Amazon’s Kindle 2 gets prettier … but not cheaper

February 9, 2009 | Anthony Ha | Comments | |

As expected, Amazon unveiled its new Kindle 2 eBook reader this morning in New York. The company promises the device will be thinner, offer faster page-turning, store seven times as much information, present sharper images, and include a new “Read to Me” audio feature.

MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka, who liveblogged the event, says the new Kindle “looks like an Apple device.” At 0.36 inches thick, it is in fact thinner than the iPhone. The Kindle photos released last week were real, as was the rumor that Amazon isn’t cutting the $359 price at all.

Bestselling horror novelist Stephen King also announced he will be releasing an novella called “Ur” exclusively on the Kindle. Now, I can’t imagine that any single book, especially one that wasn’t even a full-length novel, would convince me to shell out the money for a Kindle, but that could certainly provide some incentive for any King fans who are on the fence … assuming they want to read a story about a “lovelorn college English instructor” who buys a Kindle. Uh, what?

Investors don’t seem to know what to make of the announcement, with Amazon’s stock falling, then rising again — as of 10am Pacific, it’s up 0.45 percent to $66.85. I guess the good news (new Kindle!) and the bad news (same price!) sort of canceled each other out. The Kindle 2 goes on sale on Feb. 24; the old one has been sold out since November.

As for me, well, I’m still pretty happy with the physical book. If I were to start reading eBooks, I’d probably focus on the classics Google offers on my iPhone, rather than buying a new device. Meanwhile, a startup called Plastic Logic just announced content partnerships with The Financial Times and LibreDigital to offer newspapers on its competing device.

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About the Author, Anthony Ha

Anthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on enterprise technology, cloud computing, and tech policy. Before joining VentureBeat in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.

  • It's the content really that matters at the end not the device itself ... http://tinyurl.com/c5tj2h
  • I suspect it's a mix of now. Then again, for now at least physical books win on both content and delivery method. So there's that.
  • Brian Tarbox
    The Kindle offers a fabulous reading experience but I don't want to have to buy all my books again. Imagine if Amazon gave you free e-copies of any physical book you had purchased from them in the past year? Without books the Kindle is just a $359 bookshelf.
  • the Kindle reminds me of something i saw in an old school Star Trek episode, which is a good selling point... it's a bit pricey though