Comments on: 2008 U.K. launch for Amazon Kindle or K II? Mid-’08 for Readius rollable E Ink reader? Q3 for Sony Reader?

By: kunter, web designer

kunter, web designer — Thu, 15 May 2008 02:11:20 +0000

Does anyone have any idea about (the projected?) sale prices of Readius?

All though it was not mentioned at their web site, the technology should be based on the e-paper similar to those who don’t consume power in displaying.

best regards;
kunter.

By: Dave Pimlott

Dave Pimlott — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:43:42 +0000

Being an infrequent visitor to our cousins across the water I can say that some US cell providers do support GSM phones although I am aware that there is heavy use of the US developed CDMA transmission standard. When it comes to the various data transmission standards I’m firmly in the 1990s in my knowledge / use – but I think I’m right in saying that all of the higher speed data transfer standards are downward compatible.

One of the commenters has said that the UK cost of bandwidth is scary, and it is. The cheaper end of the market is still around £10(US$20) per gigabyte (on a non-contract basis).

The other advantage to releasing the kindle or readius in the EU, no silly map of service – coverage is very close to 100%.

By: Readius eInk Mobile Device - Lese ich so in Zukunft die Süddeutsche? | Mr. Gadget

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 20:18:59 +0000

[...] – Hands-on with the Readius eInk Mobile Device] [2008 U.K. launch for Amazon Kindle or K II? Mid-’08 for Readius rollable E Ink reader? Q3 for Sony...] [...]

By: David Rothman

David Rothman — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 02:08:23 +0000

…oh, and ePUB compliance would be cool! That could even be added to the current Kindle via a firmware update or whatever. – David

By: David Rothman

David Rothman — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:13:12 +0000

Dan and Rob:

D: Here’s hoping that the Readius will do or eventually do ePUB! Thanks for the info, and may your data rates come down! Agree re data chip, especially since the Kindle has that little keyboard and a faster refresh rate would help a bit there. Same for browsing.

R: Having played with a Kindle for a bit, I can say the wireless shopping capability is great. But, yes, as I wrote, the screen in my opinion could use more contrast. I wouldn’t be surprised if Kindle II addressed that issue and the issue of the hair-trigger page changers.

Thanks,
David

By: Rob Preece

Rob Preece — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:16:01 +0000

Considering that the Kindle comes bundled with US-only cellular data capabilities, Amazon will already have to re-engineer to launch anything in the EU. If they’re going to have to re-engineer anyway, I’d guess that they’d want to incorporate any advances that have come up in the meantime (e.g., the new display chips you mentioned the other day).

Unlike some of the others on this blog, I’ve seen the Kindle and I love it. I’m nervous about Amazon’s market power, but happy to see Fictionwise being a strong second source for Kindle-formatted books.

Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForABuck.com

By: Dan Jackson

Dan Jackson — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:58:41 +0000

Definitely interested in the Readius – with the rollable form factor it’s much more portable and probably a bit more durable than traditional e-ink reader devices. The phone components, not so much, at least not until mobile data stops being stupidly expensive here in the UK.