For the last six years, Amazon has managed to create a nearly unbreakable hold on the digital-reading market. Its willingness to set absolute low prices on e-books has drawn most of the attention, but the company’s Kindle hardware and its ability to weave together attractive new features that broaden the reading experience—is just as responsible for Amazon’s dominance.
The electronic commerce giant announced details today of its new Kindle Paperwhite. Its sixth-generation electronic reader again shows why the company has about 60% of the e-reading market in the US. The new Paperwhite would use the same glowing screen as last year’s model, along with the expected improvements in processor speed, screen contrast, and the receptivity of the touchscreen. Amazon says pages now turn faster, and it notes the device’s integration with Goodreads, the social network for readers it acquired earlier this year for an undisclosed amount. A Wi-Fi-only model starts at $119 (it will show ads in screensaver mode) and will be available for purchase at the end of the month. A 3G model costs $189 and won’t be available until November.
The new Kindle features really show how Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos is constructing digital-reading experience that manages to be both comfortable for readers and very well distinguished from competitors. Owners of the new Kindles who are members of Amazon Prime will have access to over 400,000 free books in the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library. A new page flip feature allows readers to move back and forth within a book, solving a well-known hassle in digital reading. A well thought new feature is the so called Vocabulary Builder. Exploiting its well-known expertise in the cloud, Amazon will store all the vocab words that readers look up while reading and then allow them to quiz themselves with flash cards.
Building on some of those education or student-focused features, Amazon is also adding its FreeTime service to the device. Similar to FreeTime on the Kindle Fire HD, parents can set up a profile for kids so they can control the content. The service also creates a report for parents with information about what their kids were reading and for how long. The FreeTime feature and Amazons Good Reads integration, which adds a social layer to reading, will be added a few months after the new device ships.
Amazon shares jumped 2.8% yesterday, most likely would continue its run following the issue of Kindle Paperwhite which would most likely be a success in its industry.
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