When I logged in to my Amazon.co.uk account on Wednesday, there was a personalized email from Jeff Bezos, the CEO of the online giant. I am sure millions of other loyal customers may have got the same, perhaps at different times.
Mr Bezos, is offering his customers the choice of getting its latest e-book reader on our doorstep on 27th August, the forthcoming release date. He knows there won’t be queues, forming at the night before, in front of its stores, because, there is none. It simply owns warehouses. Everything else is almost virtual – online.
Moreover, he was telling us why the latest wireless reading device is unique by comparison while emphasizing 15 facts about the same. Out of all, the price tag was the most attractive one – just £109 for a Wi-Fi enabled device. It is relatively low compared with the not-very-nearest rival, Apple’s iPad.
Kindle-3 comes with a weight of just 241 grams and a screen of 6-inch diagonal length. Amazon says it can store up to 3500 books: on the assumption that an avid book reader, better known as a bookworm, takes one week to finish reading a book, he or she needs almost 70 years to finish the stock stored in this device; on that basis, Amazon customers may not be tempted to demand more memory for the sake of storing many more than Kindle-3 allows at present.
In addition, Amazon boasts about high-contrast screen, darker fonts, seamless reading – almost like turning pages of a physical book - and above all, very impressive battery life – one month without the need of recharging in its new device.
The news of the latest e-book reader coincides with the latest book-reading data announced by Amazon two weeks back. For the first time, according to Amazon, customers who bought e-books have outnumbered those who bought printed ones. The trend is in line with the availability of numerous digital reading devices in the market by various vendors including big booksellers.
The falling price of the gadget is good news indeed, as far as school children are concerned. At the moment, they have to get their bodies bent into a geometrically-undefined curve in proportion to the weight of the books they carry on the backpacks simply in order to get into a learning curve!
With the wider availability of e-book readers at affordable prices, the issue can be addressed once and for all; an e-book reader in a pocket can take the burden of carrying heavy text books off the kids in near future.
Since the enthusiasm among kids to read, especially in the West, is plummeting at an alarming rate, the digital device of this nature may be able to play significant role in rekindling the dying habit among the young - thanks to endless distractions some of which are, funnily enough, digitally-related. Kids love going digital and it is high time the society cashed in on it!
Mr Bezos of Amazon is a great survivor who repeatedly defied the fiscal gloom-mongers who had been predicting the disappearance of the great store from the internet for well over a decade. Amazon did not only fight back with vigour, but also revolutionized the online-retail experience while putting it on a firm ethical base. In the UK, it is not only a great book-seller but also gaining momentum on many more other fronts as well. Customers love Amazon and the latter reciprocates in kind by keeping customer care at the core of its business for many years.
Of course, Amazon has its critics and some of them are, obviously, its competitors in disguise. In this context, it is not surprising as to why the first wave of cynicism came that fast; some wonder why Amazon is going to sell a technically improved device at such a low price, while hinting that the price drop may be compensated by the increase in price of e-books at its Kindle store.
This is very unlikely: e-books are cheaper to produce; e-book vendors are mushrooming on the internet at an exponential rate; the acute competition will never allow prices to go over the top.
New Kindle-3, according to Mr Bezos, can be used in the sunlight as well without any trouble. It is great news for tourists who love our beaches in the South Asia; a Kindle-3, by the bedside or by the seaside, has the potential to make the experience much more rounded, something that bulky paperbacks failed dismally for decades.
- Asian Tribune -
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