Why the New Kindle DX Can't Float the Sinking E-Reader Market
For the next chapter in the annals of last-ditch-effort management, Amazon (AMZN) is still planning to roll out its "new and improved" Kindle DX next week. Far from being innovative, the revamped DX only serves to draw attention to this dying breed of e-reader.
The large screen DX now comes in dark graphite, with improved e-ink technology (50 percent sharper contrast!), and has free wireless over 3G cellular networks. It will be sold for $379, a little more than 20 percent off the previous $489. It can also zoom in on PDFs and boasts Twitter and Facebook integration for users to, as its material puts it, "Post meaningful passages and share their love of reading instantly with family and friends, and in turn, help them discover new authors, new books, and new ideas."
That's it. Really.
At a time when Apple's (APPL) multi-function iPad is selling like hotcakes, Amazon gives us a newish/biggish Kindle (the screen is the same size as the iPad's) that is still pretty pricey. Oh, and one that doesn't address the biggest concerns with the last generation of the device.
The original model was aimed at new markets, specifically to capture the eyes and wallets of university students. However, a test done with Princeton students showed the device had some clear issues such as difficulty annotating pages and course citation, the latter because Kindle DX reformats pages and uses "location numbers" rather than page numbers, and general slowness.
The new DX improved upon what the same students already liked -- readability -- and ignored the rest. What's more, Amazon didn't think to develop the large format. Though it's being billed as "ideal for a broad range of reading material, including graphic-rich books, PDFs, newspapers, magazines, and blogs," there's no evidence to suggest that the DX is using all that space to greater effect.
As such, this effort falls hopelessly short of reaching Amazon's original goal to be indispensable to students as well as a real player in the e-reader arena. Let's hope that CEO Jeff Bezos' reactive management style will actually come in handy and allow him to pull the plug quickly when sales fail to pass muster.
Image via Amazon.com
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