Kindle 2 announced – Whispersync is what everyone should be excited about
Posted on 09 February 2009, at 10:55 am, by Wayne Schulz
As expected, Amazon today drew the curtain back from their newly designed Kindle 2 device. Available February 24, 2009 for $359 (all existing orders will automatically upgrade to a Kindle 2) the specs are indeed an upgrade over the original Kindle. Also, the leaked images appear to have been exactly on the money. Some of the newest features are “geeky cool” — text to voice, 25% longer battery life, just over 1/3 of an inch thin, 10.2 ounces, 20% faster page turns, 3G wireless. But the one feature that I hadn’t heard about – which I think we might be most excited about is Whispersync.
As seen on this screen shot from Engadget’s live coverage of the Amazon Kindle 2 press conference, one of the new features of Kindle 2 is called Whispersync.
On the surface this would seem to only be a method to synchronize data (last page read, books bought, etc) between more than one Kindle. And perhaps this may be all that it is.
But I doubt it. I think Whispersync will have a bigger role.
See in the slide above where the words “other mobile devices” appear. BINGO.
What I would love to see is not only support for Kindle books on iPhone and BlackBerry and Android and Windows Mobile — but how about if Kindle books were supported on dumb terminals.
Imagine if the major airlines had a Kindle compatible device embedded into your seatback. Or if the waiting room in your doctor’s office had a free device so that when you entered in your Kindle ID – suddenly would sync up all your books, magazines, etc.
With Whispersync it certainly seems like this could be on the drawing board. Properly executed it could mean that in the future you don’t have to ever buy a newspaper – because with your Amazon Whispersync code and a compatible device (likely a public terminal) you could be reading anywhere, anytime.
And if my hunch is correct, couldn’t they have terminals with GPS that dynamically changed the advertisements based upon your location?
As of right now it’s all an interesting theory about Whispersync. All that Amazon has announced is that Whispersync will keep one or more Kindles in sync with each other. Reading between the lines I think it’s safe to assume that not a lot of households will be purchasing MULTIPLE $359 eBook readers.
So where does Whispersync truly fit in? Could it become a way that Amazon significantly broadens its reach by allowing you to connect to your content from any place with a dumb terminal that uses Whispersync? Could newspapers use this as a way to finally get rid of home delivery and the printed page? It won’t happen over night, but played correctly Whispersync could be the first step toward the elimination of paper publishing.
Related posts:
February 9th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Think about the market for sync for schools? How about if Amazon worked out a way to get dumb (read cheap) terminals to sync so that kids no longer had to carry 20 pounds of paper back and forth to school each day.
This is still probably a year or two away but all the writing is on the wall that makes the environment ripe for this type of feature.
Many newspapers are shutting or eliminating home delivery,.
What better way to publish than an electronic delivery that cuts out enormous overhead costs of paper, delivery labor, etc…
Will be interested to see if Whispersync develops farther than just a sync between Kindles.
February 9th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
At $359/user this thing is a rip. You can get a full blown netbook for $300. That has a full color display and alot more. Apple could bang out a bigger version of the touch for that price or less.
This thing does just one thing.
I don't get it. Maybe I just don't read enough.
February 9th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
I agree – in this economy the market for $359 eReaders is going to be limited to early adopters. We were just talking that there's still no color and it remains to be seen if the rendering of magazines will be any better.
I have a Kindle 1 and am not getting that "gotta upgrade" urge. The pages on my Kindle 1 turn plenty fast. I am not sensing that I'd ever use the text to speech. Better battery life and screen contrast would probably be my key motivators if I'm to upgrade at all.
Now you know me — and that urge may come by the end of the day. However as I watched Engadget's live coverage — I just didn't see anything (save for the long term potential of Whispersync) that was different enough that I felt I had to upgrade.
And I'm a little curious how Whispersync initially is going to work. Surely they're not going to allow people to gift their old Kindle 1 to a relative who would then still be able to read the old content synchronized by Whispersync.
February 9th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Here's the thing: I think it's a poor argument to compare a Kindle to a netbook. Hell, I think it is a stretch to compare it to an iPod touch or a PDA. It exists to aggregate all your reading material into one place. The screen is designed for long reading without glare…I can and have read for hours on my Kindle.
Agreed on not getting the "gotta upgrade" urge…my original Kindle works great. But I could definitely see the better design attracting people who might not have otherwise bought one…my girlfriend comes to mind as someone who would absolutely buy a nicer looking kindle (especially if she could get it in pink.)
Greatest part about my Kindle: I've gone from a precarious pile of books on my nightstand to a tiny pile…for cost and convenience I always look for the Kindle version of a book first. Saving anywhere from $2.00–>$10.00 makes a HUGE difference in my budget and the number of books I can buy in a given month, plus I don't end up climbing over stacks to get to bed.
February 9th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
I have used a Kindle for over a year, and I do read a lot. I find it convenient. Reading on an illuminated LCD screen is too much like looking at color slides and also uses much too much battery. My wife ordered a Kindle a few weeks ago, so she will get the new one. Whispernet is intriguing. My daughter already has a Kindle and all three will be on the same Amazon account so that we all have access to the same material. I like that the Kindle2 is thinner, but that's not enough to get me to switch. And I have a rule, which is that I keep any expensive electronic device for at least 2 years.
February 9th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Once the reviews are in I think people will:
1 Ridicule this for the huge bezel – that wide border has got to be a joke, right?
…. anyone yet pointing out that this beast doesn't have a touch screen to flip pages
2. Price
…. $359 is too much money – hey Amazon did you notice that the price of every other consumer device is headed in one decided direction
3. Not different enough from v1 Kindle
…. I mean the design is just, so , Kindle-y
4. Lack of ability (still) to render images for newspapers/magazines
… I'm not sure on this one until I see more reviews — but it seems like we just get more shades of (Y-A-W-N) gray…
February 9th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Whispersync…..I like the idea of using a GPS not just for location specific ads, but how about when your visiting a city? Let me explain…..say a bunch of newspapers make their content available on the kindle and you have ONE price and when your in say Phoenix, you get the local Phoenix News Paper. When your in Columbus, you get the Columbus Dispatch. That's where it would be useful. I always look at the local paper if the hotel I am at gives me one. It's interesting reading the local content.
February 9th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
I'm not even sure if I care about Whispersync. To me the whole mess is another proprietary format (sort of ) and another proprietary mechanism for delivery. These proprietary answers are part of what's held ebooks, etc. back so far.
It wasn't until there was a standards-based answer (MP3 / AAC) that online music took off and even then it took a while. There's no such answer for books and the market's lagged. There's no such answer for movies (but there are some runner-ups) and the market's lagged.
As long as there is no industry-wide (or de facto) standard, the market will remain fractured and siloed and have a difficult time moving forward. Perhaps Amazon is big enough to be the one to pull it off – perhaps not. They haven't managed to wrest the music business away from Apple yet, after all.
AS you mention, Wayne, it will still take some time for all this to pan out and for us to see where this will actually lead. But for now, I'm still not interested in the Kindle or it's technologies.
February 10th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Wayne, Whispersync is to be used by Amazon as a monitoring device, to check on everything you are reading, including books downloaded elsewhere. Do you really want that? I don't.