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On the Kindle 2.0 – Just to summarize….

February 7, 2009 by Steve Windwalker

Two days before Amazon’s big Kindle press conference on Monday in New York, and here is a quick summary to put things in perspective:

* If you have already placed an order for the Kindle, you will be at the head of the line for the updated version that will ship in February. If you select 1-day delivery ($3.99 with Amazon Prime), you will probably receive your Kindle between February 12 and February 25, but a slight further delay is possible for most recent orders because Amazon will probably be shipping over a quarter of a million Kindles this month. (During the past 24 hours Amazon has updated my projected receipt date to February 25, from a window that began on March 4).

* It looks increasingly like the “switch” from the backordered “Kindle 1” to the ready-to-ship “Kindle 2” will be seamless, with no price change, no change in ASIN, and possibly even no designation of model “1” or “2.” I had earlier reported my expectation of a 10 per cent price increase, but I will be happy to concede error on that one as Amazon figured out that it could make the entire “switch” more seamless if it did not have to get permission for an additional charge on the hundreds of thousands of Kindle backorders in the pipeline.

* While the primary focus for gadget heads may be form factor enhancements highlighted in the “leaked” pictures of the updated Kindle that have been showing up since October, those of us who actually own the Kindle will be more interested in software enhancements, such as content management folders, which will be rolled out Monday and transmitted wirelessly to all Kindles in the field over the course of this month in the form of a firmware version update.

* The most important Kindle “announcement” of February 2009 will probably turn out to have been a staffer’s tip that Amazon is “working on” apps that will allow users of devices such as the iPhone, the iPod Touch, and the Blackberry to buy books and other content instantly from the Kindle store.

* Before the end of 2009, the most important known Kindle metric will be the number of Kindle Store app downloads from Apple’s Apps Store. Say that three times fast.

Let’s plan to be in touch on Monday if you have a minute….

ET, Phone the Kindle Store

February 6, 2009 by Steve Windwalker

Yesterday Amazon let slip news that — for authors, publishers, and people who like to read on their cellphones — may potentially be every bit as big as anything the company will announce about the Kindle 2, 3, or 4 on February 9.

As suggested in my book last summer and in this January 30 post here and at my Amazon-hosted blog, the Kindle Store will soon begin selling its content to owners of devices such as the Blackberry, the iPhone, and the iPod Touch:

Amazon said that it was working on making the titles for its popular e-book reader, the Kindle, available on a variety of mobile phones.

So, do we still call a device a potential “Kindle Killer” if millions of its owners can use it to buy books, newspapers, and magazines from the Kindle Store, with Amazon getting a 25 to 35 per cent cut? No, Amazon’s Kindle initiative has much less to do with any specific hardware device than with Amazon’s need — and apparent ability — to stay ahead of changing modalities in book and other content sales.

As I have written before: “the primary importance of the Kindle for Amazon lies in four things: it jumpstarts significant electronic book sales; it positions the books in the Kindle store as the primary source of e-reader content; it sets the bar higher than it had previously been set for form factor, feature set, and delivery mode for electronic books; and it gives Amazon a seat at the head of the table in shaping this area of book commerce going forward.” That seat just got placed on risers.

For all the snarky Applephiles and Amazonians who have mistakenly seen this as an either/or battle from the get-go, a word to the wise: we can all just get along. Meanwhile, every ereading device and ebook portal including the Kindle and the Kindle Store will, no doubt, continue to scramble to play nice with the potentially astounding free public domain catalog available through Google Books. Neither Amazon nor Apple has any need to monetize that activity, but it is essential that Google Books access be part of the feature set.

New link to make it easy to search for free books in the Kindle Store!

February 1, 2009 by Steve Windwalker

Click on Search Free Promotional Content in the Kindle Store

or paste http://tinyurl.com/SearchFreeKindleContent into your browser

Thanks to Karen at Kindle Korner!

File under GMTA:

February 1, 2009 by Steve Windwalker

doofusdan: My Kindle 2.0 wish – “one more thing…”

What Amazon Customer Service Has to Say About Shipping My Next Kindle

January 31, 2009 by Steve Windwalker

Although I haven’t been able to share or source all of what I have learned about the Kindle 2.0 in recent weeks, yesterday I received an Amazon Customer Service email that I feel perfectly free to share, and it encourages a very specific conclusion about how Amazon will handle back-orders for Kindle units once it rolls out the Kindle 2.0 with a big-splash press conference in New York on February 9. Here’s what “Ken I,” which I suspect is as much his first name as “Help-You” is his last name, had to say (minus the boiler-plate stuff):

Hello,

Thanks for asking about when a new version of the Kindle will be released.

We’ve made no announcement about the next generation Kindle, so I can’t answer your question. However, if I were you, I would not cancel my order. I suspect you’ll be happy. If you need help with your Kindle or a Kindle order, please contact customer support at 1-866-321-8851.

As a reminder, the Kindle now has over 210,000 books, magazines, and blogs available for wireless delivery, with no computer required.

I hope this helps. We look forward to your next visit.

Now, as you know, I do some writing about Amazon and its products, and I occasionally send in “checker” questions just to see how the company will respond, particularly about products-in-the-pipeline issues. I often feel like the responses I get have been drafted by Amazon’s corporate lawyers. But I loved the existential felicity of this one, and — I’m saying this with appreciation — if anything there may have been corporate psychologists involved in drafting its language about what Ken I. would do if he were me, and about what will make me happy.

Here’s the point: They’ve told me nothing, but they have told me everything. No company in the world knows its customers better than Amazon, and Amazon knows very well that the only thing that will make me happy, as someone who placed a new Kindle order on January 2, will be the chance to receive a Kindle 2.0 as soon as it is ready to ship in February.

So, dusting off the Humanities 6 literary analysis skills that I learned at Harvard back in the Spring of 1969, I parse Ken I’s message to say: “Don’t cancel your Kindle order, because it will hold your place in line for a Kindle 2.0. We’ll contact you as soon as the Kindle 2.0 launch becomes official and arrange, with your approval and perhaps a few extra bucks, to ship you the newest version of the Kindle.”

Just as obviously, anyone with a Kindle order in the pipeline will have a chance to review the new Kindle 2.0 feature set before giving approval to the Kindle 2.0 shipment, and to cancel the Kindle order altogether if the new feature set is unappealing. So, if you want to be one of the first in line for a new Kindle 2.0 when the units begin to ship, Amazon is making it very easy for you to order a new Kindle from Amazon’s main Kindle buying page, if you have not done so already.

Exciting news: Getting in line for a 2nd Generation Kindle

January 27, 2009 by Steve Windwalker

Good morning,

In keeping with my longstanding policy of using this blog to update my readers on new material in my Kindle books and new developments concerning the Kindle itself, I am writing this morning with exciting news.

None of us — customers, authors, bloggers, pundits, or market analysts — can ever be certain about exactly what Amazon will do with the Kindle or any other business venture until the company actually does it. But my expectations about the company’s long-awaited roll-out of the Kindle 2.0 have been firming up with the company’s recent moves, and it is time to share them with you.

Based on these developments and on conversations that — for obvious reasons — I cannot source here, I am confident that Amazon will begin shipping the Kindle 2.0 in February. As you may already be aware, Amazon has been building up a huge backlog of Kindle orders over the past three months. The company’s plan, it says here, is to contact these back-ordered customers in the next few weeks to offer them the chance to upgrade their order to a Kindle 2.0, at relatively small additional cost (about 10% of the existing Kindle price).

Naturally, interest in the Kindle 2.0 is going to spiral upward over the next few weeks. If you want to be one of the first in line for a new Kindle 2.0 when the units begin to ship, the best thing to do today is to order a new Kindle from Amazon’s main Kindle buying page, if you have not done so already.

One thing that Amazon knows is that one of the biggest sources for Kindle 2.0 orders will be previous Kindle 1.0 buyers. That’s the main reason the company is presently in the middle of a firmware upgrade (1.2) to streamline synchronicity between multiple Kindles assigned to a single customer account. It is also the reason the company recently opened its own Marketplace features to allow easy after-market sales of Kindle 1.0 units by Kindle owners. (Just in case you would like to sell your KIndle 1.0 to help finance your Kindle 2.0, it’s just as easy as selling a used book on Amazon Marketplace, and you may even turn a profit!)

I hope this information, which is based entirely upon my personal knowledge, opinions, and expertise rather than any information provided directly to me by Amazon insiders, will be helpful to you. This is also a good place for me to mention a a couple of things about my own books about the Kindle:

* First, yes, I do have a new book forthcoming about the Kindle 2.0. Although it is necessary for me to bring it out as a separate title involving a separate transaction, I will make a point of letting you know about a special 72-hour window when the Kindle edition of the new book will be available at a low introductory, promotional price of less than $2. Naturally, the contents of the Kindle 2.0 book are embargoed until the device is released.

* During this transitional period, beginning later today, I am also temporarily reducing the price of the paperback version of The Complete User’s Guide to the Amazing Amazon Kindle by about half, to $7.95, if you wish to pick up a copy on the cheap. This, of course, is the guide to the Kindle 1.0.

This is already longer than I had intended, so I will close with a sincere thank you for your having walked this interesting Kindle path with me over the past year.

Happy Kindling!
Stephen Windwalker

http://tinyurl.com/KGuide
http://tinyurl.com/Gen2Kindle
Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/WindwalkerFB

Here’s a quirky little Kindle tip I just discovered…

November 10, 2008 by Steve Windwalker

… so it is not included in either the Kindle edition or the paperback edition of The Complete User’s Guide to the Amazing Amazon Kindle.

And I cannot promise that you will be able to replicate it in the privacy of your own home, but it may be worth a try.

It’s coming on a year now that I’ve had my first Kindle, and it had gotten a lot of wear — there have even been a few planned and unplanned “drop tests” along the way. With each passing month, I have to admit that its battery life between charges has grown more disappointing, and there have also been some (perhaps related) screen or keyboard freeze issues recently.

This weekend, on a whim, I swapped Kindle batteries between mine and my 10-year-old son Danny’s Kindle, which I purchased for him last May in appreciation for the fact that he came up with the idea for the lovely Northumberland tree photograph that I licensed and that has become the visual brand for my Kindle books.

Immediately following the battery swap, my Kindle began to work perfectly and its battery life seems to be living up to original product claims again! That’s not the surprising part. The surprising part is that Danny’s Kindle (with what I would heretofore have described as my old worn-out battery) is working perfectly too! I have no way of explaining this, but, for instance, I have left both Kindles powered up with the wireless switch “on” for over 24 hours, and both are showing over 50% power remaining on the battery indicator.

So, I realize, we do not all have 2 Kindles in our homes. And Amazon is out of Kindle batteries (yes, my theory is that it is the battery backlog that is causing the Kindle backlog), so it’s not like you can just order another Amazon Kindle Replacement Battery and get one this week.

But if your Kindle is being to perform in a slightly tired fashion and you have access to another Kindle, even a friend’s, it may be worth experimenting with a battery swap.

Meanwhile, I hope that some Kindle engineer from Area 126 or Area 51 or somewhere will comment or email me and shed light on this phenomenon, or suggest Kindle counseling for me.

Why should I provide my email address?

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