There are no prizes for guessing what Amazon plans to announce this week at a press conference to which I received an invitation by email this morning. It seems highly likely to be a larger-sized Kindle designed for reading newspapers and magazines.
As the New York Times reports this morning:
It is Amazon, maker of the Kindle, that appears to be first in line to try throwing an electronic life preserver to old-media companies. As early as this week, according to people briefed on the online retailer’s plans, Amazon will introduce a larger version of its Kindle wireless device tailored for displaying newspapers, magazines and perhaps textbooks.
Those “people briefed on its plans” may not be far from Times Square, since the NYT itself is likely to be front and centre at the announcement, according to Peter Kafka.
The various pieces in the papers this morning naturally focus on whether the Kindle or other devices like it, which will appear in the next few months, will be the saviours of newspapers.
I don’t know, although I do read my morning papers on my Kindle these days and find it useful for getting through a lot of material rapidly, once one gets used to the navigation.
So I tend to think that e-readers – and perhaps tablet devices of the kind that Apple is said to be working on – have potential. I cannot express it better than Steven Johnson in this recent piece.
Having said that, there is clearly an element of wishful thinking in newspapers seeking to replicate the existing print experience electronically. It would be comforting to think that all readers will transfer to electronic versions of paper (and pay for them) but it is, I suspect, too much to hope.
