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Big-screen Kindle for news reading to appear Wednesday? But will rumored color Apple tablet steal the show in the end?
May 4, 2009 | 5:47 am
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By David Rothman
A big-screen, newspaper-optimized Kindle might appear as early as this week, according to the New York Times—in fact, on Wednesday if you go by an All Things Digital report.
The wireless device would be “tailored for displaying newspapers, magazines and perhaps textbooks,” the Times’ Brad Stone says.
And possibly other e-books? Maybe in a double-columned mode?
Within the newspaper world, the Times is said to be among the publications with arrangements with Amazon.
The rumored Apple tab
But might newspaper subscribers get more excited in the end about the rumored Apple tablet? Unlike the E Ink Kindle, the tablet would probably use LCD technology and offer color.
News organizations like USA Today and the Associated Press already provide good-looking editions for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Imagine how the news would look in color on an Apple tablet with a five-inch screen. Shown here is USA Today’s iPhone edition on my iPod Touch (the image as seen on a big monitor is larger than on the Touch itself).
Granted, tablets aren’t for all. Cell phones and little handhelds are so much easier for many people to tote around than tablets, and battery lives are sure to improve. Beyond that, more young people are growing up accustomed to small screens.
Also, what if E Ink becomes available in color for roll-out screens on cell phones?
The real question: Will newspaper survive?
But can even miracle gadget save imperiled publications like the Boston Globe, which may shut down soon? See the Globe on its own possible demise.
Amazon’s newspaper editions aren’t drawing that many subscribers, and the numbers are so tiny that I wonder—even with a new Kindle and other wrinkles on the way. Techcrunch is rightly skeptical about expensive e-readers as saviors for newspapers, and Warren Buffett isn’t upbeat about the newspaper industry’s prospects in general.
Related: Engadget report and Techmeme roundup on the possible big-screen Kindle, plus a Wall Street Journal report on alliances between Kindle rivals and major publications, which dislike the idea of Amazon acting as the middleman.
“Sony,” reports the Journal, “said it will launch a wireless e-reader device that can download ‘daily content,’ and is currently in talks with publishers.” Hmm. Wireless capabilities for e-book-shopping and shared in-book annotations, too? What’s more, is it possible that book publishers could band together to work toward Amazon bypasses?
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Following the links from David’s post leads to lots of interesting reading. From Brad Stone’s article, in today’s New York Times (Looking to Big-Screen E-Readers to Help Save the Daily Press):
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“Another hitch [in addition to the hitch that these readers do not display color -- MP] is that some makers of reading devices, like Amazon, want to set their own subscription prices for publications and control the relationship with the subscriber — something media companies like Condé Nast object to. Plastic Logic and Hearst have said publicly that they will take a more open approach and let media companies deal directly with readers and set their own prices.”
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Now if you swing over to the Wall Street Journal article on this subject [ sorry I'm unable to post the link; when I try to post a link, my entire post is rejected: Amazon, take note!
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Here in the WSJ article, you’ll discover that we are on the edge of another exciting round of “format wars”, this time involving ebook reading devices.
If you want to read the New York Times on a device, you will need to buy a Kindle; but if you want to read a periodical from the Hearst Corporation, you will need to buy a Plastic Logic Reader.
The Wall Street Journal is exploring the idea of connecting with either Plastic Logic, or with an altogether different ebook reading device.
Fortunately, these devices are lightweight and thin. Even if we need to drop around $ 2,000 to buy six different ebook reading devices — for the daily news reading that is now, for the most part, free online — all these devices will fit easily into our backpacks, and not weigh heavily upon our backs.
Michael Pastore
50 Benefits of Ebooks
“Imagine how the news would look in color on an Apple tablet with a five-inch screen.”
Five inches sounds a bit small to me, even if it’s in color. Even at 7″ diagonal (3-1/2 x 6), my eeePC netbook is tight. The NYTimes article talks about a screen “that is said to be about three or four times as large as the iPhone’s.” PCWorld says “Sources tell Business Week that the device will be smaller than the Kindle 2, but with a larger touchscreen.” Not very precise, but more attractive than five inches.
Since I already have a Kindle2, I think I’d wait for something in the 8-9 inch range, in color. Regular iPod/iPhone for the pocket, tablet for heavier reading.
But, as Michael Pastore remarks, the bigger problem seems to be settling on formats.
I’m both excited and disappointed. I’m excited because I love reading books on my Sony Reader and would like to get my daily New York Times and my weekly The Economist and Business Week magazines on an e-device with a larger screen than my Sony.
I’m disappointed because it looks like I may have to go to a Babel of devices and because the Times is partnering with Amazon. As for the latter, I simply do not want to turn an 800-lb gorilla into a 1200-lb gorilla that will cause further distress in an already distressed publishing market. As for the former, I was hoping to be able to eventually settle on a single dedicated device for all my large-format reading.
For me, the LCD option — whether it be an iTouch-type device, an Apple tablet (that so far is vaporware), or my computer screen — is not a viable option. I spend 8+ hours every day tied to my computer working, which is reading manuscript. When I wnat to read for pleasure, I want to read on an e-ink-type device that is easier on my eyes.
So, we get to the bottom-line question: If the New York Times tells me I can read it electronically on a large Kindle screen, will I do so? My answer is this: If I have to buy the Kindle, no. If the Times gives it to me at no charge (I don’t consider a subscription contract a charge in this case because I already am a subscriber), reluctantly — because it is a Kindle — I would agree in lieu of my paper-version subscription. If my subscription would cost more than I currently pay for paper delivery, then no. If it would cost me less but I have to buy the Kindle, again no. And so it goes . . .
Having any of this content tied to specific devices is the biggest of mistakes. If these news services had any sense at all, they’d optimize their content for HTML and allow subscribers to read it on anything they so desire, wherever they happen to be.
I won’t be buying a Kindle, Sony, or any other device, just to get one service’s content (and I don’t care how many Pulitzers they have on their shelves). And I think any service that plans to offer such an arrangement will possibly buoy their financial prospects for a few more quarters, perhaps a few years, then watch that fail, too.
Thanks for being the first to mention the wonderful USA Today iPhone app – this is how newspapers should look on a mobile device. I’m not sure that I’ve purchased a USA Today since I started reading the iPhone app every day (of course, the price increase to one dollar had something to with it, as well). Of course, I’ll gladly pay a reasonable subscription for the USA Today app when it come to that point – hint, iPhone OS 3.0.
For newspapers and magazine to survive in the digital age, follow the USA Today app’s lead:
Color – we’ll be laughing about grayscale E-ink one day
Simple Navigation – I want to scan headlines to decide if I want to read an article, don’t make me flip through every page like a paper newspaper
Real time updates – you’re competing with the Internet, if you’re offering a digital subscription that only updates once a day, you’re toast
Social app integration – if I want to share an article, give me a Facebook link, please
USA Today does it right on the iPhone, and I hope the rest of industry notices.
Good God – do people other than those trapped in hotel rooms with nothing to read besides the Bible actually read USA Today!?
In other words, like a small browser or RSS feed, accessed through a subscription. If newspapers offered their content in basic HTML, optimized for screens of any size, every device with a browser from a PC to a PDA (and, yes, an iPhone) could access them all right now. Why that doesn’t seem to sink in with them…
Oh. Of course. They want a way to charge us for each one. Silly me…