It’s no secret that the sales of e-readers seems to be flattening out lately, as just about everyone who would ever have wanted to buy an e-reader has by now already bought one. As the bottom of the barrel of customers draws near, Amazon is about to embark on a new initiative designed to sell e-readers to the most die-hard paper book holdouts.

According to a recently-issued press release, Amazon will pitch its next reader at those people who say they just couldn’t give up the smell of paper books. Amazon is going to partner with DuroSport, manufacturer of The Smell of Books spray for e-books, to build a small potpourri oil heater directly into one of its new Kindle models, the Kindle Scented. The heater will be used to dispense the ink-and-paper smell that e-reader users have heretofore been unable to get.

“We looked at a number of possible scent solutions,” said Russ Grandinetti, vice president of Kindle content. “We tried out scratch-and-sniff stickers, but they simply did not provide the full ink and paper aroma experience. But with the new scented oil burners, you’ll think you’re in a library!”

As with built-in wifi or 3G, use of the potpouri burner could have a mildly deleterious effect on the Kindle Scented’s battery life. Amazon estimates the burner can be used for approximately three hours before the device will require recharging. But Grandinetti is confident that readers who are fixated on the smell of books will overlook that shortcoming.

One of the side benefits to the Kindle Scented is that the potpourri oil burner is not limited strictly to the smell of printed books. For example, people who do a lot of reading in their car can choose to load it up with new-car-smell aroma instead.

And an anonymous source reports that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has commissioned his own special-order scent for use in his own Kindle Scented. When Bezos uses his own Kindle, he enjoys the smell of money.

5 COMMENTS

  1. What ereaders actually need is an electronic component activated by ePub3 aromatic code. When you read about the protagonist walking uneasily down the stinky dark alley, you will smell all the revolting things described in the text. Kindle Stinky!

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