Aug

13

Amazon Kindle: The Buzz Goes On

Filed Under Kindle, News, Reader, Readius, e-Ink | Leave a Comment

The media buzz on the Amazon Kindle continues at mid-week, following a Citigroup analyst’s positive estimates of 2008 Kindle sales on Monday.

The Top Stocks Blog over at MSN Money staked out somewhat of a contrarian position. Under the headline, “Amazon’s Kindle unlikely to set world on fire,” the blogger noted that although some think the Kindle will have a first-year sales record comparable to that of the Apple iPod, “[o]thers believe it’s wishful thinking to assume John Grisham will ever be as popular as Jay-Z.”

After noting some features of the Amazon Kindle — ability to download books over the wireless Whispernet network, the glare-free screen and enlargeable screen fonts, the Top Stocks blogger held firm to the notion of print-and-paper books: “Doodling in the corners and turning the pages into a flipbook, alas, can still only be done in regular books.”

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Aug

12

Amazon Kindle Sales Surpassing Expectations?

Filed Under Kindle, News | Leave a Comment

The news media and the blogosphere are filled with Amazon Kindle buzz this week, stemming from the Monday comments of Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney about the strength of Kindle sales in 2008.

InternetNews.com reports that Citigroup described Amazon Kindle sales as surpassing expectations, “and could double a previous estimate for units sold this year.”

Mahaney, the article says, esimated that Kindle sales for 2008 could reach a total of 380,000, which would be comparable to the first sales year for Apple’s iPod. In a note to clients, the article added, Mahaney opined that ” ‘the Kindle is becoming the iPod of the book world.’ ”

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Mar

18

How About the iPod as an eReading Device?

Filed Under Kindle, e-Book, eReader, ipod | Leave a Comment

Over at Electric Alphabet, an article discusses the e-book reader possibilities lying ahead for the Apple iPod:

Currently, the iPod Touch doesn’t stack up next to the Kindle in terms of screen size, but it does bring a host of features that make new versions easily adaptable. Its multitouch screen gives it a natural advantage over the Kindle in terms of manipulating documents, not just reading them. While it has wireless internet, the addition of Bluetooth (which the iPhone has but Touch currently does not) would make the use of wireless keyboards a cinch too.

Continue reading . . .

Mar

6

Please, Steve: Give Us An iPod Reader

Filed Under News, eReader | Leave a Comment

At Tidbits, we find a request to Steve Jobs and Apple “to acknowledge that people read vast quantities of text and to focus hardware and software design efforts on making it easier to read on the iPod, iPhone, and future devices.”

Writer Adam C. Engst opines that

. . . I, speaking as a reader and a publisher, would really like to see Apple create a larger version of the iPod touch optimized not just for a better video experience, but also for a best-of-breed reading experience. Apple has the hardware design and user interface chops that Amazon lacked when creating the Kindle, plus the knowledge gleaned from the iPhone and the iPod touch in terms of underlying operating system, physical design, and wireless capabilities. Equally important is the iTunes Store, which offers an unparalleled browsing and shopping experience for digital media - it could be extended to support commercial ebooks and free blogs in exactly the way it currently supports audiobooks and podcasts.

Read the article here.