Kindle’s price cut – Now the kindle a common man ebook reader
On the 21st July Amazon announced a drastic price cut for the ‘high priced’ Kindle – the ebook reader. Amazon slashed the price 
from $259 to $139 taking the price sub $250. The version of Kindle priced at $139 does not support 3G though Wi-Fi connectivity is available. Non availability of 3G connectivity should not be a major concern as most of the books are not huge in file size and therefore can be downloaded and synchronized pretty fast over a good WI-Fi connection. Some of the new features of the new Kindle are
- It is lighter,
- It is smaller,
- New Kindle has Wi Fi capabilities
- 4 GB memory against the old memory of 2 GB. Kindle2 could hold 1500 books while the new Kindle can hold 3,500 books.
- There is a 3G version of Kindle3 that will cost $189.99 comes with unlimited 3G contract-free service from AT&T (for US customers only)
- You can change the format of the content like font line spacing and customize the reading experience according to your preference
- The new Kindle also allows you to share part of the text on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter
- You can also see popular passages shared by friends, aggregated as 'popular highlights which is killer and everyone would want that and it would help Amazon boost its sales.
- The battery life has been improved so that the Kindle can last 10 days of reading with the Wi-Fi on
- Choice of grey or white color for the Kindle
- The screen refresh rate is 20% higher than the predecessor which causes less flicker
- The new kindle weighs 8.7 ounces which is lesser compared to Kindle2 which weighed 10.2 ounces. Kindle3 would be lightest gadget as Nook weighs 11.6 ounces and the only WiFi model weighs 11.6 ounces and the 3G version weighs 12.06 ounces.
All these improvements with a lower price! This does not happen so fast. I feel like dancing
. I have never been into intensive reading except for a couple of years when I was younger. With books becoming expensive and the state library (governments in India run the libraries) being few I had a perfect alibi for not reading books (my excuse was that I love reading books but then they are so expensive). I must say that I read a lot of comics and now see my daughter seeing the comic characters on Cartoon Channel.
Competitors for Kindle
- Nook – Nook from Barnes and Noble is the most serious competitors. The management of Amazon, though they would not admit that in public, in the last few months have bee reacting to moves made by Barnes and Noble. This started with Barnes and Noble slashing the price of the nook from $259.99 to $299.99 in June 2010. As if this was not enough a version of Nook which had only WiFi connectivity at $149.99. Kindle developers realized that they had to take on the challenge posed by Nook. Amazon was already looking to introduce Kindle3 with new features. Therefore the launch of Kindle3 was no surprise but the price cut seems to have caught everyone offgaurd.
- Sony Reader – Though one of the oldest ebook reader Sony was not able to leverage the advantage of being the first to get into the ebook reader market. The Soy reader was priced at about $500. Sony has cut prices and there are three variants. The pocket version costs $149.99he touch version costs $169.99 and the daily edition is #299.99. The biggest disadvantage Sony Reader has that it does not support 3G or Wi-Fi and you have to connect the device to the reader to upload the content to the reader – how dumb can a company get?
- Kobe Ereader – Kobe was a basic reader with very few frills. Kobe also does not support 3G and Wifi! Kobe’s unique selling proposition was the price which is $150. Now with Amazon beating the price it will be tough for companies like Kobe to survive. Since it has very basic functionality unless the Kobe developers do something drastic the product is likely to fail.
- Que Pro reader – Though Que Pro Reader was predicted to be the ‘next big thing in ereaders’ it never took off. Pre-orders and new books have been cancelled and there is no news from the development company Plastic Logic. The product was supported by Barnes and Noble but Barnes and Nobel decided to develop their own product Nook the interest died away and since it was priced at $650 Que Pro Reader would have doomed. I have hope that they would come back with a reasonably priced ereader that would look classy.
At $259 Kindle was tad too expensive and if I bought it then I would have upset my budget (not that I manage the budget efficiently as I’m always out of money at the end of the month) for that month. Therefore I was open to other ebook readers which were cheaper like Nook and Kobe reader. By dropping the price of Kindle 3 by more that 45% Amazon and offering it at a sub $150 has enable Kindle to blow away the competition at least for me. This price will definitely push the sales of Kindle and more importantly more people would buy books and subscriptions from Amazon.
Final thoughts on Ebook readers
Kindle3 is not available right now though you can preorder it here and Kindle3 would start shipping August 27,2010.
You can preorder the Kindle here.
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|  Kobe Reader |  Que Pro Reader |
In Huffington post Russ Grandinetti, VP of Kindle Content recently said that “The market is even bigger than we thought” while talking about the size of the e-reader audience. He reiterated statements made by Amazon last week that since the company lowered the price of the Kindle to $189 sales have accelerated.
Some commentators like CS Monitor are trying to judge who has won the race. I feel it is too early to decide who the winner is. There are others who suggest that the Kindle is likely to sell for $100 this season. If that happens then ebook readers would dominate the festival season this year.
What are your thoughts and views on ebook readers. Will they be the new medium for reading books?
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