subject: Will Kindle Electronic Books Make Hard Covers Redundant? [print this page] Kindle books (e-books) are now outselling the hardcover editions on Amazon by a healthy margin, too. Kindle books are limited in their use: They cannot be donated to a library, sold to a used-book store or even Amazon's used marketplace or traded elsewhere. One big bonus that many people don't know about is the large number of free Kindle books available right from Amazon's webstore.
Books
Books may also be tagged with one or more keywords by inserting the tags into notes added to the book. Books you purchase can also be read on Kindle and Kindle DX, Amazon's wireless reading device with free 3G wireless, that downloads books, newspapers, magazines, and blogs to a crisp, high-resolution electronic-paper display that looks and reads like real paper, even in bright sunlight. It actually seems to point you to well over a million free books if you had the time to read that many in your lifetime. Amazon's e-book strategy seems to consist of two parts: buy once and read anywhere (thanks to the company's legion of Kindle apps) and push the Kindleand Kindle editions of booksas much as humanly possible.
Device
The latest hardware device, the 3rd generation Kindle with 3G support for use in 100 countries and territories, was announced on July 28, 2010. The device features a 6 inch (diagonal) 4-level grayscale display, with 250 MB of internal memory, which can hold approximately 200 non-illustrated titles. The limit ranges from one to six devices, depending on an undisclosed number of licenses set by the book publisher. Consumers who are avid readers and want a product that will simulate the actual book reading experience are not casual readers who want to a device that is multi-functional. Until then many folks see digital readers as yet another electronic device to become a slave to.
Amazon also says that it sold three times as many Kindle books in the first half of 2010 as it did in the first half of 2009. Amazon forgot to tell that 50% of kindle books sold are actually purchased by iPad users. If you don't have the Kindle device, you can still enjoy any of these Kindle books on your Windows computer using the free Kindle for PC application. The more Kindle books Amazon sells, the more leverage it will have over publishers when it tries to force them to cut wholesale prices.
Will Kindle Electronic Books Make Hard Covers Redundant?
