Portable eBook Readers

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The recent surge in the popularity of both e-books and e-book readers has been heavily influenced by Amazon. The Amazon Kindle reader first appeared on the market in November of 2006 and further updates followed with the release of the Kindle 2.0 in February of 2009 and the launch of the third generation Kindle in August 2010. The large display Kindle DX was released in the summer of 2009 and also had an upgrade in August 2010.

Many business analysts forecast that, regardless of Amazon’s influential role in the development of the e-book and e-book reader market, the release of Apple’s iPad would effectively kill off the Kindle. However, after the launch of the third generation Kindle – accompanied by a reduction in the retail price – Amazon has sold out of their readers again. Demand seems to be holding up, and then some, for what is now Amazon’s best selling item.

Some people have accepted e-books quite readily. Others seem to remain attached to traditional physical books. However, for the majority of people the convenience of being able to carry large quantities of reading material around with them, coupled with the ease of operation offered by e-book readers, has turned out to be an attractive proposition. Recent e-book reader price cuts, prompted or at least hastened by the launch of the iPad, have made e-book readers more attractive to many consumers.

Amazon recently confirmed that they are now selling more Kindle books than traditional hardback editions. The low selling priced e-books – they use no paper or ink and have no delivery fees to speak of after all – certainly helps. It can’t be very much longer before e-books begin to outsell paperbacks.

As well as the price, the ease with which e-books can be bought is another influencing factor. Readers can download a book to their Kindle in under a minute, whatever the time of day, just as long as they can connect to the Amazon Kindle store.

One possible stumbling block for many readers was a reticence to be “tied” to any particular e-book reader. This issue has been very effectively addressed by Amazon who have released a large number of free “apps” to allow Kindle books to be read on a wide range of different devices. Currently, Kindle books can be read on the Mac, the PC, the iPhone, the iPad, the Blackberry smart phone and any device which uses the Android operating system. It’s a clever move on Amazon’s part. Not only does it address customer’s concerns about being tied to one particular brand of hardware but every new app acts as a separate retail outlet for Amazon’s massive selection of Kindle books. At the moment, around about 20% of all Kindle book sales are estimated to be aimed at non-Kindle hardware.

It looks as if portable ebook readers are here for the long term and that they will gradually begin to account for a higher and higher proportion of book sales. It also seems probable that Amazon will continue to be a driving influence in the world of digital publishing in future.

Learn more about the Amazon Kindle for yourself and view the wide range of Kindle accessories available to help you personalise and protect your reader.

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• New Amazon Kindle searches spike to challenge iPad mini (weblogs.hitwise.com)

Hello!

I’m planning to buy an ebook reader (like the kindle for example) and I’m wondering if this kind of machines allows you to use your own pdf files, or do you have to buy everything from the editor’s website (Amazon in this example)

If some allow it, and some don’t … which are the ones that allow it ?

www.squidoo.com Utilizing a new high-resolution display technology called electronic paper, Kindle provides a crisp black-and-white screen that resembles the appearance and readability of printed paper. The screen works using ink, just like books and newspapers, but displays the ink particles electronically. It reflects light like ordinary paper and uses no backlighting, eliminating the glare associated with other electronic displays. As a result, Kindle can be read as easily in bright sunlight as in your living room.The screen never gets hot so you can comfortably read as long as you like.

Check out the Kindle here: www.amazon.com This is less a “pros and cons” review than a hopefully useful commentary about the Kindle compared with other eReaders and what it means for the eBook industry. (I believe that everything has changed with the Kindle’s creation.) For many…

iPad, Nook, Sony, Kindle, and more! What’s the best e-book reader? Count on Kim to cut through the clutter.

Only one or two days gone I was in my fathers cellar, going thru my old storage of books making an attempt to pick which ones I had more of an attachment too.  I was moving across states with the help of a pal and his pickup, so I had to tame my inner pack rat and take just what I felt was important, things I’d actually remember not taking and regret it.  Over my 20+ years I have collected a far quantity of books, there was a point in my teen years where I could devour 2 or 3 a week.  Such was the life of a lonely nerd. 

After I filled 2 card boxes with my most favorite novels, I couldn’t help but think about my pals new “toy”-an Amazon  ‘Kindle‘.  An ebook rising in popularity that downloads novels direct from Amazon’s Whispernet. 

The newest Kindle model, Kindle DX costs just about $500, I couldn’t believe he was ready to drop that kind of scratch to read the same books he could buy for a bit less than 1 / 4 of that price .  How could it possibly mimic the intimate connection you can get with a good paper paged novel?  Particularly older ones, with yellowed pages and a thick, musty smell. 

Ebooks had a small surge in appreciation in the early 2000’s, but many were only programed in one format.  So if you owned an Ebook, and your fave novel just came out on a competitors Ebook-you would just have to cope with it. 

Thanks to the Kindle’s acceptance, many huge corporations decided to try and join the competition.  Barnes & Noble introduced they’re “Nook“, which is first to be based primarily on the  ‘Android’ platform, and has a MicroSD enlargement slot for extra storage.  Apart from being much cheaper Kindle alternative, it can be hacked to add applications like Pandora, a twitter customer, Google Reader, Facebook, and a net browser. 

In France, Bookeen released the ultra light Cybook Opus, featuring a paper-like high contrast appearance that may actually be read in direct daylight.  When the Cybook Opus is hitched up to your computer it registers as a typical USB mass storage gadget so you can easily copy books without special drivers. 

With the releasing of Apple’s iPad, came the release of the iBooks application.  Aside from having all the features of the Kindle, it can also implant video.  Still lacks USB ports, however. 

While my mate raved about his dear, miniscule, electronic library, I couldn’t help thinking how silly it was to think that a small, thin contraption able to download books could ever replace hundreds of years of paper paged history.  It only took up less room, you could download any book you wanted when you wanted, generations to come would definitely be less expensive and better quality…I stopped my train of thought and took a good look at my stacks of physical books, all together they weighed a ton and took up so much space.  Will this generation see the passing of broadcast word?  I’m sure people in the sixties couldn’t imagine life without their favourite 12-inch vinyl records, now those same folk carry the whole discography of their favorite artist on an itty bitty iPod. 

A decade ago T.V’s were bulky monstrosities, now they’re paper thin with such superb quality you can count the pores on someone’s’s chin.  10 years back computer games were still pixelated and featured squat characters with jerky movements, now it’s fundamentally interactive animation.  In a decade, will my  ‘bookcase’ just become  ’shelves’?  Featuring one PDF and whatever knick knacks I throw on there to dump the empty space?  What will happen to libraries?  My favourite used book store? 

As I eventually closed the card boxes and pressed down the packing tape, I couldn’t help thinking how convenient it might be to just slip my favourite book  ‘The Stand’ in my back pocket while having the rest of my library stored on my C : drive.

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budurl.com Click to learn more about the best ebook reader – the new Amazon Kindle now with access in over 100 countries.

An explanation of Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader and some of its features. Includes footage of the device.