Amazon.com Launches E-Book Reader
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 05: A United Airlines airplane flies along it's landing path towards LaGuardia International Airport as the New York Mets host the Atlanta Braves during their Opening Day Game at Citi Field on April 5, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images) / Nick Laham
Amazon.com Inc. is hoping to invigorate a nascent market for electronic books by introducing its own e-book reader with free wireless connectivity.
Monday's long-anticipated announcement comes as e-books remain a sliver of overall book sales, partly because they lack the comfort and intimacy of bound paper.
Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said the online retailer spent three years developing the Kindle reader, which the company is selling online for $399.
Rather than try to "outbook" the bound book, Bezos said, Amazon designed Kindle with the e-book's strengths in mind.
It is thinner than most paperbacks and weighs 10.3 ounces. Yet it can hold some 200 books, along with newspapers, magazines and an entire dictionary.
Readers can buy and download books directly to the Kindle -- without a PC -- through Sprint Nextel Corp.'s high-speed EV-DO cellular network without fees or contract commitments. They also can take notes on what they read and store them on Amazon's servers.
Kindle users can turn off wireless connectivity when they are on airplanes -- though they also must shut off the device during takeoff and landing -- prime reading time for some.
Sony Corp. already offers an e-book reader that imitates the look of paper by using an innovative screen technology.
The Kindle screen takes a similar approach and has no backlight to reduce battery use and eyestrain. Bezos said Amazon decided to make its own device so it could seamlessly build a service around it.
Best sellers and new releases will typically go for $9.99.
© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Monday's long-anticipated announcement comes as e-books remain a sliver of overall book sales, partly because they lack the comfort and intimacy of bound paper.
Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said the online retailer spent three years developing the Kindle reader, which the company is selling online for $399.
Rather than try to "outbook" the bound book, Bezos said, Amazon designed Kindle with the e-book's strengths in mind.
It is thinner than most paperbacks and weighs 10.3 ounces. Yet it can hold some 200 books, along with newspapers, magazines and an entire dictionary.
Readers can buy and download books directly to the Kindle -- without a PC -- through Sprint Nextel Corp.'s high-speed EV-DO cellular network without fees or contract commitments. They also can take notes on what they read and store them on Amazon's servers.
Kindle users can turn off wireless connectivity when they are on airplanes -- though they also must shut off the device during takeoff and landing -- prime reading time for some.
Sony Corp. already offers an e-book reader that imitates the look of paper by using an innovative screen technology.
The Kindle screen takes a similar approach and has no backlight to reduce battery use and eyestrain. Bezos said Amazon decided to make its own device so it could seamlessly build a service around it.
Best sellers and new releases will typically go for $9.99.
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This announcement marks a landmark towards a "paperless" world. I hope this spawns many new innovations, but I''m still tied to the paper back, which is always readable providing the lighting is sufficient.
This also spawns the questions can I own the digital copy of a book like I do with a hard book? And this makes me ask the music industry: How many times and ways must I buy a song before I can load it into my current stereo holographic music player for free.
Its either music or software, either way each time I purchased the music media I purchased the license to listen to it.