Amazon Kindle -Books Store Review

Amazon launches digital book reader, Kindle.

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, launched Monday, November 19 digital music player called "Kindle". Listed in the U.S. at a price of 399 dollars (275 euros), this unit from 13.5 to 19.5 cm using the latest technologies for digital paper and is equipped with a mobile broadband connection (on the American network), a keyboard and a memory that can hold the equivalent of a small library of 200 books with a total weight of 310 grams.

88,000 books and dozens of newspaper titles are already available and downloadable directly on the site of the leading seller of books on the internet, but only with DRM and under its proprietary digital format - the PRC, the competitor to PDF Adobe, developed by the French company Mobipocket (bought two years ago by Amazon) - which prevents it from being read on players from other brands, such as the Sony Reader from the Japanese group Sony.

The Kindle can read text files or images to Word, HTML, TXT, JPEG, GIF and PNG. With WiFi connectivity, you can surf the internet, but in black and white and so far only on the Amazon site. The Kindle is also equipped with a sound system for listening to audiobooks.

Digitized books - yet public securities in English - are available at various price not exceeding $ 10, against 25 to 30 dollars for the same works in paper edition and subscriptions to newspapers such as those dailies The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal are about $ 15 per month. Finally automation of Kindle is about thirty hours. No date has been set yet for marketing in France.
 

The goal of Amazon, which has the advantage of clients and a large database, is reproduced in the book the success of Apple in the music field with its iPod music player and store iTunes online. According to The Association of American Publishers, sales of digital books rose 24% last year. Various book publishers and press are beginning to enrich the offer by offering versions for e-paper e-book readers. 

On a larger scale platforms for download, free or not, will also put in place, such as the Kiosk Digital Lagardère group or the online library Google Books. Some experts believe the market could take off when the function e-book reader will converge on digital cameras mobile multi-function, as might be the case with future Apple iPhone, which already combine all the functions of both of mobile phone, handheld, multimedia device (camera, video ,...) and music player.