Larger Kindle coming this week? Competition for Apple's Tablet? (Update: Wednesday)

Seth Weintraub
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May 03, 2009
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According to the New York Times, Amazon is going to release a bigger version of the Kindle soon, possibly as early as this week.  The device will be aimed at newspapers and large format magazines who have been hit extremely hard by ad spending downturns.  Although the current Kindle has a 6" screen, users and companies are said to have been left wanting for more screen real estate...for content and ads.  The WSJ also reported on this earlier.

Also, keep in mind that Apple's rumored netbook/tablet touch screen is 10 inches.  The Times expects there to be some overlap.

Update: It looks like Wednesday at Pace University in lower Manhattan.

But it is Amazon, maker of the Kindle, that appears to be first in line to try throwing an electronic life preserver to old-media companies. As early as this week, according to people briefed on the online retailer’s plans, Amazon will introduce a larger version of its Kindle wireless device tailored for displaying newspapers, magazines and perhaps textbooks.

An Amazon spokesman would not comment, but some news organizations, including The New York Times, are expected to be involved in the introduction of the device, according to people briefed on the plans. A spokeswoman for The Times, Catherine J. Mathis, said she could not comment on the company’s relationship with Amazon.

Normal sized Kindles retail for $359 at Amazon. It isn't certain which price point the new larger models will come in at.

Comments (23)

Paulie D (not verified) | May 03, 2009 - 11:13pm

Price point??? a lot

Olternaut (not verified) | May 03, 2009 - 11:20pm

Amazon will still be able to stop Apple's Tsunami from hitting hard.
Does anyone disagree?

Olternaut (not verified) | May 04, 2009 - 9:43am

Shame on me for not proofreading. I mean Amazon will still NOT be able to stop Apple's Tsunami from hitting hard.

Crap. I wrote the original post late at night....I musta been tired.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 03, 2009 - 11:25pm

A device with an e-ink display will not make a very good touch device due to slow refresh rates.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 04, 2009 - 6:56am

That's ludicrous. They make great touch devices... just not the kind that support "dragging" or "pinching" type gestures.

Watch the video of the Kindle and tell me it doesn't just scream out "touch me" instead of using that silly little nib cursor thing on the side. Why waste all that device real-estate on buttons when you could have a compelling touch interface?

Cory Schulz | May 04, 2009 - 12:45am

 So they want us to pay more money... for a device that is bigger... so I can make it do things that my iPhone can already do.... but with more ads.... hmmm.... What do you think?

Markus (not verified) | May 04, 2009 - 1:00am

This is the Plastic Logic eReader. It will hit the market in 2010. I took my hands on it on a conference in Germany. It works quite well. The production facilities of this reader are in Dresden, Germany.
http://www.plasticlogic.com/product.html

unqtom (not verified) | May 04, 2009 - 3:00am

does it fit your pocket? or do you need separate briefcase to hang with it around?...

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 04, 2009 - 6:55am

Will a 10" apple tablet fit in your pocket? Dumn questions.

Hopefully you can just throw it in your existing bag/briefcase along side your macbook-sized laptop.

lamont (not verified) | May 04, 2009 - 4:59am

This continued iphone/ ipod touch is my netbook/tablet is so very lame. Typing a page long document is hell and surfing and emailing is as unpleasant as doing it on my other web enabled mobile. Watching a tv show or movie whilst traveling on a train or bus is akin to holding yoga positions for 30 minutes to 2 hours. Iphone and touch are ok devices but netbooks do it better and more comfortably. The average netbook is better spec'd than the original mac mini which is only 4 years old. I know because I still use mine and it does everything just fine.

DistortedLoop | May 04, 2009 - 6:38am

 Definitely lame to be calling a device you've clearly never used lame.

 I don't care if someone likes the iPhone or not, but to say that surfing and emailing on it is as unpleasant as any other web enabled is clearly coming from someone who has never used it, or just hates it because it's Apple.  No other web enabled device renders pages as they'd appear on your desktop machine, and no other mobile device has as much screen real estate.

 iPhone's not as pleasant an experience as using much larger device (even a netbook is what, 4x or more the screen space?), but it blows any other device that will fit in your shirt pocket away.

lamont (not verified) | May 04, 2009 - 9:53am

There is one iphone and two ipod touches in my 2 person household. I own one of the touches. Yes the picture quality is good and pages are rendered well, but the experience of locking both eyeballs on such a tiny screen literally creates a zombie. After your rant, you did get my point. Screen too tiny. Strip out the mobile phone and itunes capable mp3 player, would you really still want either. I eagerly await all apple refreshes and new product releases, but iphone and touch don't cut it as portable computers. No matter what Mr Jobs and Mr.Cook say. Typing more than a short sentence takes too long. Not ethernet ready, so unusable in more places than one expects. For a person used to laptops and 20 inch or larger screens, 3.5 inches is unacceptable for doing work. Somewhere in Japan there is a device 1/3 the size of an iphone that renders better and has a sharper picture, it too is a portable computer.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 04, 2009 - 5:09pm

No, you, sir, are clearly the one who has never used a "web-enabled device" other than the iPhone. I've been able to view pages as they'd appear on my desktop machine with more real estate than an iPhone since before the iPhone came out. Ever heard of an Archos 604 Wifi? I'm guessing not. 30GB of space, 4.3" display, wifi, and desktop rendering. As for your line about "blowing any other devide that will fit in your shirt pocket away..." um, yeah. Get an Archos.

Please, check your facts before you post. That's all I ask.

Str1f3 (not verified) | May 04, 2009 - 6:06am

the kindle is more hype than reality. The media talks about the kindle more than people buy it. If Apple came out with a tablet, it would end the kindle. The kindle always cost too much money and is even more proprietary than the iPod.

Until Amazon manages to get these products for $200 at least, it will never be successful. They already want to nickel and dime for doing anything on the kindle.

DistortedLoop | May 04, 2009 - 6:45am

 Yep, I'm gonna run out and buy an oversized, overpriced and underpowered device so that I can bigger ADVERTISING.  I don't want any frickin' advertising to begin with if I am already PAYING for the content.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 04, 2009 - 7:46am

anybody think that with ads on the kindle, amazon could possibly lower the price thus making it more attractive to potential buyers? i mean, newspapers and magazines do make their money through advertising revenue, so it would make sense for them to want to place ads within their kindle editions. not saying i would want it, just pointing out the possibility of more adds equaling cheaper device...

Jersey (not verified) | May 04, 2009 - 8:17am

We've been inundated with ads everywhere - it doesn't matter if we pay for content, we're getting ads in one form or another. Whether newspapers or TV, we're getting hit with ads all over the place.

Having a larger-screened Kindle that has the possibility of showing regular newspapers, magazines, or text books sounds like a terrific idea. The problem is not the potential for seeing ads - it's whether they are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a black-and-white device to show these publications. With novels, it was a no-brainer --- there is no color need, thus making the Kindle a big seller for Amazon. But will people be willing to pay for a new Kindle to see black-and-white newspapers, when most of them are available in paper form in color?

I don't know.

But I think Apple can change this equation if they come out with a media tablet that will offer the same reading capabilities with all the great Apple-extras.

DistortedLoop | May 04, 2009 - 10:07am

 What is the benefit of reading a news article on a piece of electronics that is formatted to look like a piece of newspaper that will always be significantly larger?

.

Hint:  there is none.

.

If the newspaper layout were really the best, wouldn't all the blogs and Web sites be formatted that way?  We've changed the media delivery method, and the format of the media should be what's best for that method, not what used to work on static pieces of throwaway tree pulp that was invented 200 years ago.

Olternaut (not verified) | May 04, 2009 - 8:58am

Pace is right near me. Is this thing press only or can any shmoe from the street walk in?
I'd like to go. Not that I would ever buy a kindle but I would like to go anyway.

AnthonyCMoreno (not verified) | May 04, 2009 - 9:34am

I work in the newspaper industry, and I'm trying to get into Wednesday's presentation. Print newspapers are going to end up on life support over the next decade (not gone entirely, but fewer print copies will be available). Seeing as how advertising revenue, and not copy sales, is what keeps newspapers running, they do need the bigger screen for advertising. The only problem is that with the Kindle, a potential Apple product, and the Hearst newspapers putting out their own product next year, advertisers are going to potentially have to create various sizes of the same ads in order to get them formatted properly. The newspaper industry's main problem with advertisers is lack of uniform standards. A half-dozen different e-book readers is not going to help this. They need to get out in front immediately to standardize sizes.

DistortedLoop | May 04, 2009 - 10:03am

 Don't know what you do in the newspaper industry, but a very big part of the equation you left out is the difference between printed paper and downloaded electrons.

.

What % of the cost of producing and distributing a printed newspaper comes from the following:

 1 - buying all that paper

 2 - buying all that ink

 3 - acre sized printing factories to print, cut, fold, merge, bundle the actual printed newspapers

 4 - the gasoline and other vehicle operating expenses associates with getting all that hard copy from the printing facility to every mom and pop liquor store, grocery store, newsstand, and corner newspaper vending machine

 5 - the salaries and benefits of all the unionized non-content-producing employees to operate #1-4

.

NONE of that exists in the electronic distribution market, where the only costs you have are paying the content producers (reporters, editors, etc), and the infrastructure necessary to support them.

.

Heck, the Associated Press, Reuters, etc, who write most of the non-local news you're getting out of the newspaper anyways don't sell advertising to fund their operations, they sell the content.

.

Hard copy is expensive to produce, and none of that expense needs to exist in an electronic world like Amazon and the Kindle.  Amazon even eats the cost of bandwidth to get the newspaper to the subscriber.  Any newspaper that actually went all electronic would save huge money.  Charge a subscription for the electronic paper and screw the advertisers, you don't need them if you're selling premium content.

.

This is the whole thing wrong with the Kindle for anything other than books; they're trying to force a 19th/20th century content delivery model into the 21st century.  I want the news, I want the story - I don't need my news and opinion formatted like a huge piece of newsprint to make it any more comprehensible to me.  Those who do are just clinging to the past.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 04, 2009 - 12:17pm

There are 3 things that have to be kept distinct. Two of them are news and newspapers. "Newspaper" is a prepackaged phenomenon, no matter how or where it presents itself. "News" is the non-middle-man (except yourself) object. I want news...not necessarily a newspaper. The third is the rendering medium: the eReader itself. Newspapers aren't dying just because people don't like paper...they don't care for the prepackaging part of it.

adam hartung (not verified) | May 04, 2009 - 7:24pm

Will Kindle be a savior for newspapers? Maybe so. Kindle might be the product to finally get newspapers to realize they have to go digital. Read more at http://www.ThePhoenixPrinciple.com