… but I don’t know that one will ship, or even sell all that well, for a while yet… no matter how optimistic the reporting. Anyway, folks ‘r abuzz with the news that a letter-sized Kindle’s coming. Like, now.
You could almost imagine Amazon demoing the thing within a week and having demo models at BEA, but, as far as shipping, we’d've heard more rumors. For those not following the newspaper industry, which the bigger Kindle is supposed to “save,” things are tough. I predicted half the major dailies going online-only by the end of ’10, but with the recent market–revenues down 30% on average, circulation plummeting everywhere–looks like I was optimistic.
Newspapers live off of classified, auto dealer and retail advertising–three sectors which are, well, toast. And you can imagine the finance guys saying, no matter how bad Feb. was, May’ll be worse.
Now would be a great time to get some free PR for the device… but I doubt big Kindle (W.A.G on price: $600), will be as popular as its smaller brethren. Best of luck! And remember, no matter when it happens, a mass-produced, letter-sized, E-Ink device is the end of the college textbook industry as we know it.
