Re: New Kindle DX introduced - is bigger better?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Adam Thornton <adam () io com>
Date: May 7, 2009 2:09:34 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:   New Kindle DX introduced - is bigger better?

For IP, if you like.

On May 7, 2009, at 11:56 AM, David Farber wrote:

> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Joshua Tinnin <krinklyfig () gmail com>

...


> The market
> could easily be students if the textbook angle works out, though I  
> would
> hope they'd stop exorting ... excuse me, I'd hope they'd start  
> charging
> less due to reduced costs.

I think this is where the real play is, actually.

The Kindle is a tightly sandboxed device, as I understand it, and it's  
already got DRM baked in.

So I'm guessing that the real play is going to be getting the hardware  
subsidized to some degree by colleges, and then providing course  
materials and textbooks to the Kindle at a bit less than paper  
textbook prices.  The trick, of course, will be that the licenses are  
non-transferrable and that the books expire after the school term  
ends.  This then will remove that tendency that so irritates textbook  
publishers, for students to buy used copies of the textbook.

However, a student that has the means for a Kindle almost certainly  
has the means for a notebook computer, which can be nearly as good a  
reader and more generally useful.  That. in turn, implies that for the  
Kindle to succeed, the textbook content will need to be (and more  
importantly, to stay) Kindle-only.  I don't know how impractical  
extracting Kindle content to a more interoperable format will turn out  
to be.

Any newspaper that thinks the Kindle will save it is delusional.   
Which isn't to say there probably aren't several that have convinced  
themselves that it will.

I personally think I would find the small form factor device much more  
useful than the DX. It's not yet quite to the point where I want one  
for myself, but I had an interesting realization a couple days ago.   
My mom's birthday is coming up--as is Mother's Day--and although she  
loves to read, her eyesight has become pretty poor.  The selection of  
things available as large-print editions does not intersect very much  
with her reading tastes.  The Kindle--which actually does have  
editions of many of the books I wanted to get her--would be an obvious  
choice here, simply because the print can be blown up quite large, and  
the reading experience, although not on a par with an expensively- 
printed hardback, is certainly easier on the eyes than 1980s-mass- 
market-paperbacks.

I didn't get her one--at least not yet--because I don't know that  
she'd use it: although it does most of what a book does, it may not  
feel enough like a book to be a substitute for her.  I don't think  
it'll make a good surprise gift, but if one of her friends gets one so  
she can test-drive it, I would want to revisit the question.

Adam




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