Amazon Kindle DX: Official Info and Price
The Kindle DX has appeared on Amazon’s website and we can now confirm the previously leaked specs: 9.7″ display (16 gray levels), auto portrait/landscape mode, PDF reader, wireless 3G, “days” of battery, text to speech.
The price is set at $489, which is not bad compared to the $359 6″ Kindle. We actually prefer this larger version by far. Amazon is taking orders of the Kindle DX, but there’s no estimated delivery date other than “this summer”.
Update: here’s a quick description of pro, cons and “may be”.
Pros
· A big screen is great
· No monthly fee
Cons
· No zoom, scroll or pan
· Books are not cheap compared to the paper version (especially used ones)
· The lack of PDF support for the Kindle 2 is painful. Some users were pissed this morning as they bought their Kindle 2 last month.
Price: Many were complaining about the pricing of the device ($450+). Yes, it is too expensive for mass acceptance, but there’s no real competitor on the market and it seems to sell well, so the price is certainly what the market can bear. Also, I’d like to point out that if you subscribe to many magazines and buy books and or send big files to your Kindle, the cost of the content adds up quickly. If you think that it is too expensive, just don’t buy it and wait…
Students Skeptical Kindle DX Can Replace Paper Chase
Students pointed out plenty of other issues about the Kindle DX to Wired.com. For instance, students often loan textbooks to one another, and currently that’s not practical with a Kindle, as you’d have to loan your entire reader and library. Also, the beauty of paper textbooks is the ability to highlight sentences, underline keywords and keep all of them open at once. While the Kindle does have highlight and notes tools, the reader is sluggish with performance, and the keyboard is unnatural and clunky to type on.
However, it’s too soon to say how Amazon Kindle DX will fare on campuses, as the students polled by Wired.com had mixed opinions. Overall, 19 students replied to our query via Twitter, five of whom said they would definitely purchase a Kindle DX, seven who said no and seven who said maybe.
“Law students are waiting for Kindle books!” said Twitter user “SoCaliana.” “We have so many books to carry around. I couldn’t find my texts on CD or anything!”
We can expect Amazon to cook up some interesting sales models after it completes Kindle DX pilot programs with Arizona State, Case Western Reserve, Princeton, the University of Virginia and Pace university. Meanwhile, let’s get the brainstorming started. What would you suggest for e-textbook sales strategies, readers? Here’s an idea: Selling e-textbooks by individual chapters as opposed to complete books, since most classes don’t read textbooks in entirety anyway. That would certainly cut costs.
The Kindle DX has appeared on Amazon’s website and we can now confirm the previously leaked specs: 9.7″ display (16 gray levels), auto portrait/landscape mode, PDF reader, wireless 3G, “days” of battery, text to speech.
The price is set at $489, which is not bad compared to the $359 6″ Kindle. We actually prefer this larger version by far. Amazon is taking orders of the Kindle DX, but there’s no estimated delivery date other than “this summer”.
Update: here’s a quick description of pro, cons and “may be”.
Pros
· A big screen is great
· No monthly fee
Cons
· No zoom, scroll or pan
· Books are not cheap compared to the paper version (especially used ones)
· The lack of PDF support for the Kindle 2 is painful. Some users were pissed this morning as they bought their Kindle 2 last month.
Price: Many were complaining about the pricing of the device ($450+). Yes, it is too expensive for mass acceptance, but there’s no real competitor on the market and it seems to sell well, so the price is certainly what the market can bear. Also, I’d like to point out that if you subscribe to many magazines and buy books and or send big files to your Kindle, the cost of the content adds up quickly. If you think that it is too expensive, just don’t buy it and wait…
Students Skeptical Kindle DX Can Replace Paper Chase
Students pointed out plenty of other issues about the Kindle DX to Wired.com. For instance, students often loan textbooks to one another, and currently that’s not practical with a Kindle, as you’d have to loan your entire reader and library. Also, the beauty of paper textbooks is the ability to highlight sentences, underline keywords and keep all of them open at once. While the Kindle does have highlight and notes tools, the reader is sluggish with performance, and the keyboard is unnatural and clunky to type on.
However, it’s too soon to say how Amazon Kindle DX will fare on campuses, as the students polled by Wired.com had mixed opinions. Overall, 19 students replied to our query via Twitter, five of whom said they would definitely purchase a Kindle DX, seven who said no and seven who said maybe.
“Law students are waiting for Kindle books!” said Twitter user “SoCaliana.” “We have so many books to carry around. I couldn’t find my texts on CD or anything!”
We can expect Amazon to cook up some interesting sales models after it completes Kindle DX pilot programs with Arizona State, Case Western Reserve, Princeton, the University of Virginia and Pace university. Meanwhile, let’s get the brainstorming started. What would you suggest for e-textbook sales strategies, readers? Here’s an idea: Selling e-textbooks by individual chapters as opposed to complete books, since most classes don’t read textbooks in entirety anyway. That would certainly cut costs.
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