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Amazon is easily the biggest
online retailer in the world. Place an order for a book, DVD, CD or
pretty much anything else on its super secure website amazon.com, and
you will get it no matter where you are in the world. But Amazon has
expanded its scope beyond physical goods. Since it is online, why not
offer downloads? This is exactly what Amazon does through its Amazon
Unbox service. Movies and TV shows can be downloaded to your hard drive
easily through this service.
  But
Amazon has not forgotten its roots. It began with books and they still
remain the biggest selling item along with DVDs. So why not sell books
electronically? Amazingly, Amazon granted that wish also a couple of
years back with a device called the Kindle.
The idea is simple. It is a wireless e-book reader. The system uses
secure cellular signals (a separate system called WhisperNet) to
transmit the contents of thousands of books, magazines and newspapers in
minutes to Kindle all over the US. Hopefully, Amazon is working on
making Kindle an international e-book standard.
Released in November 2007, the Kindle has sold more than a quarter
million units. Its texts account for 10 per cent of Amazon’s book sales
despite the fact that only 230,000 titles — a tiny fraction of the books
offered on the site — are available in digital form.
The good news is that Amazon has just released a new version of the
Kindle called Kindle 2 (what else?) at the same price of US$ 359. One
Kindle 2 can hold up to 1,500 e-books in the internal 2 GB memory. It
would fill up an entire bookcase (or room) in physical form.
 Kindle
sales were good, but Oprah Winfrey’s endorsement of the product last
November sent sales soaring through the roof. Amazon had badly
underestimated the demand and its stocks ran out in no time.
The new device is just over a third of an inch thick, and weighs
about 10 ounces. Amazon has added buttons to make it easier to flip
pages, and a new five-way controller is intended to facilitate
note-taking and highlighting text. Kindle 2 definitions, pulled from the
New Oxford American Dictionary, will appear instantly at the bottom of
the page.
The six-inch, 600x800 electronic paper B/W display includes 16 shades
of gray, compared to the 4 shades available on the original Kindle. Like
its predecessor, Kindle 2 does not use backlighting.
 Kindle
2 also features a redesigned, more portable power charger. With one
charge, the Kindle 2 will last up to five days with wireless turned on
and for two weeks with wireless powered off. Perhaps the biggest
surprise is a book to speech feature which will read books aloud to you
in a robotic male or female voice. Those living away from the US can
only make a wish - that Kindle becomes an international standard. That
in itself will be a worldwide web of a different kind.
“Our vision is every book in every language ever printed available in
60 seconds,” Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and CEO, said during a
Monday press event. As part of the launch, author Stephen King will
release a new novella exclusively for the Kindle 2. The story, titled
“Ur”, features an appearance by the Kindle, naturally. King’s novella is
available for pre-order, and will be released later this month. |
