Kindle Fire - Launched 15th Nov!

The big giant Amazon has launched the Kindle Fire, a Tablet!
There's been tons of speculation on the divide between the Kindle and a full-throttle tablet - or more commonly, "Kindle vs.iPad".
This isn't a surprise - Barnes & Nobles launched the Nook Color, and the news around the Amazon competitor launch has been all over the place.
Retailing at $199, reviews rave about the reading and store-browsing ease, but say that the browser is laughable.

This ties in with  my experience of the Kindle - works great for reading, but the browser is "experimental" and weak.


MY personal checklist on ebook readers/tablets has to be battery life and overall weight of the device. I'd like to go for days without recharging - hours of reading shouldn't take a toll on my hands or my device.
Sadly, it looks like those two qualities aren't to be found in the Kindle Fire.


Overall, Amazon should be more concerned that they will cannibalize sales of the Kindle Dx - Most customers would pick the iPad/Blackberry Playbook/Samsung Galaxy Tab over the Kindle Fire.

A Roald Dahl look at new e-devices

The mid-week (or early-week!) blues got you?
This adorable graphic from Unshelved is a great pick-me-up. It references Matilda, by Roald Dahl and her e-reader experience (hint: not good)!
While I'm an ebook fan, I totally understand and GET her experience.

Linked here for the rest of the comic: http://www.unshelved.com/2011-3-4
The art is by Aaron Renier from www.aaronrenier.com

Readability - The battle of the Kindle vs. Paper vs. iPad

Jakob Nielson, the guru of internet usability, published a research paper on reading and usability a few days ago.

They did some very interesting comparisions, on metrics I had been wondering about for a while (if you follow this blog, you know that I bring up e-book readers every couple of weeks). My reading style and methods have shifted drastically with the Kindle, as have that of other bookworms.You might be trying out a reader, or just want to know more about the future of reading and publishing; read on.

Jakob posits some remarkable results - after evaluating readers on the Kindle 2, PC, Kindle, and of course, printed book. The main question he attempts to answer is if ebook readers solve the long-standing issues of reading from PC monitors. The researchers decided to check only the iBook app, and no newspaper or website reading, just a story by Hemmingway.

The Usability results:

"iPad, Kindle, and the printed book all scored fairly high at 5.8, 5.7, and 5.6, respectively. The PC, however, scored an abysmal 3.6."

Wow! The kindle scored better than the actual book? Though user comments did say that the most comfortable to read was the actual book. I would have to agree - I do find myself hunting out the occasional paper book if it is a very large one.

This is good news for the trees, though I noticed a few improvements could be made in the study: Bigger test group size, different ebook readers, the Kindle Dx (known to have better contrast than the Kindle 2) or different aspects of reading. 

For those readers who are still reading on the PC, this should be a clear nudge to get an ebook reader. They are worth it!

Ebook Reader Update - Kindle vs. IPad

Bloomberg updated this weekend (May 28th) that Amazon was working on a new version of the Kindle out in August. This means some Agile product development is in place, as their last release was just about 8 months ago.

On further reading though, the new Kindle will only have a few "better, faster" incremental changes - the screen gets more contrast, the kindle itself gets thinner (and probably lighter), page loading is faster.

Notice the absence of any news on the Touch Screen or Back-light. Both seem to be critical product updates that should be a part of the kindle. Bloomberg adds:

"The Kindle has about 60 percent of the U.S. market, followed by Sony with 35 percent, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based research firm estimates."

The biggest differentiating factor the Sony Reader has is its touchscreen device, so it is definitely competition. The Nook, on the other hand, is a slower version of the Kindle, and hence lags far behind in market share.

It looks like the Kindle is not going up against the iPad at all, and is going to stay within its comfort zone of dedicated eBook readers. 

What do you think Amazon should do next? Do you agree with their strategy?