best Buy) sales plummeted, but online sales stayed steady. TechChannel Index has good, real-time data on what?s happening in the electronics market at:

http://www.techchannelindex.com/archives/US-Technology-Retail-Sales-Channels.php

[Vegaman_Dan]

It's hard to justify a $359 price on a device that you still have to pay the full retail price of the content you would otherwise buy at the book store, yet have no physical copy of the book. If they could reduce the price of the book due to reduced actual value, then it might do better.

If I'm going to be spending $25-$50 for a reference book, I sure darn want to have it in my hands in print.

[checodaman]

Its got 2 shades of gray!!

Seriously, why should we pay $350 for what is essenitally a lappy 386? Its a POS.

[rbrice1981]

actually, it's got 16 shades of gray. 2 shades would be simply black and white. A POS? Where is yours?

[AspectRatio]

I bought the first version and loved it.

I've already pre-ordered version 2.

If you want a note/netbook, then go get one of those. Amazon isn't hurting for customers at this price point. The Kindle does what it does very, very well. And that's why I bought it and why i love it.

If you can't afford it or want it to do a million other things, that's great. Good for you.

[jeff44]

honestly i think this is HUGE!

the text-to-speech feature is a deal breaker for me.

as a kid who always gets his books on tape or CD or lately Itunes, and listens while he reads, or follows along in the book for that matter, this is great!

also in regard to the "potential market" "not so big" remark,

I would say this has HUGE potential. Kids are finding reading increasingly struggling today, and are finding alternative methods to integrate technology with reading such as downloading an audio book from itunes onto ones ipod.

the only idea better than this, I would say, would be to when you purchase and download an Audiobook from itunes, it comes with the books text so you can follow along.

I find that one without the other, meaning audio without the book tends to allow the reader to get side tracked and unfocused. For those ADHD/ADD kids out there, the audio + following along in the book while listening is key, and this can do it!

[dwimmer38]

I agree that $200 is the desired price point. BUT, I will probably buy one anyways. I figure it will pay for itself within ONE year based on the price difference between the kindle version of a book and the hardcover/softcover price.

[Earthlin]

Get rid of the ugly keyboard, expand the screen through where the keyboard used to be, have a color touch screen with virtual keyboard since the keyboard is seldom used anyway, have it surf the net through a wifi connection and put a memory expansion slot ... and reduce the price to $200 and you have a deal. If Apple can do it and much more with its iPhone, why can't Amazone?

[nvnvgirl]

If you want a great digital reader, check out the Sony PRS 505. It costs about a hundred dollars less and has more advantages ie: you can dl any ebook that's in Adobe PDF format, which is the format that most online libraries use; you can dl any of your own documents that are in PDF format and you don't have to buy all your books from Amazon.com like you do with the Kindle. Just check it out before you decide that these digital readers aren't a financially worthwhile convenience :).