Thoughts on Kindle DX

Hey, everyone Brandon Miniman here. You may remember me from the Voodo ovideo series that went up on the Jon4lakers YouTube channel back a few months ago.

Recently, Jon posted a video on his thoughts and impressions on the Kindle DX which is Amazon’s new eBook reader with the larger screen size. One of his biggest points of contention with the Kindle DX was its price point, a whopping $489.00 for an eBook reader that doesn’t even include any books on it.

Well, I’d like to present a different view on the price of the Kindle DX and try to explain why I don’t think that the price is too unreasonable if you look at it in a certain way. Now, to start I am a user of the Kindle just like Jon I’m an avid reader and I read most of my books on Kindle.

Now, I was an early adopter and I went with the first generation Kindle I paid $399 for it which I did think it was crazy at that time and I have an opted to go with the second generation Kindle because I just don’t see enough reason to upgrade you know, the screen refreshes faster on the second generation, battery slides a little better, it’s a little bit thinner but that’s not enough reason to make me want to switch.

And I’d always believer in eBook readers I think just like magazines and newspaper which are going digital now. Books in the future will be totally digital. In 10 – 15 years everyone will have an eBook reader whether it’s from Amazon or Sony or some other competing company, books are going digital there’s nothing you can do about it it’s going to happen.

So, think about the price of the Kindle 2 right? The price of the Kindle is about $360 and what do you get with that. Well, you get the ability to say between 10 and 505 on books that you buy and if you’re an avid reader and you buy a book a week that will probably allow the Kindle to pay for itself in about two years. If you’re not an avid reader you’ll probably paying for the convenience of being able to download books wherever you are be at the Whispernet service or they have all of your books stored on a small device that you can keep with you under your arm or on your car seat or in your glove boxer take with you on vacation.

Now, think about the Kindle DX. How much of a premium price is there between the Kindle 2 and the Kindle DX. Well, it’s a $130 right? And for a $130 more you get basically three things. You get a much larger screen and how much larger is it well. Here is a little visual aid. This is the Kindle 2 and this is the Kindle DX, much, much larger 2.5 times bigger. It’s quite significant.

The second thing you’re getting is an increase in the screen resolution I think a lot of people really are talking about this very much. It’s kind of gone under the radar, so the Kindle 2 is a resolution of 600 across and 800 up. Well, the Kindle DX has a resolution of 824 across and 1200 up, so what that means just like a computer monitor it’s be able to see more on the screen at one time that means less page turning that means seeing a newspaper or magazine or a blog or even a book in it’s full vitality. Being able to see more on one screen at a time will really be convenient, so that’s the second thing.

And the third thing is the ability to have the display automatically rotate if you turn it to landscape which is a really big help if you want to get the kind of wide screen look when you’re reading a book or obviously if you’re reading a textbook or newspaper or magazine. Having a landscape view is something that would really be helpful.

So, if you look at the Kindle DX from that perspective, but $430 you’re getting this new capability to be able to see content in a bigger brighter better way. The price is still high but the value is there in terms of what you’ll get compared to the Kindle 2 in addition to all the features that you get with the Kindle DX.

And another thing is that I think that the Kindle DX is made to be not a successor to the Kindle 2 but really a complimentary different product targeted at a completely different group of people and for different settings, so the Kindle DX is the kind of device that you would have on the coffee table or in your backpack if you’re going to school or maybe even at the bathroom if you read a newspaper in the bathroom like I know a lot of people do.

And the Kindle 2 is more for portability, so it’s the thing you take with you on vacation. You bring it with you in your car. You walk down the street with it. You bring it to the part. You don’t look silly carrying a thick device the Kindle 2.

So, guys just another opinion on the pricing of the Kindle DX. Yes, it is expensive but if you look at it from kind of value perspective it’s really not that bad, thanks for watching.