Amazon launches e-Reader

Posted by Jean Yves Chainon on November 20, 2007 at 11:12 AM

Amazon has just unveiled its latest platform in the US, the ‘Kindle’, an e-reader that enables readers to download digital books and read them on the 6-inch screen, at prices ranging from $2 to $20.

In collaboration with the Sprint EV-DO network (access will be granted for free) Kindle users can log on from almost anywhere. About 88,000 books are available digitally for the launch.

Amazon will also offer subscriptions to newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times and international titles.

The e-reader can display Word documents and certain picture formats. Its Flash memory can store up to 200 books, and its battery theoretically can last 30 hours.

It costs $399 and weighs 290 grams. The Kindle will have to compete with Sony’s latest PRS-505.

E-readers are in. Newspapers must stay ahead with a platform that could eventually cater to a whole new generation of readers, once prices are reduced.

You can also take a look at a 3-part piece about e-papers and e-readers and how newspapers use them, written by Jan Bierhoff (here, here and here).

Source: clubic.com (link in French)