First, from Publisher's Lunch, the new Kindle:

It's for Newspapers; It's for Textbooks; It's SuperKindle

Yes we're jumping ahead to name the new oversized Kindle that everyone is presuming Amazon will introduce at tomorrow morning's press conference, but I already like our name better than the "Kindle DX" moniker that Engadget floats.


Sources for the two accounts agree that Princeton, Reed College, part of the University of Virginia, Arizona State University and Case Western Reserve will participate in a SuperKindle pilot program (expialadocious) this fall. Chief information officer at Case Lev Gonick does the unforgivable and confirms to the WSJ that selected students "will be given large-screen Kindles with textbooks for chemistry, computer science and a freshman seminar already installed." Their experiences will be compared to that of students using regular textbooks. "Amazon has worked out a deal with several textbook publishers to make their materials available for the device, Mr. Gonick added."

The web browser is supposed to actually work in the new version (older Kindles browse with the power and speed of 1985 desktop on dial-up) and it will sport a "higher-resolution screen and improved ability to handle notation such as mathematical formulas." Still in black-and-white, though, potentially leaving it at a significant disadvantage to other electronic versions of textbooks that students already use on their computers. Gartner media analyst Mike McGuire underscores the potential difficulty in getting students to pay extra for a device that does nothing but read textbooks: "With a user base that already has a laptop and a mobile phone, asking Mom and Dad to shell out a few hundred extra dollars is a hurdle."

And there is the age hurdle as well. We got a lot of pick-up on our recent analysis of user age data reported by Kindle owners on an Amazon forum, in which people under 20 comprised the single smallest slice. (At 5 percent of those reporting, smaller than the 8 percent of owners who are 70 or over.) Looked at one way, it's the demographic Amazon needs to win over the most to make Kindle more than a brief, transitional fad--and/or it's the hardest group to win over to such an inherently conservative device.

And now, the Kindle-Killer:

According to two anonymous sources speaking to Business Week, Apple and Verizon may release two new Verizon-exclusive iPhone-like products as early as this summer.

Sources tell Business Week that the device will be smaller than the Kindle 2, but with a larger touchscreen, paving the way for more speculation about Apple slinking into the eBook market.
This might be the Apple Tablet everybody has been talking about.

"The media pad category might go to Verizon," a witness told Business Week. "We are talking about a device where people will say, 'Damn, why didn't we do this?' Apple is probably going to define the damn category."