Amazon's New Kindle-DX: $489 for an E-Reader?

Four hundred and eighty-nine dollars?!?! For an e-reader… That’s not even in color. And doesn’t come with Wi-Fi or games or apps or music playback or…

Tell me again why I would buy one of these new Amazon Kindle-DX devices. Because I have a cool $500 burning a hole in my pocket? Not in this economy, pal. Seems to me that it’s cheaper - at least now - to just keep subscribing to the newspaper or buying used textbooks.

To recap: Amazon (AMZN) Wednesday announced the Kindle DX, an electronic reader, as well as deals with textbook publishers and newspapers. (Check out Andrew Nusca’s live coverage of the announcement in New York) I’m not opposed to e-readers - in fact, I use a Wi-Fi enabled iPod Touch to read a lot of newspaper and magazine content. At least with the iPod Touch, I get Wi-Fi (instead of 3G Wireless) and the ability to do more than just read - and even the most expensive model is almost $100 cheaper and comes with about 10 times the storage space.

Amazon is taking pre-orders now and will start shipping this summer. The company had better hope for some strong pre-order sales before Apple (AAPL) makes its own announcement at the Worldwide Developer’s Conference in June. The buzz is that Apple will announce a new device, with speculation honing in on a new tablet or netbook computer. Personally, I think a larger screen iPod Touch or iPhone (which could also double as a tablet or netbook) is more in order.

If Apple pulls that off, it could steal some of Amazon’s thunder by offering a better e-reading experience than even a new-and-improved Kindle is offering.

Comments

[Stock alot:]

There is no reason for Kindle... the Tech. put into it is so out dated it makes the telephone loook like the newiest thing to date. I could of made this device 15 years ago and it might of made it then. tech is to advanced now.

May 06 01:59 PM

[rgbscan:]

Here's the thing. I'ma college student myself. The current eTextbooks you can buy from the same textbook companies listed are time limited. They come as protected PDF's with a limited lifespan you can view on your desktop PC. Although they are slightly less expensive (usually $25 bucks cheaper than their paper counterparts) they have no resale value. I can't imagine putting down ~500 bucks for a kindle, you'd never break even. When you buy a used textbook off Amazon, it ends up being roughly the same price as the electronic version anyway so the savings are negated right off the bat. Then at the end of the semester you can turn around and sell it and get 80%-90% of your money back (due to seller fees). You are immeadiately at a loss if you bought electronic since you receive no money back. Each paper textbook ends up costing you maybe 20 bucks a semester using the buy used and sell used method on Amazon. You simply can't recoup that after sinking money into a Kindle and paying for expensive ebooks you can't resell. I don't know that *any* student routinely carries all their books at once so they weight savings doesn't seem like a big deal. Plus you can't highlight or note-take on the Kindle like you can in the margins of a paper book. Unless the schools (or parents) want to subsidize these I can't see a student with a part time job and big tuition loans forking over cash for these. You can get a basic Dell notebook (with a bigger screen!) or almost 2 netbooks for the same price!

May 06 03:07 PM

[Bo Zhou:]

The reader itself isn't a bad idea. The price is. $500 bucks is ridiculous. Why do they think it's worth of it? How many of you read more than 3 books on an outdoor trip? And then what all I left is some electronic file which doesn't give me the feelings of owning a book at all. My husband is crying for this as a gift. I said "over my dead body" to him.

May 06 03:32 PM

[Roger Knights:]

The proof is in the pudding (sales). There was even more skepticism when the first and second Kindles came out, but they both sold extremely well. This one, I believe, will do so also, despite the same old arguments against it. (E.g., that "you can't highlight or note-take.")

May 06 03:36 PM

[tmorris007:]

The Kindle is for avid readers who are willing to pay for the ease of receipt and transport of their reading material. Having used the Kindle II since it came out in Feb. I can attest to the benefits it provides as well as the cost savings on books, newspapers and periodicals. My guess is those reviewers who fail to see it's obvious benefits, not to mention the cost savings realized on content purchases, are not avid readers (5 + books per month).

Being in my middle 50's, my eyes cannot take the strain of reading for 10 hours on a backlit computer screen. That, coupled with the ability to read outdoors while on the go, makes the Kindle II ideal.

When the DX comes out, I will buy it. At the rate I read it will pay for itself in about 5 months.

May 06 04:06 PM

[loko:]

Ha ha ha no wander the AMZN is trading at P/E of 53 HAHAHAHA 53 INSANITY in USA is in full force !
Even the 2010 earnings of 2.07 are P/E of 40 ha ha ha 40
DOT COM WELCOME BACK to US of BALOONIAaaa

May 06 04:39 PM

[cheaperCDs:]

On May 06 01:59 PM Stock alot wrote:
> There is no reason for Kindle... the Tech. put into it is so out
> dated it makes the telephone loook like the newiest thing to date.
> I could of made this device 15 years ago and it might of made it
> then. tech is to advanced now.

Since the e-paper wasn't commercially available 15 years ago, no, you couldn't have made one then. (BTW, I'm not going to buy one now either..)

May 06 04:40 PM

[rgbscan:]

see I don't buy the money saving argument either. Out of the last 11 books I've read (I just spent the last 20 minutes searching Amazon) only 2 are available on Kindle/Whispernet: The Cactus Eaters is 11.66 new at amazon, 9.56 on kindle, or 2.47 new from a third party on amazon and 98 cents used. Even with shipping $3.99 on the $2.47 new book, the kindle still seems expensive. Same with crichtons the lost world. 7.99 amazon new, 6.99 kible and less than a buck used. You're going to have to read an awful lot to break even on a kindle only saving a buck or two at a time.

I guess if you only read new releases in hardcover you come out ahead on the kindle. For textbooks (which was hyped with the dx launch) and anything available in paperback - Unless the instant delivery is worth the premium in price, it still looks like a lousy deal to me.

May 06 04:52 PM

[Stephen Fra...:]

cdwilliams, its refreshing to see your commentary. i'm a college student too and I have the same feelings... but not many people can relate. or maybe they just don't wanna hear it...

May 06 05:21 PM

[D_Virginia:]

Amazon is doing with the Kindle what Apple did with the iPod: integrating the using of a digital format with the easy buying of media.

Instead of being a gadget-maker who starting selling media for their gadgets, they are a media seller who started making gadgets for their media.

The Kindle is "pretty good" as e-readers go, but the great thing is that you can buy stuff from the biggest online book seller in the world, and you can do it over the air, from wherever Sprint has EVDO coverage. This is perfect for newspapers and magazines, and superb for novels, if that's your thing.

The DX is now even better for newspapers, and finally sufficient for textbooks and technical books. Hell, if I was a student, I'd buy it just for the search functionality and annotations -- not to mention the size/weight of it.

Gripe if you want, but pricey or not, this thing will sell like hotcakes.

Invest accordingly.

May 06 05:24 PM

[KenC:]

Dear Virginia, the difference between a Kindle and an iPod, is that while the iPod was not inexpensive, the media was. I'm an avid reader. I visit B&N several times a week to look for new books. I'm exactly like the person the Kindle would seem ideal for; and yet, it's not for me. It's too fragile, too single-purpose, and too expensive, with expensive subscriptions to boot. I find the prices of books to be outrageous for e-media. The books I like are hardcover with pseudo-cut, creamy heavy paper and a nice font. I don't like cheap quality books, but if I'm not getting a quality book experience, then I am not going to pay an arm and a leg. The bottom line is that the Kindle is too expensive for what it is. The early adopters can pay, that's fine, but it won't get mass market penetration like an iPod, until they hit the pricing sweetspot. For me, that'd be around $100. Fine, make it a Book-a-month for 2 years, to subsidize the price, but the initial cost has to be lower, much lower. Or, keep the price where it is, but lower the cost of the e-books, which after all, have virtually no cost to the manufacturer. They have no inventory. They have no costly returns. The pricing is OUTRAGEOUS!

May 06 06:44 PM

[bobaka:]

ridiculous. a $500 b&w tablet pc that's tied to one provider that charges too much for everything. people are stupid. they'll buy it.

May 06 07:37 PM

[Daryan:]

Couldn't you buy a netbook, download the books in .pdf format (trust me, all you have to do is look around and you don't pay a dime), and have far more function than this for about half of that? Rig up a NIMH or alternative long-lasting power solution and you're set. Seems to me that this is rather redundant and expensive but I will let the market be the final judge.

May 06 07:56 PM

[proudgrampa:]

WTF?

May 06 08:13 PM

[Kirill:]

The first kindle came out somewhere in November 2007. You would think that as time goes by the new model would cost less as technology starts to age and your competitors are coming up with substitutes. But no, all we see is greed that will hurt sales, and stock price. Bad marketing politics, bad pricing decision, bad connection with consumer.

May 07 09:38 AM

[brewer:]

Maybe since Amazon is the largest book seller, they are not keen on selling this at a competitive price. I agree wtih KenC (again) this is way too expensive (especially the media).

May 07 10:43 AM

[brewer:]

Apple already has an amazon book reader for iPod, that also works in color. They are rumored to have a larger format iPod coming out. I am guessing something with a folding screen that still fits in your pocket. If that is the case, it will supplant this, except perhaps for people with older eyes, etc... ePaper is nice, but (mostly) kids reading textbooks aren't going to care about that much.

May 07 10:44 AM

[mastic trac...:]

$500 for a b&w screen reader and 10 bucks a pop for content...hmmmm....maybe I will continue to go to the library and get recent bestsellers, and newpaper info for free! But then I would have to drive, buy gas, walk and risk late fee's....geez...it is a kinda cool looking device and works as good as my commodore 64, and I'm not really that good of a driver....this may take a bit more cipherin'

May 07 11:27 AM

[Roger Knights:]

It's possible to acquire inexpensive non-Kindle books and read them on the Kindle. The prices of digital Kindle books will come down in time--maybe ten years--when e-books have enough market share to wag the dog.

"Same with crichtons the lost world. 7.99 amazon new, 6.99 kible and less than a buck used."

Plus $3.95 shipping.

May 08 01:43 AM

[raytayzmd:]

...I am soooo tired of reading dimwitted, shortsighted, narrowminded criticisms of Kindle...but it's made worse by the fact the authors always resort to the same inane arguments...regardless, this is simply a copy of one of my responses to some other similar post:

"gag!...it is SO annoying to read criticism from people when they clearly know NOTHING about the device!...READ the description and THEN lodge your criticisms:

www.amazon.com/Kindle-...

...note what it says:

"By using the QWERTY keyboard, you can add annotations to text, just like you might write in the margins of a book. And because it is digital, you can edit, delete, and export your notes. Using the new 5-way controller, you can highlight and clip key passages and bookmark pages for future use. You'll never need to bookmark your last place in the book, because Kindle remembers for you and always opens to the last page you read."

...and if you want to find something all you need to do is SEARCH for it:

"Kindle makes it easy to search within a book, across your library, in the Kindle Store, or even the Web. To use the Search feature, simply type in a word or phrase you're looking for, and Kindle finds every instance in your book or across your Kindle library. Looking for the first reference of a character in your book? Simply type in the name and search. You can extend your search to the Kindle Store to find related titles you may be interested in. Explore even further by searching Wikipedia and the Web."

...can a hard copy book do that?...geez, what is it about Kindle that renders people so they can't look past their own narrow minds?"

...and did I mention that Kindle books are about hald the cost of hard copies?...did I mention the extraordinarily environmental impact of electronic books versus hard copies?...MOST IMPORTANT -- go to the website and study ALL of the features and then TRY to apply just a LITTLE creativity to come up with the WEALTH of possibilities a Kindle would offer a student...when I think back to my college days, I literally could spend all day writing about what I COULD have accomplished if the thing had been available then!...

May 10 12:02 PM